Chapter 9 Dangerous Alliances

• Dawn found me in the castle's highest tower, watching the sun paint the sky in shades of blood and gold while my mind churned through the revelations of the night. Seven participants for the ritual. Six allies I needed to find and trust with not just the truth, but with their lives.
• The first was obvious: if I chose to trust him, Prince Aldric had already committed himself to the cause. He possessed the magical knowledge necessary to understand what we were attempting. But the conversation with my mother's spirit had planted seeds of doubt about his ultimate loyalties.
• The second was equally obvious and equally problematic—Master Dorian had been preparing me for this fight for years, but revealing the full scope of the conspiracy would require admitting that I'd been communing with the dead and gathering intelligence behind my father's back.