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Quye shrugged. “Hunches and suggestions, in your case,” she said. “But what I’m trying to say is that even though I look like I have it all together, I’m worried too, Mavlyn. I have the utmost faith that you and Leap have what it takes to do this, but he’s my cousin, so I can’t see his future, or yours. I don’t know how this is going to end for any of us. I have to do what’s right, have to go with Adara, but that doesn’t mean I want to leave you. Not when we just found each other again.”
The sadness in Quye’s voice tugged at Mavlyn’s heartstrings, yet despite their shared heartache, Mavlyn smiled. “It might be true that you can’t see our future,” she said, “but the fact that you can’t see it means that we have one, doesn’t it?”
“I… yes.” Quye blinked, caught off guard. A slow smile curved her lips, and she released the strand of hair she was playing with to cup Mavlyn’s cheek. “It’s not every day that someone manages to out-Oracle me, you know.” Her silver-blue eyes twinkled, and something else gleamed beneath that mischievous look, something that made Mavlyn’s skin tingle and her blood heat. “You’re something special, Mavlyn.”
Mavlyn opened her mouth to respond, but Quye pressed her rose petal mouth against Mavlyn’s, silencing whatever she was about to say. Twilight suffused the sky above them, and Mavlyn closed her eyes against the impending dawn, savoring that first brush of their lips. Dropping her guard, Mavlyn wrapped her arms around Quye and hugged her tight the way she’d been yearning to. A fresh winter breeze drifted through the trees, whipping at Quye’s snowy curls. Her hair wrapped around the two of them like a curtain, separating them from the rest of the world for one heart-stoppingly perfect moment.
Mavlyn knew she couldn’t hold on to Quye forever. And that when she let go, they would break apart to set out on their separate journeys. But she could hold this memory close to her heart and draw on its strength when things grew dark. And that was enough, at least for now.
4
Adara
The next morning, we took our leave of the ice fae, bright and early. Lord Tor was still abed, but Havor and Tamil’s sisters saw us off, gifting us with an abundance of rations for the journey ahead.
“Thank you so much,” I told them, embracing Havor and the girls in turn. My heart ached at the smiles on their faces, still tinged with sadness, but I resolved not to let myself be dragged down by grief. I would stay strong and focused, and bring honor to these people who, in another life, might have been my kin. “I can never repay you.”
“You will when you defeat Nox and liberate our kingdom from the shadows,” Havor said with confidence. “Tamil believed in you, and so do we.”
“We expect to see you in our halls again,” Nora added.
“And the rest of you, too,” Lora agreed, her gaze sweeping over Einar, Quye, Mavlyn, and Leap. “We’ll hold a great feast in your honor, and you’ll tell us all the story of how you slayed the Mother of Shadows.”
“I will,” I promised, then turned to Mavlyn and Leap. “I feel like we were just reunited,” I said, giving them a wobbly smile. “And now I’m sending you away again.”
“Hey,” Leap shrugged, giving me a lopsided smile. “That’s the story of my life.” He gave me a brief hug before making way for Mavlyn. “Don’t worry about us. I’ll watch over Mavlyn and keep her out of trouble until you’re back.”
Mavlyn snorted, a smile twitching at her lips as she moved forward to embrace me. “Take care, Adara,” she murmured into my hair.
I blinked back tears as I hugged my best friend hard. “You, too.” Mavlyn and Leap’s task, in some ways, was the most difficult of all of ours. “Do your best, but stay safe above all else. I don’t want you to martyr yourself.”
The rest of us exchanged our goodbyes, and then Einar shifted. His dragon form unfurled before us, terrifying and majestic all at once, and I took a moment to admire him in all his fire-breathing glory. He was at least twenty-five feet long from snout to tail, with iridescent ruby red scales and golden spikes that ran from the crown of his head to the tip of his tail. The snow steamed around him as he settled low onto his belly, spreading his wings wide so we could use them as ramps, and he huffed at us, his fiery gold eyes gleaming with impatience to be off.
“All right, all right,” I said. “We’re coming.”
I climbed onto Einar’s back, fitting myself in the largest gap between his spikes, just in front of his wings. Quye shifted into her owl form and fluttered up to sit on my lap—we’d decided this was the best way for her to travel with us, since direct contact with Einar’s scales would weaken her magic.
Einar took a running jump, launching us into the wintry morning sky. We quickly gained altitude, and I whooped as we burst through the cloud cover and into the azure sky waiting above.
Einar let out a noise that might have been a chuckle, and Quye hooted from where she was tucked inside my fur cloak. I grinned—despite the grim journey ahead, I couldn’t help feeling joy every time I rode on Einar’s back. I couldn’t wait until I was finally able to shift into my own dragon form. Then I would be able to fly alongside Einar, instead of on top of him.
I wondered if I would be able to fly right away, or if there was a learning curve. I hadn’t asked Einar about it—like fae, dragons didn’t shift until after they’d completed the Umnar, their version of the coming-of-age ritual. The same ritual that I was going to embark upon. Giant’s teeth, why hadn’t I taken the time to ask about it? I think I remembered him saying something about a fasting period—was it the same number of days?
And then there was the bit about tattooing yourself in your own blood…
I shuddered a little, trying to imagine the process. Einar’s tattoo was beautiful—the flames swirling from his left pectoral all the way down his arm were a work of art. I had no idea how he’d managed to tattoo himself with such painstaking perfection—were all dragons naturally able to do that? Or would my tattoo come out looking like a child’s scrawl? I cringed as a vision of myself needling a stick figure onto my forearm popped into my mind, and then I shook my head at the ridiculousness of it all. I wished I could speak telepathically to Einar so I could ask him about it… but I guessed I would have to wait until we made camp for the night.
It took us the better part of the day to reach the Deadlands. We had to fly across Lochanlee and over the magical barrier that the three Houses had erected with their combined power to keep the shadow creatures from leaving the Deadlands. It was a high earthen wall set with hundreds of primal stones powered by all three Houses that had to be periodically recharged, and it emitted a shimmering violet field that spread from north to south as far as the eye could see. I could feel its power even though we were still half a mile out, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood straight on end as it rippled across my skin.
Still, the barrier was meant to keep shadow creatures in, not fae out. In theory, we should be able to pass through.
Quye nestled in closer against my chest as we approached the barrier, and I braced myself, gripping the spike in front of me tightly as Einar flew straight through. The barrier crackled as we passed through it, but though bolts of violet energy sizzled around us, we passed through harmlessly onto the other side.
The moment we did, the atmosphere in the room changed. The air here was thick and heavy with shadow magic, the sky tinged a bloody red that had nothing to do with the setting sun. The landscape below us was desolate, devoid of any normal signs of life. It was a land of smoking volcanoes and cracked earth, the rivers as thin as sewing thread, the vegetation blackened and oozing darkness.
The weight of it all threatened to send me spiraling into depression, and I had to fight against the dark thoughts pressing against my mind. How in the spirits did Kiryan expect me to undo all this damage? Even if I unlocked my icefire powers, did I really have enough magic to restore Hearthfyre to its former glory?
Einar’s wingbeats slowed, as if he too found the atmosphere oppressive. I could sense his dismay through the bond—it had to be ten times worse for him, seeing his homeland reduced to shadow and ash. From the history books, I knew that Hearthfyre had always been a land of mountains and magma, bursting with volcanic activity. Back before the dragons had taken over, the fire fae had traded primal stones with the other realms. In exchange, the earth fae had used their magic to help them grow crops, the water fae rains for running rivers, and the air fae winds to help keep the skies clear. That magic was imbued deeply into the land, and the dragons had enjoyed some of the benefits, though they’d still been forced to steal from the other fae lands since we’d refused to keep trading with them.
