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She would swear for the rest of forever that whole galaxies rushed down to meet them as she hurtled up into their cosmic embrace. That nebulas swarmed and the moons grew bigger, brighter, bending down to greet their friend.
The air thinned as they rose, colder and colder, the world shrinking below. It wasn’t until a zing of pain tweaked one of Fern’s struggling wings that she finally stopped. There was exactly one way this shit got worse, and it was them plummeting to the ground and both fucking dying.
Illamiata pulsed a second time and hope flared—until it winked out.
Fern did shake her then, shouting, “You don’t need the rock. Just take the damned breath! You’ve been doing it for decades, it’s not fucking hard.”
Nothing.
“No. You cannot go into the Veil alone, Lunara.” Curse the useless tears that welled. “You’re a hopeless blimmin’ mess when you’re alone. The only reason you crawled out of death’s arse the first time is because I was with you, screeching that we weren’t supposed to be in that cunting wasteland. Well, surprise you sweet, precious idiot—it’s still a cunting wasteland, and you still aren’t supposed to fucking be there!”
She planted a kiss on Lunara’s temple with a sob. “Please. You’re not supposed to be there. It isn’t right.”
Hazy, sparkling light enveloped them, dancing and swirling and tickling. It caressed Fern just as surely as it did Lunara, ruffling her hair as if to say hello.
“What in the realms?”
It wasn’t a gasp but it was good-fucking-enough when Lunara’s lips parted and the faintest hiss went through her teeth. Even better when her lashes fluttered.
“Yes! Come on, you bum—”
One fist in her hair and one on her wing, wrenching with bone-breaking force, and Lunara slipped from Fern’s hold as she spasmed.
“I’m sorry,” a soft baritone said into her ear.
Fern thrashed, fighting but terrified as she watched Lunara fall. “No, Araxis! You—”
A burst through the ether and she was thrown, unable to soften her fall as she landed with a crash in the Demons’ sparring fields.
“I’m going to gut you, you duplicitous cunting bucket of slimy fucking cock warts!” Fern shrieked, but Araxis was already gone.
Magnus smacked Brand again as inky power swept in and a crotchety voice said, “I find that curses and physical violence are not useful tools in healing the sick and injured.”
He looked up as an aged Sorcerit tossed her snow-white plait out of the way and gingerly knelt on Brand’s other side.
“Cordy?” Mag gaped at her, unable to think of a single reason he was suddenly staring at the creature who’d half raised Lunara with no warning whatsoever. “What in the realms are you doing here? Did Lunara…”
No. It didn’t make a lick of sense. Fern was meant to take the witchling to the moons in Nachthelliae and bring her straight back. Lunara wouldn’t send someone in her stead. Certainly not Cordelia the Firebane, and not that quickly.
—Not in a million years, lad—
Like she heard his thoughts, Cordelia speared Magnus with a stark look as she ripped Brand’s tunic open, her teeth clenched together.
Oh, he didn’t like the apology in her stormy grey eyes one fucking bit.
“What are you doing here?” he snarled, not wanting to believe the dawning realizations.
Magic flared beneath her palms like a flame under bellows, the glow sinking into Brand’s chest. “I am the unwilling peace offering in an otherwise horrific plan that I absolutely and unreservedly objected to.”
The pieces fell together, and Mag barely stopped himself from reaching across and shaking the life out of her.
Araxis.
—Aye—
It was his own damned fault. Lyriat didn’t want to summon Araxis, but Magnus convinced him to do it for Lunara’s sake. And when Araxis pulled them aside later to suggest a fallback in case something went wrong, when he recused himself from the plan and suggested Fern be the one to deliver her to Nachthelliae if needed, Mag ignored all of the warning signs—the blood he stole from Brand, his embittered words about the witchling, the hedging when asked about her parents. He genuinely believed it to be nothing more than honest concern for their sister.
But Araxis had been after Lunara from the moment they found Brand. Had tried to bleeding kidnap her. All in the name of duty.
