Lorelis’ mood only soured further after Lothaire’s departure. Although he’d listened, and we were now heading back down into the Underneath, Lorelis was steaming. His jaw worked back and forth, and I wasn’t sure if the mutterings I heard were real or his thoughts.

He was practically throwing his emotions at me, and it began to leave its mark on me. I was agitated wandering these halls with a brooding prince. To them I was a pawn, something to be used for their gain. So much for the land of men when they housed pure-bloods beneath their shining castle, and I doubted anyone outside of these walls knew.

Did the king keep them for their abilities? What would the King of Men need those abilities for? I needed to learn what other abilities there were, and what I could expect once I’d met a pure-blood.

As we trekked back through the seemingly random turns in the maze that was the Underneath, I felt the presence of others. It was a trailing touch down my spine, and the warming of my skin. The same as the night before, but there were more with them this time.

Though I saw nothing, I thought I could hear the brief scattering of footsteps, gliding across the stone floor. Each time we reached where I’d heard something, there was no evidence to be found. The only footsteps in the dust were ours, but I knew we were far from alone down here.

It was almost comforting to come back into the dark, but now I craved the sunlight I knew I could have. I’d been in denial before, believing it was a one-off or only because it’d been storming, but now I knew I could stand in pure light.

Lorelis must’ve eventually noticed our company as well; his emotions turning sharp, on edge. If I were human, I might’ve felt a chill on my nape, and I imagined Lorelis felt it now. Would they hurt him, the prince?

I began to recognize where we were. We weren’t far from where we began. I hoped that Lorelis would leave after returning me to my room, but a deeper knowledge told me he wouldn’t. Despite his brother’s words, this prince wanted to use me for something- that certainly hadn’t changed. But I could feel that Lothaire’s words weighed on him heavier than he wanted. He cared too much for his brother’s opinion, yet determination struck him just as hard.

I felt the shift in him before he did. I knew this outcome, but it came to me like a foreign language. I’d seen this choice before he made it, and I saw the future it came to, yet I did not know what came in between. The vision flashed in my memory; Lorelis standing before his people with weeping eyes, a gleaming crown on his head. He sought power, more than what he had now.

“I know what you can do for me, and you know it too, Claudia,” Lorelis spoke quietly, though his voice boomed in the hollow silence of the Underneath. The skittering presence seemed to grow stronger, listening in to the prince. Lorelis kept himself intentionally vague, which was wiser than I thought of him. “And you will do as I say, if you ever wish to leave Lonest.”

“I believe that is out of your hands, Prince Lorelis. As far as I am concerned, the only orders I will be taking will be from King Mirin, so long as my feet are on his land.” My voice came out more snipped than I had intended, but it fitted how a favored would speak. Lorelis’ responding laughter was bitter, angry in its tone. I’d played too hard into his greed, and pointing out that it was not his decision pricked him.

“All is destined to change, it is only chance that dictates when.” The being inside me didn’t like how he spoke, or the implications behind it. The prince had planned something, and the look in his eyes spoke louder than his words. He’d determined I was to be part of it, no matter what I said. “Trust not in what you believe to be permanent. Let that be something you carry with you beyond Lonest, if I allow you to leave.”

“I’d sooner die than be used like a tool.” I’d kept my voice as calm as his, though I was eager to be free of him. I’d have preferred if my morning had been spent with Lothaire, or even the pure-bloods. Lorelis felt like punishment.

“Either can come to pass, but I wouldn’t be so quick to offer your death as the other possibility.” I’d nearly forgotten about the guard behind us until his foot caught something on the floor, sending it scattering across the stone in a loud commotion. I turned to look back at him, only to find him doing the same. He must’ve felt the presence as well, for suddenly he seemed frightened, using the torch he bore to light the room as he spun.

Though it was brief, only in the flash of the torch, I’d seen a figure standing in the corner of the room. They were faceless, formless other than an outline. As soon as the light passed, so too did they. The sight should’ve startled me as it did the soldier, but I found myself relieved to find it had a body. It was something real, physical, at least.

“They don’t like the light,” Lorelis hissed, though he hadn’t turned to see like I did. The small piece of information was helpful, but it didn’t help ease my nerves from their presence. It was ominous, as if warning of something. “Tiresom wraiths,” he sighed. “Trapped between this world and the next. Not much to be done about them, besides to not annoy them.”

“How do you know of them?” I asked brazenly. I was tired of having no answers, and I figured if anything, Lorelis would answer. He needed me to do something for him, badly based on his dark thoughts.

“They’ve plagued the Underneath nearly as long as it has existed.” We came to a stop outside of my room, but neither of us moved to end this conversation. We both knew there was more to be said before this unpleasant morning could be over. “Many have been maimed or killed by their vengeful claws. If you linger too long in their dark, they claim you for their own. However, light risks their anger.”

“How does anything survive down here, then?” My question amused the prince, revealing an almost innocent smile. It reminded me of the child I’d seen in his past, the sweet boy that had yet to be soured.

“They will not touch what cannot be claimed,” he said, lingering feet away from me. He was brave to believe I would not harm him, and unfortunately, he was right. For now, the other part of me whispered. “You are no longer a being of life, Claudia. It seems like you struggle to remember this,” he observed.

“I was alive for a long time,” I lied smoothly. “Longer than you have touched the earth. It has not been an easy transition, and to lose most of my memory has made it harder. I don’t expect you to understand that feeling.” Gone was his amusement when my final words came. His eyes narrowed, the skin pinching around them.

“I understand more than you think,” he sneered at me. Distantly, a door opened and Lorelis understood our time was over. “Think about it, Claudia. Doubt me now, but when you have no other choice, I will be waiting.”

I watched as he left, the fading torchlight growing smaller as they ventured back from where they’d come in through. I felt oddly numb after his leaving, my mind drifting back to what I’d seen in him.

I didn’t know how to feel after everything that had happened. All I knew was that I had chosen to live, though it was becoming undeniably more difficult. Too much faced me at every turn, and too much was left unknown to me. I stayed like that, listening while someone grew closer.

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His aura was more than familiar, and I was ashamed by how comforted I suddenly was. He was what allowed me to relax, a soothing guardian. “Galan,” I said into the dark, my eyes on his remarkable silhouette. My heart skipped over its next beat, watching as he approached me.

He was both handsome and beautiful, dark and bright. But something clouded him, his eyes casted low, his brow in a deep furrow. “Galan?” I said again, concern creeping into my tone. Without warning, he crushed me against him, his arms wrapping around me in a tight embrace. “I should’ve known,” he whispered against my hair, squeezing me tighter.

“Should’ve known what?” Awkwardly, I slid my arms around his waist, hugging him back. This was unusual, in more ways than one. He was worrying me, and I was still not used to physical affection. “What’s wrong?”

“Everything,” he muttered. “We need to leave- now.” The urgency in his voice set me on alert, and instantly I was pulling away from him, my growing personal feelings for him temporarily forgotten.

“I’m glad you said that, but I need to know what’s going on.” I stepped away from him, studying him in the dark. I marveled at how much I could see without light, and how the shadows no longer hindered me. Galan’s face was exposed, his full lips caught in a deep frown. “Ascelin damn it if the wraiths hear us. What happened?”

“I care for you, Claudia, and I don’t know why. My soul calls to yours, and I wish I’d known it before you were taken.” He sounded broken, and the sudden change at last opened his emotions to me, like a slowly developing crack. “I could’ve saved you from this, if I’d known then.” Galan’s head dipped in shame, unable to hold my gaze. “I care for you,” he repeated, and I felt those words echoing in my chest. “And yet it goes against everything I am, everything I should be.”

I plucked his emotions like strings of an instrument. What he felt was all consuming, an agony so rich and profound I had nowhere I could begin to understand it. Galan was something beyond my little pieces of knowledge, he was more than what stood before me now. “I need you to know that,” he murmured, and just like that, the crack that had opened him to me was sealing. “Do you trust me, Claudia?”

Lost for any other words, all I could say was, “I do.”

“Then we must leave Lonest,” Galan urged, reaching for me. I felt numb, allowing him to grab my wrist, pulling me back into him. I didn’t know what to think. Was it my soul calling back to his all along?

“The ithanae glass,” I murmured, remembering the conversation I’d heard in this same spot only hours ago. “Will it hurt me?”

His brief chuckle startled me, but I found myself craving its sound as soon as it ended. “Ithanae glass was never crafted with the intention to kill,” he said softly. “Its purpose is to see through one's soul. To purify what is dark, empower the weak, strengthen the mind. The only lives it has taken were no lives at all. Soulless, or too far gone that the only good ithanae can do for it is death.”

I didn’t know what to say anymore as I stared at him, taking in his ethereal features. How could someone this attractive, this strong, this important care for me? “The glass will not hurt you, or else my heart wouldn’t be beating to your tune.”

I couldn’t respond to what he’d said, instead changing it to a real concern. “And what will they think, seeing a pure-blood waltz through their shining keep?”

“Pure-bloods have souls,” he murmured, barely a whisper even in the heavy silence. “There is not one that cannot withstand ithanae, though they have forgotten that over a millennium-long kept secret.”

“I don’t understand,” I admitted, my confusion creating a crease in my brow.

“Of course,” he said through a sigh, nodding his head. It wasn’t meant to shame me for not knowing, but I felt that way anyway. “You were taught nothing, and that isn’t your fault. There’s so much to explain, and you’re caught in a world never meant for you.”

For some reason, those words stung. I felt my eyes prick, and I looked away from him before I started crying again. Curse myself, and these horrendous emotions that haunted me. “Lorelis called me a varyl’neer,” I said to him, oddly feeling the need to tell him. “I’m a soul-reader.”

“And you will be many more things than that.” His hand came up beside my face, his knuckles brushing over my cheek. “I’m sorry,” he apologized to me again, though none of this was his fault. I leaned into his hand, reveling in the warmth it spread throughout me. “This castle gets more dangerous for you by the minute. You’ve caught the eye of each Derevi man alive,” he mused, laughing darkly. “They don’t even know, and yet they are still pulled to you.”

“Know what?” I asked him instantly, but he only shook his head at me.

“I would never risk those words here, Claudia. Words travel, and the ones I keep from you now would reach the ears of many foes, who would seek to use you for their gain.” The sentiment resounded in me, and tears found me despite how hard I fought them. I was ashamed to cry in front of him again, to appear so weak. “We have to leave before it is undeniable, especially since it has already begun.”

“Lorelis is going to try to stop us,” I told him, remembering the conversation we’d had moments before Galan came back. “He wants to use me for something, and he knows I can walk in sunlight.”

Galan blew out an angry breath, his hand dropping back to his side as it clenched into a fist. “It was only a matter of time before your powers started manifesting,” he muttered, the frown coming back to his face. It distorted his beauty, and I felt the urge to erase it. “The prince already seeing your use is not good. Only another reason to leave,” he urged me. “Let’s go.”

“How?” I asked him, but he was already pulling me along. His steps were hurried, as if what I’d said had deeply worried him. Maybe I wasn’t taking things as seriously as he was, but he had an understanding of what was going on, when I did not.

How he knew where he was going, I had no idea. Once again I was being led through the dark Underneath, though I heard none of its roaming wraiths following us this time. Lorelis may have been telling the truth, and they had no interest in me.

“They would not dare to stop me,” he seethed, his mood turning dark as he navigated us through the Underneath. “Bastard men and their offspring,” Galan said under his breath. “They are the lowest beings of Life and yet they prosper and grow more than any.”

The faded, long rug we walked across was familiar. The red was nearly gone, leaving a muddied pink color instead. Its frilled, golden ends were touching with the next rugs, leaving little of the stone floor visible. I recognized it as the same I’d seen when I was first taken to the Underneath, and my nerves ramped higher, spiking my adrenaline. The other inside me stirred, rising with my anxiety. Part of me was chilled with the unknown that waited for me above, the rest burned with eagerness to meet it head on.

“Leaving so soon, Claudia?” A voice called from behind, dripping with false sweetness. Galan paused ahead of me, releasing the wrist he held. “Fiona,” I whispered softly, alerting Galan to who it was.

“It’s been a nice stay, Fiona, but we are taking our leave from your beautiful city.” My calmness took me by surprise, and when I turned to face her, I found her not more than a few feet away. She’d snuck up on us and neither of us had noticed until she spoke.

She wore the same elegant gown and detailed bodice, though this time she’d left behind the torch. Fiona’s eyes drifted from me to Galan, and they widened as she took him in. I remembered that his face was exposed now, and it looked as though Fiona recognized him. “Enesh, linne re’Fien,” she said, rushing the words out as she lowered into a meaningful bow. “It is an honor to cross paths with you.”

“Tir’varyl,” Galan spat the word like venom, and though I didn’t understand their language, I felt its meaning. Damned. “You’ve no right to speak my tongue,” he growled at her. “I curse the fool that taught you it.”

“I apologize, my Lord. You shall hear no more of it from me,” she promised.

“Do not interfere with me, Fiona, if you have any respect for the heritage you abandoned.” Galan’s voice sent a shiver across my skin from its lethality.

Fiona finally rose from her lowered position, and she almost looked regretful. “I can’t allow you to leave,” she mumbled, losing her voice and bravery in the face of Galan. My pulse sped, evaluating the situation. Galan was someone important to her. “Word has already been sent to King Mirin, if you go now, you damage us needlessly.”