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“Ah, is that all? No pressure.”

She smiled. “Time to herald the dawn, Sunbringer.”

PART IV

DEPTHS

42

THE CHAINS THAT BIND

TENEBRIS NOX

The rumble was so great, it cut through the in-between.

Tenebris Nox felt it ripple through the shadows like a stone cast into still waters. The tremor echoed along pathways that did not exist on any map mortals could draw, and the darkness shuddered.

Nox smiled to themself.

They did it.

The nocterrian stepped out of the shadows onto the ledge of the Sacred Mountain, their breath fogging in the frozen air. To their right, Lyrica, great, beautiful, magnificent creature that she was, had her head lifted to the sky. A sky that was illuminated in violent ribbons of gold, purple, green—woven together in a display so brilliant, it bled through the clouds.

It was as though the very world had ignited, the image so bright and bold, not even those who dwelled in the dark would be able to ignore it.

Aurelia had returned.

Finally gone were the bonds of the Celestial Sanctum, and the banished star god was free. Free to seek her true purpose again as the arbiter of balance . . . or free to exact revenge on those who had caged her.

Who was to say what path she would choose?

Of course, Nox had their suspicions.

As did, they presumed, their master.

Just then, from within the depths of the mountain, there was a roar so vast and furious, Nox had no doubt it could be felt on both sides of the Hereafter.

The shadows misting around the nocterrian’s feet tightened instinctively, drawing close as if bracing for impact.

It would not come.

Not tonight.

Eventually, perhaps, there would be hell to pay.

But for now, at least, they were quite sure the star gods were too busy reeling from the consequences of their own design to bother with one measly nocterrian’s whereabouts. Too busy trying to figure out what it meant to have the Guardian of Balance among them once more.

Nox tilted their horned head, contemplating what the word “balance” meant in the world as it now stood. The scale was considerably more complicated now than it had been when Aurelia and her celestial siblings had first built it, after all.

There was so much more to this world than pitting humans against fae, than kings battling for land and mana and resources.

Nox blew out a slow, drawn-out breath, looking to the horizon. Somewhere out there, across both Chasms, their friends marched toward battle. They could feel it—the winds of change blowing through the air, the tugs on the threads of fate. It was as though Arcanis itself was waking from a long sleep.

And it would not wait anymore.

Neither, they decided, would Tenebris Nox. They could not sit quietly, awaiting their next assignment, the next time the Lord Noctis let them off their leash.

I should, they thought. I should stay here. I should be . . . good. They pressed their tongue against the sharp point of one of their fangs. I should not tempt fate.