I drank it and gave back the empty vial.
“And we should probably sleep in a different wing of the palace tonight,” Ahyana teased.
Zalira grinned at me. “Or down here in the cavern.”
“Or you could go find the people you love and tell them what I just told you,” I said.
I saw their eyes light up with possibilities as Xander came back over and swept me up into his arms.
“Are you really going to carry me the entire way back?” I asked.
“Yes. Now hush. You’re ruining my concentration.”
He maneuvered his way through the tunnels easily, carrying me as if I weighed nothing. I reached up to stroke his face. “You were crying.”
“You died.”
“I don’t recommend it,” I said, making him smile. “I saw the goddess. She said you were begging for me to come back. And that you do, in fact, know how to use the word ‘please.’ All it took was me being dead.”
He laughed and it sounded weaker than it usually did, as if his emotions were still too raw. “What else did the goddess say?”
“She said she created you specifically for me.”
“Did she? I’m older than you, so it stands to reason that she created you for me.”
I shook my head. “She also said we were fated. Two halves of a whole, longing to be reunited. That we would always find each other.”
“She was right. Our souls are tethered.”
“And she mentioned that you told her I could have as many children as I wanted.”
He laughed again, and he sounded more like himself this time. “How did you come back? Did the goddess just send you?”
“No, it was Luna. Part of being an aether dragon is that she can move between realms and create portals that she uses to travel. I held her in my arms, thought of you, and she brought me back. Now aren’t you glad you didn’t throw her out a window?”
“That depends on whether she’s going to get more of her sparkles on my floor.”
“It’s aether,” I told him.
“It’s still messy.”
I laid my head on his shoulder. “Do you know who tried to flood the lower levels?”
“Erisa.” His arms tightened around me.
“How do you know?”
“She killed the guards outside of her room. Poison.”
That didn’t surprise me. Pathetic.
He went on. “She also poisoned Kyros. He’s dead.”
“What?” That was horrible. What mother would kill her own child?
“I don’t think she expects to survive, so I would guess that she killed her son to spare him from suffering.”
“Where is she now?”
