Her heart leapt. “The prisoners are waiting,” she told him.

“Excellent. Their blood will seal the ritual and make it permanent.”

Amara pushed away all her remaining doubts, finding that there were very few. To second-guess herself now would be the ultimate weakness after all she’d sacrificed for this day.

“Wait for me outside with the water Kindred.”

She agreed to this without hesitation.

Amara wanted Cleo with her, both for support and, if required, as an additional sacrifice. Together, they left the royal chambers and went outside to the direct center of the compound, where the pit was located. Amara instructed a dozen of her soldiers to surround it, half with crossbows aimed at the prisoners below.

Nothing could go wrong now.

“Well, look who’s come to visit.” Felix peered up at her, shielding his one good eye from the bright sky that had only just begun to darken with storm clouds. “The great and powerful empress. Come on down here, your grace. I’d love a chance to catch up. I’m sure your brother would too!”

Amara reluctantly glanced at Ashur sitting next to Felix and the other rebel, Taran. Her brother looked up at her, not with rage or hate but with bottomless disappointment in his gray-blue eyes.

“Sister, you can still change the path you’ve chosen,” he said to her.

“Unfortunately, you can’t change yours,” she replied. “You never should have returned here.”

“I had no choice.”

“There’s always a choice. And I have made mine.”

Gaius sat with his back against the side of the pit, his arms crossed over his chest. He said nothing at all, just looked up at her with that maddeningly blank expression of his. How sad it was to see the former king so defeated. How sad and yet how deeply satisfying.

There was also another young man at the bottom of the pit—one Amara vaguely recognized from the day Nerissa became her attendant. Enzo, she believed his name was.

Cleo peered down into the pit. “Where’s Magnus?”

When she realized that the prince wasn’t with the others, Amara frowned and turned to a guard. “Well? Where is he?”

The guard bowed. “It seems that he managed to slip away from us. There is a search being conducted, and I assure you that he will be found.”

“Magnus escaped?” Cleo asked, breathless.

Amara tensed. “Find him,” she told the guard. “Bring him here alive. I will hold you personally responsible if he’s not found.”

“Yes, empress.” The guard bowed before he rushed off.

“He doesn’t matter anymore,” Amara said, mostly to herself. “All is well.”

“Yes, little empress. All is well.”

A moment after Kyan spoke, thunder rolled in the sky. The clouds continued to gather, growing darker by the second. The wind picked up, sweeping Amara’s hair back from her shoulders.

“So it’s a true storm,” she said, her skin tingling with anticipation of what was to come.

“Yes. Created from all the elements combined by powerful blood magic.”

Two guards approached the pit with more prisoners that Amara hadn’t expected.

Cleo gasped. “Nic! You’re alive!”

The boy was bloody, bruised, and disheveled, but it did appear that Cleo’s friend was still very much alive. Amara nodded at the guard, who released Nic long enough for Cleo to run straight into his embrace.

“I thought you were dead!” she cried.

“I nearly was. But . . . I recovered.”

Cleo took Nic’s face between her hands, staring as if unable to believe her own eyes. “I’m so unbelievably angry at you I want to scream!”

“Don’t scream. I have a really bad headache.” He gingerly touched the red mark on his temple.

“How are you alive? Amara said she saw you die.”

“Believe it or not, it’s thanks to Lucia.”

Amara was certain she’d heard him wrong. “The sorceress was here?” she asked.

Nic turned a look of sheer hatred on her. “Why? Are you afraid that she’s going to bring this place crumbling down on top of you? We can only hope, can’t we?”

Amara was about to reply, or perhaps ask for his blood to spill early, but the other prisoner caught her eye.

“Nerissa?” She turned to her attendant with shock, then glared at the guard holding her in place. “What is the meaning of this?”

“She assisted in Prince Magnus’s escape, along with the boy,” the guard explained. “Together, they were trying to steal from your chambers.”

Amara blinked with surprise as the news registered. “Why would you do this to me? I thought we’d become friends.”

“You thought wrong,” Nerissa said. “I’m sure you won’t believe anything I tell you right now, so I choose to say nothing at all.”

“You cannot trust anyone, little empress. This girl you’d come to value managed to fool even you.”

Amara raised her chin, the betrayal cutting deeper than she ever would have expected. “Put this lying little bitch in with the others. And the other one too.”

“Amara!” Cleo cried.

“Hold your tongue—unless you want to join them,” Amara snapped. “And I promise, that would not be good choice for you to make today. Choose which side you wish to stand on, Cleo—mine or theirs?”

Cleo’s chest heaved, but she didn’t say another word as Nic and Nerissa were forced by guards to descend a rope ladder that lowered them into the pit.