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The blanket is an illusion around me.

Then the light overwhelms us, too, and I drown in its tide.

37

It is a strange feeling, being enveloped by an illusion.

As if you don’t even know yourself, like your body and mind and thoughts are not your own, like a fog has come and filled every part of your identity.

I don’t know how much time passes. And for what seems like an eternity, I don’t know where we are. The only tangible feeling is the presence of Silk before me, the face of the boy I once knew as Étienne, his hands cupping my face, his lips brushing my mouth, murmuring something to me that I cannot understand. The light is all around us and it is too much. I wait and wait for Raven to come for us, but he does not.

And when the light, at last, starts to fade, I realize that he isn’t here at all.

Instead, we are standing at the top of a heath, overlooking a white slope that leads to a long building, beyond which lies the cityscape of London. The air is fresh and icy, and the hill is thick with new snowfall, absent of people as if a blizzard had just finished moments ago.

It would seem a normal sight, a winter wonderland, a mortal world unaffected by all the chaos that has occurred in the realm within it.

But I can see the pale, crimson lines cutting up through the air, slicing open the gray sky. Souls being claimed, all over the world. A reminder of the imbalance that Raven has wrought.

I blink at the sight, shivering in the cold evening air. At first, I think the link between my patron god and me is severed … but when I take a deep breath, I feel the familiar tug of it, more distant now than I remember, but there all the same, an eternal link. He is still there, and even though I can’t describe why, I know he is aware of my presence, too.

Beside me stands Silk, except he looks like a mortal again, Étienne as I always knew him, hands tucked into the pockets of his coat and a scarf wrapped around his neck. But even now, I can tell that something is different about him—stronger, taller, more radiant, the almost ethereal touch to his appearance.

“What happened?” I say as I take in the heath. “Where’s Raven?”

“Do you remember the man at the train station?” Silk asks. “Your mark?”

I nod. The last soul I had claimed for Raven right before learning that Terran had died, before my Regent confirmation. The man whom Thorn had cloaked in an illusion to hide him from Raven, allowing him to escape death for years before I’d finally tracked him down.

How long ago that feels. Another lifetime, lived by another version of myself.

Silk turns to face me. “I did the same to you, Rose. I cloaked you in an illusion, wrapped you in it so that even divine eyes, even the eyes of your own patron god, will be deceived. Your bond to him still ties you both together—I do not have the power to sever the link between a Regent and her god. But he will be unable to track you. He will search for you, will think he’s found you only to see a mortal stranger before him. He will feel your heart beating steadily at night but will be unable to pinpoint exactly where in the world you are.”

I swallow hard and close my eyes. In the darkness, I try to sense what Raven must be thinking right now. Is he enraged by Silk’s trickery, this blanket of deception that the new god of Lies has pulled over me? Will I be able to sense him coming, should he manage to find me?

“Rose! Rose!”

My head turns immediately in the direction of Laine’s voice. And now I see her sprinting breathlessly up the hill toward us, snow flying behind her, her hair frizzing out in a blond cloud, a desperate smile on her face.

“Rose—you’re here, you’re alive!” she exclaims as she goes. She makes a face as she struggles up through the drifts. “Ugh, to hell with all this snow—!”

I can feel tears in my eyes, but I’m laughing at the sight of her, too. Then she’s reached me, and she’s flung her arms around my neck, and the force of that love—of sheer life and warmth—is so much that I almost fall backward. I hug her fiercely, overwhelmed in this moment, grateful that I haven’t lost everything, that even after all we’ve been through, both of us are still here.

Finally, I pull back enough to stare at her. “What are you doing here?” I ask. “How did you find me?” I glance at Silk. “I was put under an illusion.”

Laine smiles and nods at my pocket. It takes me another moment to realize that she’s referring to her pendant. Her Artifact. She had handed it to me back at Willow’s estate, and I’d forgotten entirely that it was there.

“I could sense it,” she says. “So I just followed it, straight to you.”

A sound behind me makes us turn. I look toward the nearest grove of trees to see the goddess of Earth approaching us, a pale green winter cloak fanning out behind her. At her side is Charlotte, and some distance away come Scarlet and Katie.

Charlotte reaches us first, burying her face in my coat as she hugs me. Katie just gives me a relieved smile, and even though she says nothing, she seems strengthened by the presence of love here, her gaze lingering between Laine and me.

“Lady Willow,” Silk says, bowing his head slightly.

The goddess of Earth smiles, then reaches up to touch his chin. “Lord Silk,” she replies. “Your new position suits you well.”

Scarlet dips her head, too, acknowledging the birth of a new god. But when she looks at him again, her eyes are grave. “You can’t stay here long,” she says. “You may have cloaked her in a veil of illusion, but Raven is a keen god. He will find his way to you both, as he will to all of us.”