Vireya sipped her tea with shaking hands.
She’d managed to convince the servant to bring it out to the balcony instead of leaving it by the bed. Too many walls in that room. Too much quiet. And the way the fire kept flaring up without being touched had started to unnerve her.
Out here, the wind moved. The scent of mountain pine and ironstone clung to the breeze, sharper than usual—tinged with smoke from the far end of the kingdom where the last attack had happened.
Still, it was better than inside.
The tea was hot, steeped in wildroot and dried ginger. Kael’s favorite blend. She hated it.
But it was strong. Grounding. Bitter enough to bite back the nausea that had been stalking her since dawn.
Her eyes traced the horizon—where the cliffs crumbled into fog and the trees formed an endl
