There were so many threads of this war pulling me in so many directions I couldn’t tend to them all at once.
The familiar blond hair and passive face of my friend entered the hall not long after I arrived, but in those eyes… I saw the Goddess of Dawn in all her wicked gloating.
“How lovely for you to come by, Astraea,” she greeted kindly.
I didn’t know if it was my grip or Antila’s that tightened. Raider hovered close to my other side, and though he was nearly a man, I wanted to grab both of them and run.
“Likewise,” I lied. “If Zephyr isn’t here, I must be going though.”
“Maybe I can help in his stead?”
My heart pounded as I tried to calculate how to get Zephyr’s kids to safety in case Dawn thought to use them.
“It’s nothing urgent. While he’s not here, I was thinking of taking Antila and Raider for a while.”
“Where?” Dawn asked.
I couldn’t raise any alarm with the fragile hearts beside me, unaware of the goddess who’d killed their mother and stolen her face. Zephyr would be able to explain it to them; I just had to find him.
Antila gasped, gripping me excitedly. “Yes, where?!”
I didn’t want Dawn to know where I was heading.
“To Vesitire for a while,” I decided quickly. I could leave them in the protection of Nadir’s home.
“Have you found all your key pieces yet?” Dawn asked. So deceptively innocent it sickened me.
That was another reason to get back to Nadir’s and reunite with the others. Perhaps the fates would be in their favor and the others would have all the key pieces. If I had my key right now, along with knowing Dawn’s true name, I could kill the goddess.
“No,” I had to admit.
“A shame. Time is running out.”
Suspicion started to reel in my thoughts. This was the second time I’d stood before Dawn and she hadn’t tried to kill me. That was her objective, wasn’t it? Did she need the key to do it?
“Best not waste any of it then,” I said carefully.
As I began to back away, the tension in my body only grew. Dawn was unpredictable. Her power in a mortal body unknown.
“Take care of my children,” she said in farewell.
My jaw worked at the blatant mockery she was of my friend. A protective flare for Zephyr’s children made me want to attack and figure out exactly what Dawn was or wasn’t capable of against me. But to spare Antila and Raider grief, I had to let her go for now.
My steps hurried though the halls, like Dawn might follow on our heels any moment.
“I’m not going to Vesitire,” Raider said. He stopped walking, and I glanced over his shoulder, antsy to be out of here. Raider crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes on me. “Something’s going on.”
Antila said, “This is an adventure! Stop ruining the mood.”
I crossed the few steps to him, begging with my eyes. “It’s not safe here for you two. Trust me as a friend of your father’s, please.”
“Then how is it safe for mother?”
My lips pursed as I tried to come up with some reasonable excuse to take them away from her.
I lowered my voice. “We won’t go to Vesitire. I’ll take you to your father at the sanctuary.”
Antila whined. “That’s not as exciting!”
