“It was that or get eaten.”
“You met a daeyari.Inthe Void?”
“He looked really old. And his robes did this weird… wispy thing.”
“Did he speak to you?”
“He… I think so. In my head? He told me to think of where I wanted to be… then I slammed into my porch.”
Antal inhaled. “Voidwalking.”
“… What?”
“Fionamara. That’s Voidwalking. Not just dipping through the Void like daeyari teleportation, that’srealVoidwalking.”
He cupped her cheeks, beholding Fi with concern and no small amount of awe.
“No,” she insisted, for her own sanity. “You don’t think it was him? I thought it was a hallucination. Adrenaline. Air deprivation.Anything. You don’t really think it was Veshri?”
Antal’s smile was melting. His words, whisper soft. “Fionamara. Daeyari spend centuries seeking a single meeting with Veshri. For him to come to you—for him to speak—there’s no greater honor.”
“Why would he appear to me?”
“Veshri comes to those who seek knowledge.”
“But why would he come tome, Antal?”
It made no sense. The concept of a demigod roaming the Void? Sure. Why not. All manner of strange things existed across the Shattered Planes, and Fi had already bedded one immortal, been thrashed by two others.
But why bother with her? Why pause to help a lost human floating within the Void?
Antal frowned. “What’s so insignificant about you, Fionamara? You already have a gift for walking Shards.”
“I slipped into a river. I nearly drowned.”
“You survived Verne. Three times now.”
“I ran away. Every single time. That doesn’t—”
Fi fell silent when Antal pressed a kiss to her temple.
“Do you know what I see, Fionamara? I see a woman whowas nearly devoured in the woods. Instead, she turned into a hunter. Death tried to claim her, but she returned to walk the Shards as if they were home. Now, even Veshri sees potential in you.” He chuckled against her hair. “Or perhaps, he was as intrigued by this brazen human as I was.”
Fi recalled the lift in Veshri’s brow when she’d thought of Antal, as if he’d glimpsed her memory of them tangled in bed. Surprised to find his kin with a mortal? If Fi ever ran into him again, she’d guard her intimate thoughts more closely.
“But what does it mean?” she pressed. “I’m on some… divine mission?”
Antal laughed. “Nothing that dramatic. Veshri’s no god, only wiser than most of us. Take it as a vote of confidence.” He grinned, a flash of fangs too close to normal. “And a story worth bragging about.”
That seemed more manageable.
Fi rested on Antal’s chest, measuring the world in the rise and fall of her breaths. In the beat of his phantom heart. Her eyes were swollen but dry. Her grief burrowed, not gone, satisfied with her penance for now.
Antal brushed his fingers through her hair. “You’ll survive this, Fionamara. No matter how it hurts, you’ll survive. I don’t need Veshri’s wisdom to assure me of that.”
She’d been given more second chances than anyone deserved. Fi had emerged from that icy river as a child. She’d evaded Verne’s claws, then Antal’s, turned that enemy to an ally. Now, she’d escaped the Void itself. She couldn’t waste a demigod’s favor, whatever it meant.
She started by standing up. Two solid feet on the ground.
