Except there isn’t one.
Without a host to feed the ravenous runes, Caelis will be released. Will be whole again, yes, but upon seeing me dead in this cell, he willrage. In my heart, I know he’ll rip every m—
The faint sound of fluttering wings before something lands in my palm.
I open my eyes.
nee
I frown so deep the skin around my diadem pinches, studying the three scripted letters on the little lark’s abdomen—impeccably joined. The handwriting smooth and delicate.
Perfect.
As it should be, given I took a cane to the knuckles every time my quill slipped even slightly out of line. A royal title stands for naught when your pah condones you to be treated like a coin that’s never polished enough.
Looking at those letters, it’s hard to ignore the heavy lump in my chest. Something that feels a lot like she’s learningshe’sdead all over again. That she bled out giving birth to me. That I’ll never know what she smelled like. The tone of her voice.
How it would’ve dipped and peaked when she told me she loved me.
Perhaps I’ve dropped into a state of morbid insanity and I’m simply imagining the lark’s presence?
I latch on to the notion like a bloodthirsty parasite, gorging myself, squeezing my eyes shut so hard they ache. Determined the lark I whispered to Mah phases ago isnotcurrently belly-up in my hand.
I open my eyes—
nee
Damn.
Perhaps I’m dreaming? Perhaps I dreamt the signature, too?
I close my eyes again, murmuring to Caelis. A hollow song that ices my lips until I fall into a half sleep, drifting somewhere cold and high amongst the stars. Somewhere we can hear each other. Sing to each other safely.
Love each other.
Somewhere Caelis iswholeand not mulched within the stone embedded on my brow.
Surí’s there, rather than caged in the royal Moonplume burrows hidden beneath Arithia. Something that’s always hindered us from exploring the skies as one and forging a sturdy bond.
For the first time ever, I feel her presence in my chest. Feel her vividjoy for the way her wings cut through the atmosphere, her pearly hide cold as the air kissing my cheeks. No pesky escorts caging her in like they do whenever we fly together.
We roam the endless horizon beneath a glittering carpet of stars, as we were always meant to be.
Free.
Mah’s there too … I think.
Maybe I just wish she was. That she could wrap me in her arms and tell me everything’s going to be okay—
Something nuzzles my neck, nudging me back to my dire, damp, foul-smelling reality. A sour reek that never loses its putrid edge.
My heart knots as I recall the lark.
I open my eyes, seeing my palm is empty—
A dream.
My entire body loosens with my shuddered sigh of relief.
