I cleared my dry throat, steeling myself for the final part.
“When we are in our darkest valleys, fear will never move us, because there you are, always beside us. Your scepter and crown protect, comfort, and guide us all. Infinite, we have full confidence your goodness and unfailing love will never stop pursuing us, each and every dawn of our lives, through the Ages. And we will forever be privileged to live in your house, all through the Ellelights, always and forever. Arèmen.”
“Arèmen,” my friends chorused.
Quazar squeezed my waist as if communicating he was proud of me. Proud that I still pushed through, messy and all.
Now came the hard part.
I took a step forward. Then another. My friends stayed behind as I walked to the water’s edge. I walked until my feet were under water. Then my knees.
I bent down, opened my cupped hands, and looked at my sister’s spirit for the last time. Then, I brushed my nose against the bubbling spirit, still bouncing with a bit of life left. A life that would soon wink out.
I kissed the edges of the bubbling spirit. Even in death she was as lively as she was in life.
“I love you, Evanae. Forever will find me, and I will still love you. The Ellelights will claim me, and I will still love you. My fiery, life-loving sister. My whole entire heart of hearts. I love you. Always.”
Lifting my hands, I leaned forward over the waters, then let my sister’s spirit go. My hearts cleaved into two as I watched the silhouette of light, shaped like an angel bursting with evanescence, bounce away. The further Evanae’s spirit went, the weaker her light grew.
Quiet tears streamed down my face as I settled into the ocean water, watching her spirit go away, slowly winking out, as the waves crashed over me. The waves began growing higher, soaking me further, until one large wave rushed forward, soaking me entirely.
It felt good to be soaked by the ocean waves. It felt like being cleansed. Being purified. Like a nod from the Infinite that none of this was over. This was just the beginning.
I believe my fifis will be catalysts for the inevitable.
That’s what Manmi had written. Had she known this would take place? She’d been so sure we were the ones who would trigger some great affair. But Evanae was now dead, and I was left behind with my grief. My pain.
And my mounting rage.
I would avenge my sister. Farasee Asarah would not be left to rest until I’d made her pay for how she’d shed my sister’s blood like she was cattle.
As the ocean water continued soaking me through, my sorrow began morphing into poignant wrath. I glared at the surface of the sea. Until Evanae’s light grew dim. Until her light winked out. Until her spirit was no more.
When Evanae was gone—completely, irrevocably—I did not cry. Tears burned my eyes, but I held them. I fisted my hands below the water, grabbing fistfuls of sand. I ground my teeth. My insides shattered, and in the breaking something hard, something dangerous, something feral, forged in its place. I watched the surface of the waters for a long time, sitting there, stewing with my anger.
“Starling, may I join you?”
I turned my head around. My friends were looking at me. Watching. Waiting.
I looked at Quazar, nudging my head for him to come. When he moved, it was like a spell had been broken. All of them moved at once, settling into the water around me. Quazar came to my side, wrapping a wing around my waist out of reflex.
Before he said a word, the moment he was seated, I reached up with my hands, angled his head, and brought his lips to mine. I didn’t care if our friends were watching. Didn’t care that I was devouring this male that I adored, that I leaned on, as if he was my very foundation in this world.
Quazar didn’t either. He kissed me slowly, thoroughly, taking his time. He sucked on my lip as he bit into it, drawing it into his mouth while running a hand into my hair.
My hearts pounded as he groaned into my mouth, kissing me slow, then fast, driving me into a frenzy. I found myself getting short of breath as I leaned into him, lost in the scent of him. The feel of him.
Quazar kissed me like a male who’d been starved and was finally given his favorite meal. He kissed me like he was parched and I was the last remaining goblet of water. He kissed me like I was his very soul. Like I was his wingmate.
I finally pulled back enough to take a breath. To gulp down air. His lips were red in all the places I’d bitten him. He brushed a thumb over my lip, lost in the features of my face.
“I love you,” I whispered, leaning into his embrace. I tucked my head against his chest. His wing tucked me closer.
“I love you, my Starling. My love. So rotting much.”
“I mean, not to bethatangel, but I love you, too,” Ellabeth said, eyes on the waves, a small mischievous smile on her face. A twinkling light surfacing in her grief-ridden eyes. Dakairi chuckled, but nodded along in agreement, sitting by her side, one of his wings wrapped low around her waist.
“Okay, I’m glad you said it first, because I,too, love you, Sazu,” Daelun butted in, chin lifted. His eyes were on Quazar and I, and they were positively dancing. Stars. He was just as bad a gossip as Ellabeth.
