Mary Ann’s POV
“Welcome home, niece.”
The voice came from the glowing passage behind me.
Warm.
Calm.
Familiar enough to pull me backward through years.
For one terrible second, I was no longer inside the ruins of Nightveil. I was a frightened academy student standing outside a lecture hall with tears burning my eyes while other students laughed at my body.
Master Vale had appeared beside me then.
He had offered me a handkerchief.
He had told me their cruelty could not change the worth of my blood.
I had believed he was kind.
Now he stepped from the darkness dressed as the Regent of Nightveil.
Cassius looked older than the instructor I remembered. More grey ran through his dark hair, and new lines marked the corners of his eyes. His beard was trimmed carefully, hiding part of th
