The eastern corridor was a war zone.

Bodies littered the marble floors—palace guards who had tried to stop the assault. Their wounds were wrong, edges blackened like reality itself had been burned away.

"Void corruption," I identified, kneeling beside one fallen soldier. "Lord Ashford brought it with him."

"You know this attacker?" Prince Kael's blade was already drawn, his entire body coiled for violence.

"In the original timeline, he did not reveal himself for three more months. He is ...