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She looks down at her hands, clenching her fists. “I only hope Rosalina’s and my briars can make the journey.”

An odd ache throbs within my chest. I may have been named for the thorns, but they were never my birthright.

“I can’t explain why, Cas, but that’s where we’re meant to go.”

How did she spot that isle? What calls her? I want to ask more, but it’s more likely to make her pull away from me. So I do the thing I’ve been trying to do for decades.

Trust my sister.

“Alright, we’ll tell them the plan tonight,” I say.

“What if I’m wrong? What if we travel all the way and there’s nothing⁠—”

I put my arms around Birdy and tug her against me. “Then we’ll be okay. That’s what I’m learning since becoming a part of this…family.” I choke on the word. “We try, we fail, and we try again. And no matter what, we support one another. All I need to know is can you lead us tomorrow?”

Wrenley looks up, stars reflecting in her sky-blue eyes. “Yes. I know the way.”

19

Dayton

When I was younger, I’d sneak out of tutor sessions or Damocles’s ten-hour “meetings” where he lectured me on the importance of honor and dignity. I’d take my skiff out to sea and vanish for a few hours or days, exploring all the different islands.

Every drawn anchor was a new adventure. One time, I discovered a siren who tried to charm me into the depths. What she didn’t know was I swim better than I flirt—and I’m an excellent flirt. Another time, I dug up pirate treasure, including a bloody hook. And once, I shook palm trees and dropped down coconuts the size of my head. Sweetest damn thing I’ve ever tasted. Still dream about them sometimes. I never found that island again.

But this?

Traveling from floating isle to floating isle with nothing but air beneath your feet and sky in every direction?

This is beyond the tales told by wayward sailors or sung of in sea shanties.

Wrenley and Rosie lead the way, weaving briars into sky bridges. Sometimes, we have to travel straight across. Other times, we face an uphill climb—something Ezryn’s been grumbling about.

He’s the one who chose to wear full armor. I don’t know what for; it’s only his family up here, with no other fae around for thousands of years.

But possibly it’s not fae he’s worried about. Are there remnants of Sira’s monsters who never left after the destruction?

I push the idea aside and trudge onward. Most of the isles are bare. A few trees, some weird birds plumed in all the colors of a Spring meadow. Often, we hit ruins of stone archways eaten by moss, stairs that go nowhere, broken statues.

And sometimes we stumble upon something strange.

One isle, we found the body of a giant insect with wings the size of a skiff sail. It was preserved in golden amber that spilled from a tree trunk.

On another, we found the grotto. Gods, the grotto!

Warm water bubbled up from white stone. Glowing pebbles along the shore and at the bottom of the pool illuminated the water, and billowing steam indicated it was a hot spring. It smelled like Castletree in early summer, all salt and sweet grass and sunbaked stones. I wanted to stay, just for a moment, to stretch out, float a little, forget the world.

But Wrenley has fashioned herself lead legionnaire of our little excursion, and according to her, breaks are “unnecessary wasted time.”

She’s been on a mission since dawn, steering us isle by isle toward the highest peak in sight, this jagged monster of a rock. It sits so high in the sky, it’s like it wants to be a star itself.

She won’t say why, and Caspian told us not to question her. I’m not suggesting that she’s dragging us on some secret quest, but I also won’t rule out that this isn’t all a big old ruse to get us moving. Maybe Wrenley thinks we’ve gone soft since the human realm. Maybe this is her way of toughening us back up, one sky hike at a time.

Either way, I’m not complaining. This place is amazing.

We’re getting close now, climbing since dawn and having stopped only for a quick lunch. Though if we don’t figure out which of the plants in the Above are edible soon, we’ll have to return to the realms. Which we can’t do unless we forge Rosalina’s and Keldarion’s divine weapons to power the Celestial Landing.

So I guess weird glowing fruit will be on the menu. I wonder if I could bake them into a pie…