The first body lay outside the archive door.

Royal Guard.

Alive.

Barely.

Elara dropped beside him.

“Poison?”

The guard shook his head weakly.

“Hit... from behind.”

Kael looked down the corridor.

Empty.

Too empty.

Joren came running from the upper sta

Kael found Elara on the west balcony after midnight.

She knew he was there before he spoke.

Astra knew because Orion did.

Annoying bond.

Useful too.

Elara kept looking over the valley.

“You should be sleeping.”

Kael leaned against the stone railing sever

The shrine had been abandoned long enough for trees to grow through its outer wall.

Elara saw the broken moon above the entrance first.

A stone circle split down the middle.

Just as the assassin described.

Kael stopped beside her.

Joren and four Royal Guards spre