Page 179 of A Sea of Fate and Starfire

The silver dust crept forward on its paws, sliding its narrow muzzle under Selena’s arm. Its ears laid back, shining eyes closing.

“You will do those things,” Selena said back to him, her words thin. Tired.

“What if…” He swallowed. Shook his head. “What if I forget?”

“You won’t,” Cebrinne said, reaching for his arm. “We won’t let you.”

Selena gathered a slow, rattling inhale, her fingers leaving my cheek to stroke down the burr of stubble lining Pheolix’s jaw.

“You were always my escape,” she breathed.

The silver creature dissolved, dust vanishing into nothing before it sank to the ground.

Leaves swished, branches snapped.

Kazimir staggered from the night, dropping to his knees, his eyes devouring the sight of us cloistering around Selena, his mouth parted like a small crack in the earth.

“She’s gone?” he asked, almost dazed with disbelief.

I shifted away, leaning on my hip to launch slowly in the opposite direction, back to Kye’s waiting arms. “She’s gone,” I said, urging strength to find my voice once again. “Thank you, Kazimir. You’ve completed your oath. I release your blood.”

78

Maren

Dawn broke as we climbed from the cliffs below Laurier Palace, our bodies weighed by wounds and water and something deeper that dragged behind us. It latched to our heels, a chain of weight and gravity that sank down to our bones.

Nori had stayed in the Juile Sea, a bruise bloomed across her throat like a necklace of deep violet, Olinne unwilling to leave her. Not that I would have asked. Watching Aoede find her daughter’s body had cast a part of me in brittle iron, my chest threatening to fracture and tumble away, leaving me wide and aching.

We’d wrapped Selena and Dimas in sail canvases salvaged from the ocean years before, laying Dimas’s sword over his chest, securing his hands to its hilt. Diara had helped me gather lobelia flowers along the southern side of Neris island, where the sun tangled with shadows from the trees. We stood back and watched as Cebrinne arranged Selena’s hair over her shoulder, weaving the white blooms through her shining locks, my mother’s voice hidden under a throat too constricted to speak.

“Mother moon, take my hand,” Hadrian murmured behind me.

Diara joined him softly. “Lead me to the after land.”

Aren and Kazimir lent their voices. Kye stood at my back, hands on my shoulders as he watched. He kissed the back of my head.

Beaches warm and water pure,

My body young with fresh vigor.

Mother moon, take my pain,

Let it be a drop of rain.

Upon the shore where I shall live,

With each wave, let me forgive.

Mother moon, take my soul,

Lay my body in a hole.

Let not my loved ones cry for me.

Tell them I wait by the sea.

We’d checked each other for scrapes and bruises and anything worse, Aoede refusing to let us banish her to grieve with Aitne in private.