“We were all there, aside from Leo. He has eight winters behind him.” Callan takes a breath of his own, surprisingly unsteady. “None of us spilled blood that day, Selene. I can promise you that. But all of us were there. Every soul remainingin Asteria was there on the day of the Shift. None but us have left since.”
They came with weapons and rage. Killed my sisters, and left none alive. And now—
“The temple?” I say, so softly that I can’t be sure I spoke at all. “The town? The Sanctum?”
“Still there.” His words rasp. “But it is not the Asteria you knew.”
A home filled with strangers. When I look down, I’m still gripping his arm. My nails are buried deep in his skin, crimson beads welling up, but he makes no complaint. “Then I am truly alone.”
And if there is nobody left, the decision is made. It settles in my chest; a heavy, aching rock.
My feet will step onto the shore of Asteria, one last time. A handful of precious, final moments to feel the familiar warmth beneath my toes once more.
And then I will go to Ellas. I will join my sisters in the sky.
But not before I take every single soul that stole my home and killed my sisters with me.
Hala may have abandoned us that day. Abandonedthem.
But I will not.
And these people will not sway me. I am the last, and I will do what needs to be done. I pull my nails back, climbing to my feet. “I need to sleep.”
He follows me. Always, he follows me. I turn my back on him as he reaches out, leaving his hand in mid-air. “We should talk. There are things—the Shift, and Asteria—things that you need to know.”
Information. I’m not foolish enough to refuse it. But my head pulses and aches from the blow it took against the door, although not nearly as much as my heart.
And I cannot look at him. Not when a soft breeze could shatter me into pieces. I understand how Caelum felt when he created Hala. For I, too, am so incredibly tired of being alone. “Not tonight.”
“Tomorrow, then.” He lingers. I can tell when his eyes are on me, I realize. Can always tell. There is a warmth that vanishes when he turns away. “Can I get you anything?”
“No,” I whisper. I move toward the bed, pulling back the covers.
“Then I’ll be back later.”
To make sure I am not a danger to his people.
My heart squeezes again. “Fine.”
I wait for the air in the room to shift. For the soft sound of the door opening. But instead, that warmth falls across my back again. As if Callan Edgeborn knows that I will be the end of everything he holds dear, even if I don’t want the task.
Do it. End it now. It would be easier—
My lips part on a gasp as warm hands land on my bound wings. The touch is gentle, but my body locks up at the sound of steel sliding free.
I don’t move. Don’t fight. At that moment, I want nothing more than for Callan to take the decision from me. To make it so that I do not have to avenge them. So that I can join them.
Please—
The snick of the thin rope fibers separating fills my ears. And my wings fall into place, aching and sore, butunbound. The sigh of sheer relief slips out without my permission. Callan’s touch lingers a moment longer before he pulls back. A moment later, I feel a soft brush against my ankle, and a clink as the copper cuff tumbles to the floor.
Energy rushes into the veins, as though a well has been released, a dam inside me broken.
Although the shadows made their way out anyway, and I do not understand why.
I stare at the wall. “Why did you do that?”
He cut me free. If it wasn’t for the copper thread stitched into my wings, I could fly away.
