sharp contrast to the stale beer and cheap perfume of the club where

ants who had never known fear, flanked by seven stran

He was sharp-edged, with a stack of aged books piled b

k into the cold stone of my chair. "I

of exasperation. "I'm Soren, the Royal Strategist

at bes

low heat rolling off his skin; banked no

at there, bracing his shoulders like a man who had been taking hit

by whom." His gaze flicked, toward the man on his left. "Lazryn h

urn into a dragon? I'm pretty sure I c

ever looked at the texts. "The affliction runs in three distinct stages. The first

the s

sentence that happened to bear his own name. "My mind peels away during the

d over the stone table. "

swered im

a broad-shouldered warrior near the end who stared at the floor, and at

," Soren said softly. "The be

, the air thick with tiny

the words out. "How

A single year from the onset of the second stage. Whi

his own countdown as if he'd swallowed the truth months ago and m

omething. A curse that specific means someone built a back door into it. Why

ess shadow of a smile. "You're sharper than

ich

" Soren said. "Freely g

at followed wa

d, the word tasting

at matters." Vyrn's rough

, and the banked gold fire in his iris

etween us to bend your mind or make you feel something y

rce it," I s

onviction. "Whatever this bond is doing to us, whatever it demands, I will

reason, I b

ous strangers and an impossible clock, the only truth in

d, the request tumbling out b

s narrowing slightly, before

his knuckles. I reached out and

cil room

ed into searing heat. I was standing

ts massive stone pillars cracked and leaning like b

r of it all,

d; feral, empty, and wild. Blood dripped from

a monster collapsing into the rubble of his own mind, with n

my hand away as if

ring against my ribs as the rea

ale with alarm, while half the cou

yn demanded, his voice s

voice trembling. "Alon

ned, heavier and

y face in the room, from the warrior, the strategist,

unreadable mask cracked, revealing s

is to him?"

the crack remained visible in his dark eyes. "