A comforting silence settled between them, but Sapphire’s mind was restless. Her questions kept growing, begging to be answered.

The Princeps bloodline and power ran deep – they were direct descendants of one of the Elders, Rosin Eliat, who was said to have had ties to one of the four original elementals who built Eriobis. This ancestry put them in a position of power – and made them privy to information that many weren’t.

‘What are you thinking about?’ Kaian asked.

‘Have you ever seen the barrier?’

He gave her a confused look.

‘I have, a handful of times. Why do you ask?’

‘I’d like to see it.’

‘Not part of the tour, sorry.’

His voice was firm, with no room for bargaining or argument.

‘Oh, come on, Kaian – the tour was never planned in the first place.’

‘I can’t take you there, Sapphire. My parents, yours – they’d have my head.’

‘Well, can you at least tell me what you know about it?’

He sighed loudly, his finger tracing a blade of grass, looking uncertain.

‘What is there to know?’ His voice was bored.

‘What’s beyond the barrier?’

‘Sapphire, what’s trapped beyond the barrier isn’t something people want to know more about. As queen, you will be sending that same message. Focus on Eriobis – not the darkness that lurks beyond the veil.’

‘Curiosity, though – I can’t be the only one with it.’

‘Curiosity is the downfall of many. Better to release it from your heart and focus on what’s actually in front of you.’

His tone was unusually sharp. The boyishness she had come to know had been replaced by a coldness she could not stand.

‘No one is ever honest with me. Why can’t anyone just be … honest?’

He blinked a few times, then softened.

‘No one knows what really lies beyond the barrier. Shadow Witches, yes, the worst of them. But the rest of the darkness that was buried along with them, well, the chronicles were burned, and the truth with them.’ Her shoulders drooped. ‘But there is one thing. A small detail passed down in my family – a simple folktale, more like – but something.’

She leaned further in to him.

‘This stays between you and me. Give me your word.’

‘You have it,’ she said eagerly.

‘Not even Evera.’

Sapphire hesitated for a moment, then two, before nodding.

‘Mercy, you’re good at getting what you want. You know that?’ He looked away from her, shaking his head. ‘My mother claims a book escaped the great fires. And while it was eventually lost, one detail has been passed down through the generations.’

She kept her eyes on him, her heart hammering in her chest as she waited for him to continue. He took a deep breath, returning his focus to her.

‘Violet eyes. There are accounts of the inhabitants having violet eyes.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT