“Good,” I interjected before Zeph could demand a full itinerary. “Traditionally, Midnight Fae ascend in their twenty-fifth year, giving them ample time to prepare. But with my grandfather absorbing the dark source and forcing it on Aflora, the rules have clearly changed. We’ll need all the structure we can get.”
Ascensions were powerful.
And Aflora’s would be legendary.
We had to begin preparing now.
“What happens if I fully ascend?” Aflora asked after a beat, her expression hesitant.
“When,” I corrected. “Whenyou fully ascend, you’ll become one of the most powerful abominations in existence.”
I’d chosenthe bedroom closest to the living area, preferring to be the first line of defense. It’d seemed to work well for Kolstov and Zephyrus, who had decided to take the largest room at the end of the hall together. Shade had picked the room beside mine. And Aflora… had bypassed the remaining room to join Kolstov and Zephyrus.
However, I felt her awake now.
Restless.
Pacing.
I sat up to find Zimney curled up at the foot of my bed, his eyelids lifting briefly before closing once more.Not moving, he was saying.
I snorted and slipped from the covers to pull on a pair of pajama pants. Shade’s grandmother had fully stocked our closets and rooms with everything we needed. Whether she’d done it herself or hired someone, I wasn’t sure. But I thanked her silently for it nonetheless. It made life easier.
That she knew which rooms we would pick—evidenced by the correct sizing of our wardrobe—served as a show of power. She’d foreseen our choices. Or perhaps she just knew us all well enough to know where we would want to sleep.
I stepped out into the hallway, listening for signs of life, and heard the soft slide of paper against paper. Following it into the living room, I found Shade reading on the smaller of the two couches, his upper body exposed as he wore a pair of pajama pants similar to mine.
His icy eyes remained on his book as he said, “She’s outside.”
“You should be sleeping,” I told him.
He lifted a shoulder. “I wanted to be nearby in case she needed something.”
It seemed I wasn’t the only one with the protective gene engaged. “I’ll keep an eye on her,” I said, my voice soft. “Go rest, Shadow. You’ve done enough these last few days, and we all need your reserves fully restored.”
Aflora’s training would officially begin tomorrow. I’d developed an intense curriculum—one Zephyrus had fortified and Kolstov and Shade had perfected. It would require all of us to be at our best, not exhausted.
Shade set his book on the table. “She needs rest, too.” He stood and stretched his arms over his head. “Perhaps you’ll be better suited to convince her.”
“I’ll do my best.”
His lips twitched as he stepped up to my side. “You’ll have to do better than that. She’s stubborn.”
“I know how to handle her stubborn side,” I promised.
He huffed out a dry laugh before heading down the hallway toward his room. When the door snicked closed, I wandered over to the table, curious to see what he’d chosen to read. I smirked at the title, familiar with the fictional trilogy from the Human Realm about hobbits.
It seemed just like Shade to indulge in such an epic tale.
Leaving the book alone, I redirected myself outside to the beauty lying on the ground. It seemed she’d ceased her pacing and had chosen to admire the sky instead. “It isn’t real,” she said to me as I approached. “But it certainly looks real.”
“It’s real to an extent,” I replied, sitting down beside her on the soft bed of green grass.
The firm texture and vibrant life told me she’d bolstered it with her power, ensuring its strength beneath our bodies. I leaned back to join her in the prone position, my knuckles brushing hers as I aligned our arms alongside one another. Her fingers flexed toward mine, curling around the tips to hold me in her own way.
“Does the Hell Fae realm have stars?” she asked.
“I imagine it does in certain areas, but I’ve not explored it to know for sure.” My paradigm was in the Human Realm, in Antarctica, which definitely had stars at night. Not that one could actually venture outside to admire them.
