“We’d have to stop at the winter palace first,” Jaren said, “just for a fortnight or so, until the spring thaws set in and make travel easier. But then, yes. Back to the city.”

“And we’d live with you, at the castle?”

Jaren nodded. “I was thinking you might want to take a class or two at the academy, continue honing your craft.”

The healer academy. Kiva couldn’t believe what Jaren was offering, the golden plate he was holding before her.

“And Tipp’s around the same age as Oriel,” he continued. “My brother can be a little terror, but he has a good heart. I think they’d get on really well. Plus, Ori would help Tipp with his studies, which I’m guessing might need some catching up.”

More tears filled Kiva’s eyes at the dream he was laying out. At the possibilities she could see so clearly in her mind’s eye.

But . . . her family . . .

We are coming.

They hadn’t come for her, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t go to them. Her brother had written her, told her where they were. His implication had been clear: they were waiting.

For ten years, she’d longed to be with them again. But now that she might finally be free to do so . . .

Kiva didn’t know what she wanted anymore. She couldn’t deny that they’d hurt her, disappointed her, for a decade. They’d promised to come, but they hadn’t, not even after her father had died. She’d been alone, left to fend for herself, to survive more horrors than they would ever know.

And yet . . . they were still her family.

She loved them.

Just as she knew they loved her.

“Don’t answer now,” Jaren said quickly, cutting into her thoughts. “Just— Just think about it, all right?”

Kiva could only nod. And then when Jaren indicated for her to turn right, she did so, helping him hobble down the long, dark tunnel, having no idea where it would end, but certain that whatever was around the corner would change her life forever.

Kiva had been right about the coming change.

But not in the way she’d anticipated.

It was Jaren who realized much sooner than she did; Jaren who noticed that there were no workers in the tunnels, no prisoners digging away to extend them, to find more water.

The labyrinth was empty.

And when his earth magic finally guided them to the ladder chute and they painstakingly climbed to the surface, it became clear that Kiva’s success over the Trials was to be put on hold.

There was no one waiting for them.

No Rooke, no Naari, no guards at all.

Only screams.

Chapter Thirty-Two

It took Kiva mere seconds to realize what had begun while she and Jaren had been traversing the underground maze.