Arkyn.
He somehowsurvived.
Raeve goes stiff in my firm grip, her shock and rage palpable in the tension strung between us, blooming against me like a blow of flame. At the same time, Rygun arches up and postures, baring his teeth as he releases a chesty rumble.
A summoning challenge to meet him on this battlefield he’s claimed dominance over.
Arkyn cuts a glance between us all, then blasts a string of fleeing commands the Elding Bird seems to lash its head against, protesting. Rather than allow her to dive and face us with honor, he spurs the creature skyward, revealing just how spineless he really is.
Howcowardly.
A familiar itch flares at the tips of my fingers.
The Elding Bird explodes free of the pit, then cuts north toward The Fade, out of sight. Raeve jolts in my grip, snarling. Like she’s hungry to spawn wings of her own and hunt them down.
To chase her revenge.
I grip her shoulders—
The ground lurches with such force we almost lose our footing, thentremors …like a full-body shudder. Something I’ve felt only three times before.
My heart compacts like a stone in my chest.
“No …not yet!”I growl, looking up at the scatter of Moonplume moons nesting above us. Watch in cold-blooded horror as a smaller one wobbles … wobbles … thenplummets, drawing out of sight, dragging aflaming gash through the sky. A similar wound opens through my chest, my heart laboring so hard and fast it feels like my ribs are caging a rabid beast.
We’re not ready …
We still have to find Kyzari. We still have to save our daughter.
“Creators, protect us all,” I rasp, then close my eyes. Squeeze them as the mountain quakes from the force of the nearby fall, coupled with Bulder’s drudging lament. Like he just caught an arrow to the gut.
I swallow, compose myself as best I can, then tilt Raeve’s head so she’s forced to look at me. In her drawn face, gritted teeth, and wide, unblinking eyes, a battle wages.
The same battle that’s waging within myself.
Should Arkyn escape, history will repeat itself. He’ll hibernate, scavenge his way back to power, and rise again. He’ll come for our family—of that, I’m certain. None of us will be safe so long as he lives.
But our daughter needsoneof us.
Right now.
I cup Raeve’s cheek, her jaw tensing beneath my bloody palm. “Rygun will gladly carry you north so you can hunt him down.” The world jolts again, almost sending us to our knees. Or perhaps it’s the weight of this moment; this impossible decision about to cleave us apart. “If you want to be the one to end him, Raeve … he’s yours.”
Time stretches while she searches my eyes, back and forth like a pendulum, her pupils so blown they’re dark mirrors to the shedding sky. To the breaking world beyond.
Until a bleed of blue vulnerability makes my chest ache, coupled with a slight tremor in her chin. “I don’t want that.” Her voice is cracked through, becoming stiffer. Moresturdy. “I just wanther.”
The declaration packs me full of compounding relief and deep, primal pride.
This time, she’s not choosing to chase death. Butlife.
She’s choosing our daughter.
She’s choosing love.
I bind her close, press my lips against her forehead, and squeeze my eyes shut. “Go to her, Moonbeam.”
Unsaid words follow, strung through the tightening of my arms and the devout tremble taking me over. A silent promise tilled from the very fiber of my being, screamed with every shuddered breath I expel against her.
