Nether

11. A Faceless Enemy

I sit in the dining room as Caleb prepares sandwiches. After hours of searching, he didn't find Roane, and though we try to act as normal as possible, we're both tense and worried. The magical world is changing, and it's impossible to ignore. The air is leaded, heavy with grim uncertainty. Truthfully, as he slides a plate across the table to me, it feels like the last supper. But if there's one thing I know, I'm not leaving Roane out there alone.

"You don't have to come. I can find my way back to the bridge," I tell Caleb. I pluck at the edges of the bread unable to take a bite, not with the way my stomach twists with worry and my heart hurts. I shouldn't have let Roane leave.

Caleb wipes his mouth and moves his plate aside, his sandwich barely touched. "I'm coming with you, Ro."

"It's too dangerous for you to come. Convent can't afford having you killed, especially non-magics."

"That's what I'm betting on," he says. "We need to find Roane, but if we run into any trouble at the bridges, I can send out a call for help. Convent will do anything to save me." He shrugs. "Besides, I'm not letting you go back there alone."

I blow out a sigh. If the time after my failed Crossing ceremony taught me one thing, it's that Caleb is stubborn. He sticks to what he believes in and the people he loves, and I know this isn't an argument I'll win. "Fine, but what are we going to do about Mage Claudius?"

He chews in silence for a few seconds as if replaying all my confessions in his mind. I told him everything we learned from the Sprite Queen and his mother's journals. The only way we'll survive the coming war is with no secrets between us, no darkness. That meant telling him that Mage Claudius was the last person to see his mother alive and that she was scared for her safety, thus willingly walked into the Nether for the sake reuniting the realms, even if it cost her her life. I had held my breath, expecting him to get angry, yet in knowing her reasons for sacrificing herself, his resolve was ignited.

"You really think he did this?" he asks me.

I nod. "There's a chance he's innocent, but the optics aren't good. He saw her last and never told anyone. Why hide it? After seeing him, The Sprite Queen said your mother was scared and desperate more than ever to unite the realms, and she must have been desperate to willingly walk into the Nether. She must've known he would've killed her if she didn't stop trying to bring the realms together. And now he wants you to marry his daughter? It's not a coincidence. He wants power and he's going to get it, no matter the cost. What I don't understand is this: by marrying you to Vale, he gets a higher position in the council once you inherit, but what about everything else? Why supply the trolls with non-magics? What does he get in return?"

"There's only one way to find out. We have to find Roane, maybe he can set up a meeting between us and the Troll Prince before the Coronation."

I blow out a breath. That's easier said than done. "I don't even know where to start looking. I told him to go back to the caves if he needed to rest, but if he isn't there then—"

A knock at the door cuts me off. I dash into Caleb's room and close the door partially. Whoever it is, Caleb keeps them by the door. They're gone quickly, and a few seconds later, Caleb appears, alone.

"It was a guard," he says, coming into the room. His posture is tense and his jaw tight. Walking straight to his closet, he starts dressing.

"What happened?"

He pulls on a t-shirt and paces the room, silent. A second later, he's yet to say a word.

"Caleb?"

He stops and rubs a hand against the back of his neck. "They discovered a man last night just outside of the gates...unconscious."

"No," I breathe, gripping the bed frame, my legs suddenly weak beneath me. "Please don't say it's him."