The only sound to be heard was the pounding of Nastasia's heart. She didn't hear voices raised in song from the alcove overlooking the throne room. She didn't hear the whispers that rose as she passed by.

Even her leaden footsteps couldn't reach past the blood that roared in her ears. The aisle stretched before her, looming endlessly, and yet, entirely too short. Before she even realized it, she was standing beside Emperor Kazimir and the two of them were facing Stepan.

Apparently the Soothsayer would be performing the marriage rites. Nastasia was barely aware of her parents stepping off to the side, and Alexei with them. She did see Volya from the corner of her eye and her fingers tightened instinctively around her hidden dagger.

Stepan began to speak, but his words fell on deaf ears. Nastasia tensed as Kazimir leant his head towards her. "Try not to look so sullen," he whispered. "It's not a fitting look for a bride."

"A happy bride perhaps, but as I'm an unhappy bride, it's perfectly fitting for me," she returned.

The Emperor said nothing more. Nastasia risked a glance at him and found his features stony with rage. He couldn't do or say anything now. Not while they were surrounded by witnesses, but later, if he had the opportunity to corner her alone...

Nastasia set her jaw and forced the horrible thoughts out of her mind. She would not allow that to happen and even if it did, she wasn't without defense. Shadows flickered across her cheeks as if affirming it.

•༻᯽༺•

Nikolai led the way down the winding staircases and shadowed corridors hidden within the palace walls, going as quickly as possible. With each minute that passed, he grew more and more convinced that they were too late and Kazimir had already succeeded.

At last, they reached the final stretch of hallway between them and the throne room. There would be no more shelter from the secret passageways now. They didn't reach the throne room from this point and there was no time to enter another tunnel and circle around to the other side of the room.

"Be ready," Nikolai whispered, resting a hand on the doorknob as he looked back at his companions. "This hallway is going to be filled with Guards."

"We'll keep you covered," Yuri promised. "You just get to the throne room."

Nikolai nodded and carefully opened the door, holding his sword fast in his free hand. He inched into the hallway and froze. His jaw fell in horror. "What? What is it?" The others' voices overlapped as they shoved their way out behind him.

Each of them sucked in a sharp breath and went rigid as they took in the scene before them. All of the Guards who had been on duty now littered the floor in gory mangled heaps, as if their bodies had combusted and turned inside out. Not a single one had been spared.

"Goddess above," Josephine choked out, falling to her knees. Blood still pooled from the corpses and slowly drew across the floor in a crimson tide. Nikolai took a step back as it threatened to reach his boots.

"Don't look," Mischa murmured, touching a hand to Josephine's shoulder. She obediently turned her face away and a few tears dripped down her cheeks.

"How is this possible?" Daryn demanded. "Someone had to have heard the commotion."

"Unless there wasn't one," Yuri replied. "I don't see any weapons aside from the Guards', and swords couldn't have done...this."

"Then what did?"

"Magic," Danitza said, confirming Nikolai's suspicions. "This attack came from magic. I can sense the residue even without a spell. It feels...tainted, somehow. Kazimir must have brought some of his enslaved Mages along."

"Could they have attacked the throne room already?" Elise gasped.

Nikolai was already sprinting towards the doors. He grabbed the latch, then jerked backwards with a yelp as the metal flared white hot against his skin. Danitza joined him and passed a hand across the fixtures. "They've been enchanted. I can remove the spell but it will take a little time."

"Then I'm going around," Nikolai replied. "Get in as soon as you can."

He took off running towards the nearest passageway entrance, ignoring the blood that splattered beneath his feet. It might take him a little longer to circle the passages around the throne room, but he'd probably still get in quicker than if he waited for Danitza to remove the enchantment.

Please, he prayed silently. Don't let us be too late.

•༻᯽༺•

Nastasia barely hid her repulsed shiver when Emperor Kazimir took her left hand as he prepared to speak his vows. She could only be grateful that her dagger was in her right hand and remained hidden from the Emperor's sight.

But now, her thoughts began to turn in a new direction. Should she use her dagger now? Make a move before Kazimir had the opportunity to? If she let the vows take place, she really would be married to him. Should she prevent it, or let it happen? Maybe in order to defeat Kazimir, she would have to marry him.

Nastasia watched him with an icy stare as he spoke his vows aloud and lifted a simple wedding band with two fingers. A smile twitched across Kazimir's lips, and something sinister reflected in his gaze. Nastasia stiffened.

No, there was something there aside from a dark and promising gleam. The ring. And upon the band, runes that had been invisible were beginning to glow. Nastasia attempted to pry her hand from Kazimir's but his smile only grew. Alarmed cries rang out from the guests and many leaped to their feet.

"What is this?" Stepan demanded, eyeing the ring with suspicion.

"A simple mark of ownership, as all wedding bands are," Kazimir replied.

Nastasia continued to wrestle in his grasp, resisting the urge to reveal her dagger. If she showed it before she had a small advantage, Kazimir would take it from her without difficulty. "That is no wedding ring," she spat. "It's iron, and those runes are the same as the ones you brand upon your enslaved Mages!"

"Release my daughter at once!" Gavriil commanded behind her.

The crowd took up his cry. "Release the Princess! Release our Moon Blessed Saint!"

Kazimir only laughed. "Surely you know it's too late for that. You should've guessed that I'd take precautions. After all, what good is her power if I can't wield it and she can turn it against me?"

"Magical imprisonment was not part of the deal," came another voice. Nastasia ceased struggling, horror washing through her. "You swore she would remain free, bound to you through name and body alone."

"And I am keeping my word. Her body will be bound to me, just as all of the Mages I control. Be grateful I'm not using the same method as with them," Kazimir hissed. "Now, let us finish this." Nastasia clamped her fingers into a fist as Kazimir brought the ring closer. He jerked her wrist with a snarl. "Do not test me, Princess."

"Stop this!" King Grigori thundered from the crowd. "You don't know what you're doing! This will anger the Goddess. She will..."

"Your Goddess will soon have no dominion here," Kazimir interrupted. "I suggest you stop cowering before her and bow to me on your trembling knees!"

"Outside!" Queen Lilibet exclaimed. "Look!" The Eldon Queen pointed to the windows with a trembling finger.

Nastasia peered outside nervously. Dark, unnatural clouds had filled the sky, blocking out the sun completely, but she felt no fear. Something about the clouds was familiar to her. Soothing. A shadow curled around her finger, providing the answer.

Those were no clouds. They were shadows sent by the dark half of the Two-Faced Goddess. An ill omen for those seeking to harm the one she had Blessed. Nastasia had only read about such a sky. It had been seen the day Nastasia the Blessed met her death, when a jealous priestess shoved her from a balcony in the Temple of Shadows.

Such clouds had filled the sky when Saint Faena was bound to a stake and burned alive. They had been reported on the day Saint Oleksandr took his revenge on the Andrians and then killed himself. She had heard the sky was dark the day Saint Pavel was dismembered and buried. And here they were again, on the day she was to be bound to a tyrant through marriage and magic.

"Enough of this!" Kazimir's voice broke the dreadful silence that had overtaken the room. "I had hoped we could get through this ceremony without interruption, but..." He waved his free hand and instantly, soldiers and Mages materialized out of thin air.

Screams broke out as the Andrians swept through the room, apprehending all who tried to escape them. Nastasia gasped as Kazimir yanked her towards himself. "Let's not make this more difficult than it has to be."

Nastasia narrowed her eyes and cautiously let the dagger in her palm slip until she held it only by the blade. Kazimir snatched her left hand and forced her fingers apart. All the while, magic crackled through her veins and gathered at her fingertips in a cold tempest.

Just as he was about to slip the ring onto her finger, Nastasia let a wave of starlight blast into the Emperor's chest, tearing his grasp from her and knocking him backwards. The ring tumbled from his hand and rolled a short distance away.

She flipped the hilt of the dagger back into her palm and crafted a second blade of starlight in her other hand. Shadows lashed about her shoulders as the Emperor recovered himself. "You will regret that," he growled.

"And you will regret this," Nastasia hissed, gesturing to the entirety of the throne room.

Fighting had broken out between the Nyctolian Guards and the Mages and soldiers of Andrian. Some of the visiting delegates had joined in, such as King Grigori, Queen Evgeniya, Queen Nesrine, and Lord Anton, while others were taking cover and shielding themselves from flashing blades.

She also spied members of Nyctoli's court leaping to the defense of others, General Nikita the most prominent. He spared a glance towards the dais and began to fight his way towards them, but several Andrian soldiers swarmed the General and soon hid him from sight.

"Nastasia."

She barely turned her head, acknowledging the traitor that spoke her name. "How could you do this, Mother? How could you betray us to him!"

"Andrian was my home," Serafima answered simply.

"And Nyctoli is mine."

"This is the easiest way, Nasi," her mother began.

"No!" Nastasia whirled around to face her. "You don't get to call me that. You betrayed us! How could you do this? What have we done to deserve this?"

"I saved Nyctoli," Serafima countered. "Kazimir only wanted you. He swore that if I helped make this fall into place, he would leave Nyctoli alone. Your father and brother would be safe, and I could come home with his protection."

Nastasia didn't speak as her father took a step towards Serafima, hurt and betrayal pinching his features. "All these years, Sera, and you still can't..." He broke off, closing his eyes briefly while he shook his head. "I thought we were finally...that you had..."

"That I had what, Gavriil?" Serafima snapped. "That I had accepted my fate? To always be beneath you, to never amount to anything more than a pretty face and a Queen in title? Did you think I had learned to love you?"

"I hoped that you had learned to see me as I have always seen you," he murmured. "But you must have grown even more stubborn these past few years."

"Don't pretend to know me," Serafima seethed. "You never have. If you did, you would know that I did this as a courtesy to you. Do you think I wanted to sell my own daughter to the highest bidder when we went to such great lengths to save her life?"

"But the choice was Nastasia, or this kingdom and my son. I made the only choice a Queen could make. I made the choice that you have been too cowardly to make this whole time! You should be thanking me for sparing you from it!"

"And you should be begging me to spare this!" Kazimir shouted, cutting above her parents' voices.

Nastasia's jaw fell in silent terror as she faced Kazimir once more. A Mage materialized beside him, Alexei caught firmly in her grasp. Kazimir snatched her brother's arm from the Mage and the woman vanished. "Release him!" Nastasia snarled, brandishing her weapons anew.

Kazimir only laughed. "It seems it's time to make a new deal. What do you say, Serafima?"

"Let him go. He isn't part of this," Serafima insisted, frantic anxiety coating her voice. "Please. You promised..."

"And you promised. But seeing as your promise is broken, so is mine."

Kazimir slammed his foot into the back of Alexei's knee, forcing him to the ground. Alexei cried out as the Emperor wrenched his arm backwards at a rough angle. Nastasia gasped, hearing the sharp pop when his arm dislocated, and Alexei barely choked down his scream.

"Tell me, your Majesties. What will you offer me now?" He leveled a dagger at Alexei's throat and grinned.