Page 122 of The Bound Blood
“She isn’t just interacting with the Veil, Kael,” Dorian says. “She’s connected to it. By blood.”
The words settle heavy in my chest.
“And that artifact you carry?” He glances back at me, eyes catching the faint wardlight. “In her hands, it wouldn’t show her anything.”
He pauses, letting the implication breathe.
“It would open something,” he finishes. “A path to her birthright.”
He finally stops and turns to face me fully.
“Is that direct enough?”
“What is her birthright?”
He quirks an eyebrow. “You have fallen in love with her and you don’t know?”
“I’m not in love with her,” I snap. If I am, that’s not something he needs to know.
He rolls his eyes, but doesn’t comment on my denial. “She is from the forgotten realm, the erased realm…the Veil.”
I suck in a breath. My mind moves fast, ruthless in the way it always has when the stakes turn lethal. If that’s true, the prophecy of her deciding the fate of our world is true. If she opens it fully, the prison becomes a door. And everything locked inside walks free. That will be the end of the world as we know it.
The words don’t echo around us. Even though they feel as though he has shouted them and I feel them all the way down to my bones.
Dorian watches my face like he’s cataloging every single little twitch. “Now you understand why I’m interested,” he says quietly. “And why the Council circled her like carrion the moment they realized she could hear the Veil answer back.”
“They’ll kill her before they let that happen,” I say flatly.
He doesn’t disagree.
“Or open the veil long enough to shove her into it,” he says. “But my guess is they will use her until she becomes a liability…and it seems necessary.”
My jaw sets. “She won’t open it, even if she has the artifact.”
Dorian’s expression softens, and his eyes take on a far away look. “She might,” he says. “If the Veil convinces her it’s the only way to save what and who she loves.”
I take a step closer, lowering my voice. “She won’t open it, I’ll make sure of it.”
The path curves ahead of us, the academy lights just visible through the trees. Patrol protocol says we stay together, or I’d be leaving him here so I can go find Lindsay.
“You said she’s from the Veil,” I say as another thought comes to me. “Not created by it.”
“Yes.”
“Then she’s not its weapon.”
“No,” Dorian agrees. “She’s its heir.”
I exhale slowly. “And Azrael knew.”
Dorian’s mouth curves, faint and knowing. “Of course he did.”
I close my eyes for half a breath.
Azrael warned me not to touch her magic. Told me distance was protection. Told me that prophecy’s lie and a trap disguised as destiny.
And still, he put the artifact in my hands. Because he knows I will stand between her and the truth as long as I can. And when I can’t anymore—I shut the thought down before it can form.
