I needed to do something. I needed help.Please…
I prayed to the Goddesses, begging them to do anything, pleading to the point of desperation.
Except—
Nessium already helped me. She already gave me everything I needed to get away from Dahes.
He couldn’t control my Token.
I didn’t sleep.Every waking second before the Watala, I practiced my Token, while making sure to keep my mind numb.
I didn’t want Dahes to know what I was doing, didn’t want him to realize that I was honing my power to be the one thing that could destroy him.
Controlling my Token was starting to feel instinctual. I was surprised—the moment I loved my Token, the moment I was thankful for it, it came easily. It was like I’d been missing the final key and the lock finally clicked into place.
I was still rough in the beginning, every now and then, my focus would drop, and I couldn’t control it.
But now, I owned it, made sure I was ready to use it.
I half expected Dahes to fetch me using his sentries, but he was standing in the door frame as the hinges opened.
Hael was chained behind him, his jaw set, his fists clenched.
He looked so much worse than before. More blood and bruises marred his skin?—
Don’t think, Magnolia. Don’t think.
Keep your mind blank. Emotionless. Numb.
“Evening, little ghost,” Dahes smiled, taking in my room. “I see you’ve kept yourself busy this week.”
It wasn’t until I was following him through the halls that I realized the Watala had begun. The fog started to dissipate over the kingdom, the start of the seven-day phenomenon when Moriann could see the sky. The barred windows were enough to glimpse that the Summer Solstice would follow shortly after. Right now, the suns were setting above us in Viven, but soon the moons would replace them, slowly shifting on their axis until they were all aligned.
It was almost time.
Dahes stopped on the open rotunda. Thatchers were perched around the stone archway, looking down at us, while sentries lined the floor.
“Lock her up,” Dahes ordered the sentries, then turned toward me, “don’t resist.” The command sank into my bones the moment two sentries wrapped their metal fingers over my arms.
I noticed a sabberneath out of the corner of my eye—part reptile, part bird. Their long feathery wings with slender bodies made them fast. They were less intimidating than a dragon and much more rare. Instead of sharp teeth, they had an elongated beak, talons that retracted, and long slender legs that tucked behind them when they took flight.
I’d only seen one once before. Dahes usually kept his rarer items hidden from the world, and it reminded me that Hael killed his dragon. He wasn’t able to ride his Ater into Viven.
I smiled despite myself, because even if Dahes brought the drakins back, his dragon was dead.
I remembered Hael telling me there was no coming back from that, that a rider only got one dragon for life.
I opened my mind, letting the thought sit at the forefront of my mind for Dahes to read, to remind him of whathefucking lost for once.
At least Hael did that, at least he took something from him.
“Careful, ghost,” Dahes growled, looking me up and down slowly. “Because after this is over, there is a lot more I can still take from you.”
My smile faded.
“If you come back,” I said, not really knowing what I was doing. “The triplets said that the future is always changing.”
Dahes eyed me for a moment, probably aware of the shift. Before I met Hael, I would have held my tongue. But not now. Not anymore.
