Chapter 74

Mara's POV

The moment Severin touched the seventh seat, every red line in the chamber ignited.

My knees did not bend.

Everyone else's did. Ronan hit the floor hard enough to crack his palm against stone. Gideon collapsed beside the heir basin. Lucien swore as one knee struck the ground. Even Ilyra and my mother were pulled downward, though their hands remained on the Witness ring.

Severin looked around the room.

For the first time since I had known him, he seemed happy.

"There," he said. "That is what order feels like."

I stood alone. The image was so familiar that my body remembered it before my mind did.

I remembered the oath hall, Gideon's command, Vivian beside him with a hand over her