I sat back from the window, barely noticing the lingering smile on Ericen’s face slip away as he registered my disgust. Three years ago, Illucia had decimated Jindae, murdering its royal family and destroying the lives of its people. The children had been funneled into Illucia’s army, raised as soldiers in a strange land that held no respect for them and their art. The adults worked tirelessly, both here and at home, trying to survive beneath Razel’s suffocating taxes and the knowledge that everything they produced went straight to supporting the army that had broken them.

Two years before that, the Ambriels had fallen under Illucian control with little protest, and Razel had allowed the nobles to keep playing at having their own government. Still, a great many of their people suffered the same fate as the Jin.

I wanted to lean out and yell that something was being done, that we were fighting back, that they hadn’t been forgotten, but I swallowed the words.

The carriage carried us through the city and up a sloping hill to the castle. I’d lost interest in looking out the window, and it all flew by in a flurry of gray. As we pulled to a halt, everything about Ericen changed. He sat taller, more rigid, his head held high. Even his eyes hardened. He leapt out of the carriage to hold the door for me, and I followed, then instantly wished I hadn’t.

It was cold.

I wrapped my arms around myself for warmth, my loosely knit woolen sweater doing little against the rising evening chill. Caliza had had some warmer clothes made for me, but they were packed away in my bags, and they were supposed to be for winter. But if summer was this chilly, I had a feeling they wouldn’t be sufficient for the colder months.

“Here.” Ericen removed his cloak and dropped it over my shoulders.

I pulled it tighter, staring at him in confusion. “Thanks.” I caught Kiva’s disapproving look as I faced the castle but ignored it. It. Was. Cold!

The castle loomed like a great dark beast with spikes. Instead of towering high in the air like the castle in Rhodaire, it sprawled across low, sloping hills, some parts lifted higher than others by the uneven ground. Black stone towers and spires sprouted on either side like sharp talons and jagged teeth.

The guards we’d brought were shown away to the barracks. Only Kiva remained, regarding the castle with open disdain. I glanced back, my eyes finding the trunk with the egg in it as the bags and boxes in the wagons were unloaded. I silently prayed they treated everything with care.

Ericen strode past, gesturing for us to follow. He led the way through two stained-glass doors depicting massive black horses before a backdrop of golden sky.