He closes the door, and I hesitate, feeling flustered. I can sense Sylla Vuul’s eyes on me from somewhere inside the hallway’s dark tunnel of webs. Not wanting to hear her annoyingly blunt Death Fae truths at this moment, I turn on my heel and stride from the hall toward the barrack’s central spiraling staircase. Trystan’s night guard is visible below, talking to another Noi sorceress, an odd animosity riding on the air.

“Are you a Mage lover now?” a familiar voice sounds, and I turn to find Heelyn leaning against a torchlit wall, arms crossed. Clearly lying in wait for me.

I huff out a sigh, having known this reckoning would come. Heelyn is not one to back down from a confrontation. Ever.

“No, Heelyn,” I shoot back as blue torchlight flickers over us both. “I’m a lover of fairness. Trystan Gardner is here to fight on our side. You could have killed him.”

Heelyn’s dark gaze turns incendiary. “So, you think he should be here now?”

Traitor.

She doesn’t need to voice the word. It hangs in the air between us, thrusting me into turmoil. I’m clear on where this path could lead. It could set me against all my friends and family. Against the Wyvernguard hierarchy and the majority of the Noi Conclave. I think of my uncle Sholin, cast out of Zhilaan when he befriended and then bonded to a Mage.

“I don’t know what to think, Heelyn,” I say, my power churning.

We glare at each other for a protracted, excruciating moment.

“Choose, Vothe,” Heelyn seethes. “Choose carefully. You align with a Crow and our friendship is over. Align with a Crow, and every last one of us will want you gone. Even Ung Li wants him gone. And I don’t think she’d shed any tears if we blast the Roach to smither—”

“Really, that’s enough,” I snarl as my horns spiral up.

A look of pain crosses Heelyn’s features, and it cuts me to the core. “Have you forgotten that my parents were killed by Gardnerian Roaches?”

Her words are like a blow to my gut, my voice splintering when it comes. “I know they were, Heelyn.”

“Then renounce him!” she growls. “Get back on the right side of things!”

“And what side would that be?” I wish I could take back the dangerously honest words as soon as they leave my mouth.

Heelyn is gaping at me now. “What’s happening to you, Vothe?” She shakes her head as tears sheen her eyes. “I don’t even know who you are anymore.” And then she turns and strides away, leaving me alone to wrestle with the violent tempest growing inside me.

Sylla Vuul’s spidery legs click against the stone floor as she rounds the hallway’s corner.