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It pissed the ice god off even more that Serak didn’t budge. Apparently, Serak had given me half of his inherited power when we bonded. Skadi had shared his four ways, between Lusca, me, and Goran. So in terms of raw power, Serak had more.

Not that he acted like it. He was still the man who’d thrown himself into the maw for me, more than once. He never acted as if he was the most powerful of my mates, though he shone brighter by the day. Kellin had whispered that he had a feeling Serak’s fire power had shifted sources. Not fire from inside the earth, but the sun.

I believed it. He spent most of his time with his face turned up to the sky, though it could be the remnants of the abuse he’d suffered. He’d endured far too many years chained to the maw, away from the sun.

I refused to think Serak’s longing for the sun and open sky was in any way an echo of Edan’s desire for freedom. Even if it was, I wasn’t afraid. If he tried to come back from the dead, I’d be ready to sing him to sleep. I was healed inside. The thrum of energy between me, my mates, the cold wind, the sun, and the seas, reassured me with every pulse. I was filled with power, and all the mate bonds I needed to stay alive were in place.

But not all the bonds I wanted.

The second tear crumbled into dust as the waning moon rose. I let myself weep for a moment, though my own tears were still human. Arms enfolded me. Arms and a tail and a tentacle or two.

“It’s time to return to Starlak,” Goran said softly. “We need to check on the Omegas. I need to make sure my warriors are following Dustin.”

Lusca hummed, looking out toward the sea. A chittering sound carried on the wind. When I concentrated, I could understand it. “According to the dolphins who’ve been watching at Starvale, they’re following two warriors.”

“Which two?” Goran asked.

Lusca went quiet. “It’s impossible to tell for sure. Dolphins don’t pay attention to the same things we might. But they said the two in charge of the hair-covered pod… Oh. They’ve been fighting. Bleeding onto the sand. Many times. Yes, we should return.”

“I’ll pack the honey cakes, unless Skadi ate them all,” Kellin said, kissing me before heading into the rock house that served as our kitchen.

“I only ate a few,” Skadi grumbled.

“The last few,” Lusca teased.

My stomach growled at the thought. Kellin and Lachlan had taken over the cooking and had provided exquisite meals for all of us, with Frol’s help. But Skadi was a bottomless pit.

“I’ll make you as many honey cakes as you like once we get home, Rada,” Lachlan promised. I gave him a long kiss that turned into a hotter embrace than I’d expected as a wave of heat rushed through our bond. “Oh, shit,” he moaned. “That was embarrassingly fast.”

The hand I’d slid down the front of his trousers was suddenly covered in his slick. I pulled it out and licked my fingers clean, one by one. His taste was getting sweeter by the day. “I might not need the honey cakes.”

He leaned his head down to my shoulder and groaned. “Brat.”

“Are you going to be all right to travel?” His heat in the ice house had only lasted a day, but it had been an intense one.

“He’ll be fine,” Skadi said, shifting into his dragon form. “I’ll fly him into the coldest winds and cool him down. I’ll take the Beta, too.”

“Wait, no,” Lachlan yelped, too late. Skadi had picked him up in one front claw and Lex in the other and launched into the night sky, arrowing to the southwest. Lachlan’s string of curses spilled down from the sky until they vanished into a cloud.

Carrying a basket, Frol emerged from the jungle while we were still laughing. He climbed up the volcano effortlessly, stopped at my side, and stared up at the sky. “Gone?”

“We’re going, too,” I assured him.

He handed the basket to Serak and nodded. “Fly.”

Goran frowned up at the sky. “Wish we could, Frol. I suppose the rest of us will go by kraken? It’s going to take longer.”

Lusca scoffed. “Not by much. Let’s get to the beach.”

“Ah, we may not need to,” Serak mumbled. He handed Kellin the small basket of honey cakes. He and Kellin got along better than any of the rest. I thought it might be because they’d both sacrificed so much to make it to this point.

Though we all had, in different ways.

“Fly?” Frol asked Serak, his smile widening.

Serak nodded. “I think so, as long as—wait, Frol!” he cried, but it was too late.

Frol had started to shift, his large body lengthening and gleaming, blue scales appearing all over him as he became…