“Nothing,” he said. “I only came to make sure the Devil is going to play nice when we get inside.”
“Nice?” Sonara raised a brow. “I don’t know the word.”
Jaxon laughed, and his aura carried across to her, sweet as the suns setting over the evening sea. She breathed it in. Felt her heart flutter, as something inside of her shifted, and perhaps changed. “Jira doesn’t know the word either.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Sonara said. She swallowed those feelings away, saved them for a time when she could try to understand them more. “Because before the day is done, he’ll sign the Decree.”
Markam removed a sword from his side. “Well? How does it look?”
The sword balanced perfectly in his gloved palms. Golden, catching the rays of the sun as they winked down upon it. The Hadru on the hilt looked dangerously menacing, ready to kill.
“Passable,” Sonara said. She looked to Azariah, who nodded.
“Oh, he’ll consider it real,” Azariah said. “Real enough to name me as his true heir in return…”
“And once he signs?” Jaxon asked. “What will it be, Devil? How exactly will we choose to kill him?”
Sonara shrugged. “Not my choice, actually. It’s hers. She’s the one who will take his throne.”
Her half-sister, Azariah.
The Princess looked at Sonara, eyes widening.
“I…” she swallowed, pushing a dark curl behind her ear. Markam squeezed her waist gently and whispered something into her ear.
Sonara sensed an aura ofrevenge,carried upon the wind.
An aura she knew and loved, for once they were done with Jira, she’d turn Duran south. Towards Soreia, and the queen who’d shared secrets in order to set herself and her Soreians free.
“The Hadru will be hungry,” Azariah said. “I think we should feed her a very kingly snack.”
Sonara smiled with all of her teeth.
It was a plan.
And though plans did not often go as she wished… that was the point of being an outlaw.A Devil. That was the point of living truly free.
“Let’s ride,” Sonara said. She smiled, catching Jaxon’s eye.
He winked at her, and something inside of her clicked back into place.
He took to the skies, Razor screeching, the others racing after. But Sonara held back, Duran stamping his hooves eagerly.
“Hold on, Beast,” she whispered, patting his neck. Breathing in his aura,like fresh wheat stalks and sand grains and sweat.She would never be able to thank Eona enough, for calling upon her own steed’s spirit to bring Duran back from death with her.
Sonara waited as Karr returned, his bike rumbling as he pulled it to a stop in the sand.
He lifted his helmet, revealing his eyes.
She’d never realized until recently that they were a true blue. Blue like Soahm’s. Blue like the sea that he’d once called home.
“Something wrong?” Karr asked.
Sonara nodded, casting her gaze out across the horizon, where she could have sworn she’d seen a metal Gazer. An eye in the sky, watching, as it always had been.
“Will he be back?”
“Geisinger?” Karr asked. He stared into the distance as if he could see all the way back to his home planet. “Maybe someday.”
