White-hot pain ripped through my arm, the warm trickle of leaking blood quickly cooling against the chill wind. A sharpness cut behind my eyes as my head cracked against the ground, and darkness took me.
An inescapable ringingebbed and flowed in my mind as I blinked against the shadows clouding my vision. Lights flashed, the hazy world coming slowly into view as the ringing faded and rose again. My chest burned, and I wheezed, coughing out a lungful of dust as I rolled to my side.
I lifted my head, the world still turning, and I tried to push myself up with my other arm. My head bobbed, and saliva filled my mouth. My stomach plunged as bile climbed, and I retched.
I reached blindly for my bond with Aquila, my stomach lurching as my mind grasped at nothing. Panic took root as I grappled for his bond, and I struggled to my feet. I tripped over a jagged rock, my shin barking in pain as I failed to control my body. I gritted my teeth as I found my footing and scanned the wreckage before me.
Bodies lay strewn across the crater. Blood and gore painted the light stone in large, crimson strokes. A sick tang hung in the air. The Vael Lacrima stood unchanged in the center of the crater, the yellow glow rising from below and the stone archway still intact. Ganmira and Renova had vanished.
Hysteria threatened to rise as I scanned the bodies, my eyes catching on familiar coppery feathers fluttering in the wind over a large fallen form.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
LYVIA
An unnatural fog covers the sides and top of the floating island, one that does not shift with the weather.
– History of Votruvia, Kellan’s private library, theHydra.
Lyvia – Borva, Votruvia
“Evony. Ezrich.” Mother Eghan’s warmth flowed like the soft flames dancing in the center fireplace of the small sitting room as she spoke with me. She repeated the names of her grandchildren, the bright blue eyes she shared with her daughter and granddaughter glinting against fresh tears.
“Morwyn had children,” she continued.
My heart cracked along with her voice.
“She had a life…”
Tears burned behind my eyes, and I nodded, despite knowing she couldn’t see me.
“I only knew her for a short time, but yes,” I replied. “I think she had a really wonderful life, however short it might have been. She loved fiercely.”
Mother Eghan hiccupped, and a thick tear rolled over her round cheek.
“She had a wonderful life,” the old healer repeated, nodding her head. “She’s dead, but shelived. Thank you for bringing her back to life for me.”
I gripped the shaking hand Mother Eghan reached toward me. Her hands patted their way up my arms until they reached my shoulders, and she pulled me into her. Emotions threatened to smash through the steel door I slid shut as Morwyn’s mother sobbed into my shoulder.
The joy at learning of her daughter’s happy life, however short it had been, shone brighter than her grief in the hour we spent together, and I couldn’t help but smile as I realized Evony and Ezrich had a living grandmother. When would I see them again? I’d left Evony so quickly after Bear’s death…
The flames in the hearth sputtered as the door to the small study swung open, a soft gust of cedar and leather-laced air floating in as Kellan poked a head in. His brows rose in curiosity as they darted between his mother and me.
I blinked, my gaze sliding to Kellan’s bare torso as he stepped into the room, and my mouth went dry. His dark auburn hair was wet, the tips hanging just past his shoulders and dripping water down his chest. The gruesome MarisarmaMbrand left a pebbled scar in the center of his chest, bordered by four clean slices stretching down his pectorals. Muscles roped over his stomach, and my gaze slid to the fuck-me lines tempting my eyes to follow them before they were cut off by his leathers.
I snapped my eyes back to Kellan’s, and the corners of his mouth kicked up for the briefest moment before he turned back to his mother.
“We’re leaving soon,” he said to both of us. “Everything all right in here?”
I tore my gaze away from him and straightened as I looked to his mother.
Her smile stretched into a wide grin as she nodded and huffed a laugh. “It’s more than all right. You’re an uncle, Kellan.”
Kellan’s demeanorshifted as we left Eghan House behind and loaded our things at the docks. He appeared shocked at learning his sister’s fate and even joyful at learningÉitilte, his little flier, was actually his niece. But soon after, Kellan’s shoulders had tensed, and his brows had drawn down in something like concern or regret as we’d made our way back to theHydra.
The squall of seabirds mixed with the bustle of activity that our departure drew forth, and a host of pirates I’d yet to meet boarded the ship. The sail from Borva to the Arx, the mountain in the center of the Votruvian Islands, only took a day, the majority of which Isla and I spent in Kellan’s hidden library, devouring the information he held on the Arx.
“Mr. Death God said nothing about the mountain being in the sky. Tynan seems like an asshole,” Isla murmured, snapping a book shut with the slap of her fingers.
