The clock in the eastern tower had just passed half past two when Elara awoke with a strangled breath, one hand clutching the silk sheets as though she had been dragged from somewhere far beneath the world and had only barely managed to return. For several seconds she did not know where she was, because the darkness of her chamber seemed to carry another darkness within it, older and colder, filled with the distant scent of rain upon stone and something faintly metallic that reminded her of blood.
Her heart beat hard against her ribs while she stared toward the tall windows of the Regina Royal Estate, where moonlight rested upon the curtains in pale silver folds, and she could still see the crimson glow that had filled the Grand Council Chamber only hours earlier.
