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You are a relative, Netta said.
“Yes. I am Fordham’s sister.”
Netta sniffed. You stink of betrayal. You tried to kill us. More than once.
“I did. I was … ill,” she said, swallowing down that word. “My mind was not right, and I didn’t know how to fix it. But I’ve worked on it, and I regret what happened between me and my brother. I want to make it right.”
And you, Tieran said, his eyes shifting to Dozan. I know you.
“Yes,” Dozan said. “I’ve known Kerrigan since she was but fifteen. I am on her side. I have always been on her side.”
Tieran sniffed and then nodded once. I believe that to be truth. You loved her.
“I did,” he agreed.
You do not love her the same now though.
“No. But I still wish for her return.”
As do I, Tieran said. She has been gone from this world too long.
“This world?” Wynter asked. “She’s not … in Alandria?”
No, she is not. She is beyond my reach. He looked between them warily. Why have you come?
“We want to make an alliance, a truce. We stand opposed to the Red Masks rule. We want to fight back, but we cannot do it alone. We need dragons. We need you.”
Netta came to all fours. And how do we know we can trust you, traitor?
Wynter swallowed down that word. “I have become regent of the House of Shadows. I do not wish to be its queen. I am only holding it together in my brother’s stead. The faster he is returned, the better. My mind is still a fragile place, and the burden of ruling is better suited to him.”
“At the end, she will return to Kinkadia with me,” Dozan said.
She turned her head in confusion. They had never discussed that. There had never been an after. It was the first she had heard of it.
“I am the king of the Wastes, and at the end of all of this, I would like to reclaim my city.”
“We want the same thing.” Wynter inclined her head. “I know you want to fix what was broken. We can work together.”
Tieran and Netta looked at each other, speaking in that language that only they understood. Then, they nodded. Tieran unfurled fully.
Then, we shall be allies. We have been recruiting others for the time when our riders will return. Tieran stepped forward, and Wynter had to keep herself from flinching. In the meantime, you will have to learn to ride.
Wynter blanched. “What?”
Are you prepared, broken child of the snow?
“I … yes,” she said, lifting her chin. “I’m … I’m ready.”
Then, let us begin our own revolution.
50
The Bangle
No one said a word when Fordham and Kerrigan left their room later that evening, but everyone had knowing smirks on their lips. The house wasn’t big enough to hide their actions, and they hadn’t exactly been quiet. Kerrigan couldn’t even be embarrassed. It had been necessary. Long overdue in fact.
The tension that had built between them had to come crashing down at some point. There was still so much unknown, but the mating bond had snapped back into place. And now, she was certain of at least one thing—Fordham.
“Well,” Vera said with an arched eyebrow, “are you ready to eat?”
“Famished,” Kerrigan admitted.
Cleora and Danae exchanged a look as they settled at the dining room table. Keres was nowhere to be seen.
“Where did Keres go?”
“She said she had an errand to run,” Vera said. “Eat, and then we’ll talk.”
Kerrigan wanted to argue, but then Vera set a pot of some kind of thick stew on the table, and all her arguments went out the window. The ritual had taken everything out of her. She was beyond hungry. She needed the nourishment down to her very bones if she wanted to be recovered enough to face what was coming next.
She was finishing off her third bowl while Fordham chewed on the end of a loaf of bread with amusement when Keres returned. She pushed back a white hood as she stepped into the house. Rain had soaked into the shoulders, and her red hair frizzed like a halo around her face. She wiped off her sandals and then, on inspection, stepped out of them entirely.
“You’re up,” Keres said with a warm smile.
“I’m up.”
“And eating me out of house and home,” Vera muttered.
“Unsurprising.”
“What errand were you running?” Kerrigan asked.
Keres smiled as she slung the cape onto a hook by the door. “Why don’t we start with your tale, and we’ll end with mine? Are you prepared to tell us what happened?”
Kerrigan took a long sip of the provided wine. Fordham’s eyes caught hers, and he just smiled. The gentle tug on the bond was enough to fortify her.
“Well, when I went under, I entered a sort of spirit plane.” Cleora’s head popped up in excitement at that. “Not like the one that I had gone to willingly. This was more a way to commune with the … dead.”
