I pull down my shroud, eyes narrowed on the pink feather—no bigger than the pad of my thumb—pinched between the laces. The soft sort of down found in the bowl of a Moltenmaw’s nest, cushioning a clutch of eggs.
A heavy sense of dread settles on my shoulders, my gaze shifting to where the moonshard is hidden to Kaan’s note tucked amongst my sheets … back to the lone feather decorating my Creators-damn boot.
“Fuck.”
“They left a while ago. I doubt you’ll catch them, even if you run.”
I whip around, finding Roan at the top of the twirled wooden stairway that leads to the upper level, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Still dressed in his muddy clothes, as though he finished his protégé location device, passed it off to Kaan, scaled the stairs, then flopped straight on a pallet and passed out.
“Oh,” I murmur, mind occupied with thoughts of Kaan’s note …
Once I’m back, we need to talk.
Seven small words never felt so ominous.
Shovingthatmental sinkhole aside for later, I stab my foot in my boot and jerk my chin at the closed curtains. “Where’s the aurora?”
“Sank a while ago. It’s midslumber, perhaps?” Roan yawns so wide I see his molars. “They left just after it fell.”
A strike of luck. Hopefully the patrol is scarce where I’m headed and Sereme sleeps through the entire ordeal.
I’m just knotting my second bow when Roan’s voice cracks the stewing silence. “You’re, ahh … You’re not leaving to find them, are you?”
“I’m not the rescuing type,” I mutter, hoping the words echo all the way down into my Other’s icy den. Shave off that layer of expectation that I’manythinglike the little girl she once doted on. “I’ll be back.”
I charge down the stairway, don my black, muddy cloak, then whip up my hood, snatching two vials of elixir from the shelf. I pocket one and smash the other against the wall, revealing the luminous litter of runes that keep the door hidden.
It gulps open, exposing me to the mist-laden world beyond, plagued with a scatter of parchment larks bouncing about in confused circles, trying to regain their bearings.
Poor things.
Everything is smudged in so much white it feels like I’m stepping intoa croaking, buzzing cloud—two steps forward when the door glugs back into place at my back.
I’m just digging into my pants pocket for Sereme’s note when the atmosphere turns cold and frigid. An eerie silence settles, like all the little bugs and reptiles just upped and vanished.
Even the confused larks scatter.
There’s a shift in the air, making the hairs on my arms lift. My lips twist into a smile.
I scan the dense fog, waiting …
Before me, a large shapeilluminates—wings stretching. Gloomy eyes blink open, so close my breath snags.
My smile grows as I reach up to rub the sloped span between Líri’s eyes, pulling my lungs full of her wild, musky scent.
She snuffs, blasting brisk air against my cheek before nuzzling into my abdomen. A plea blooms in my chest like an icy bud; her determined desire to come with me.
I sigh, running my fingers through the tendrils hanging from her jowls, figuring it’s misty enough that she’ll basically blend with the scenery. “Okay,” I whisper as she tilts her head, nudging forward, almost pushing the breath from my lungs. Request for a scratch beneath the jaw. “But only because you’ve proven just how quiet you can be.”
That, and I’m certain she’s onlypretendingI have a choice in the matter.
We cut up into the clear band pinched between the hazy pink clouds and Miel Et Muíem—now blanketing the nesting grounds.Only for a beat before Líri dives back down, just enough that I’m still offered a distinct view of the wall ahead, barely peeking above the waft of white.
Seeing the wall’s jagged, crumbly edge—proof of the collision that impacted this area hundreds of eons ago—it’s hard not to be jolted. Knowing a moon fell with such force it took out chunks of the ancient structure. Bruised the world so deeply it almost swallowed itself.
Onemoon.
Onestrike.
