Page 22 of Tears for a Broken Sky
I stepped closer, then paused.
Syrena.
“You shouldn’t be out here,” she said without looking at me. Her voice was calm—but I didn’t miss the tension in it.
I stayed quiet. Neither of us moved.
She sat alone, the shadows making her gown look almost black. When she saw me looking, she turned away with a quick sigh and stubbed the cigarette out on the railing.
“Sorry,” she said too fast. “Bad habit. I picked it up a few years ago...I’m still trying to quit.”
“It’s fine,” I said, caught off guard. “Do whatever you need to.”
She offered me a small smile—tired, not performative.
Then glanced back toward the ballroom. “I’m sorry it got so… excessive. The council got overzealous. I meant for something quieter.”
I almost smiled at her expression.
“It is a bit… much,” I admitted.
Syrena nodded, her gaze drifting back to the glowing ballroom.
“You know, we used to have much grander affairs than this,” she said softly. “All the kingdoms came. Even Varrowmere, back then.”
She paused, fingers brushing the railing where the smoke still curled faintly.
“That was before the exile, I suppose. I always found them a bit daunting—too many eyes, too many expectations.”
A faint smile tugged at her lips. “But your father… Alistair... he loved them. He had a way of making everyone feel seen. He was a kind man. Friendly. Never forgot a name.”
“How did…” The question slipped out before I could stop it. I hesitated.
Syrena didn’t wait. Her voice softened, like she’d expected it.
“How did he die?”
I didn’t speak—just nodded once.
She exhaled, her eyes distant.
“He was killed. Murdered,” she said simply. “We’d heard whispers—rumblings of unrest. Alistair chose to believe we could talk it out, resolve it at the summit. He trusted in diplomacy.”
She paused. Her jaw tightened. “But he invited the wrong people.”
I said the name before I could bite it back. “Vael.”
Syrena flinched—barely—but I saw it.
She nodded.
“Ashton and Vael came together,” she said. “Brothers by blood, if not in temperament. Sons of Duke Arrowheart—someone we once called friend. But the Duke… he’d developed an obsession with the magicborn. We didn’t realise how far it had gone. Not until it was too late.”
Her voice dropped lower.
“We learned afterward that Arrowheart was using spells to bind the loyalty of the Shades. Not loyalty, really. Control. He was taking away their free will.”
She stared out into the dark beyond the balcony.
