And when she released her fist …
She released Stefon Ervos from her heart, too.
Kinlear came for her that morning.
‘You look haunted,’ he said. ‘But lovely all the same.’
‘I’m going to take that as a compliment, Prince,’ she said, as she stepped out of Six’s cage.
His tunic and cloak were a soft white with warming runes swimming across the surface. The buttons were open, revealing his pale chest and the vial that hung on his skin, the liquid a bold red. With his dark curls and his eagle cane …
He looked like a mystery, once more.
‘And you look very muchalive,’Ezer said and smiled through her scars. ‘Don’t ever do that to me again.’
‘I’ll warn you; princes aren’t very good at keeping promises.’ He winked. ‘But for you, I shall do my very best.’
To her surprise, he pulled her into a hug.
She sucked in a breath, surprised at his touch. She was stiff at first. A flash of her dreams, his blade, her end … it all came to her in a rush.
But a killer would not hold her like this. A killer would not stake his mission upon hers, his future, hislife. So, she settled into his warmth. The smell of him … it had become familiar and safe.
‘What’s done is done. I’ve closed the door on Ervos. He confessed everything. My father died a traitor. My mother died a victim. And I suppose in some ways, that makes me one, too.’
She did not tell him about the feathers, nor the suspected birds. Something about that part felt personal. A secret to be kept safe until she could discover what it meant.
‘You don’t have to be a victim anymore,’ Kinlear said. ‘You can change that part of your story.Wecan change it. Together.’
She met his eyes. ‘Together.’
For three days, they did nothing but train with Six. Ezer did not see Arawn.
Countless times, the stone in her pocket warmed.
But she ignored him until it went cold.
For days, she and Kinlear practiced mounting and dismounting, until they had it down to seconds. Six snapped her wings out, and soared in small, swooping circles around the clifftop, responding to every motion of Ezer’s body. Kinlear’s grip stayed strong around her middle, and when Ezer leaned, he leaned. When she shifted her weight back to slow, he shifted with her, until they rode as one.
When the sun set, they spent an hour in the darkness together, making Six stay on the cliffside to watch the shadows. Learning not to fear the storm, not to panic as she had before.
When the cold became too much, they took dinner inside the catacombs. Izill brought heaps of food to the outer door … along with letters from Arawn.
‘Send them back,’ Ezer begged her friend each night. ‘Tell him I never even opened them.’
‘It will hurt him,’ Izill said knowingly and pressed a kiss to Ezer’s cheek as she took the letters back. ‘Andyou, if you don’t face him soon enough.’
But Ezer couldn’t bear to see him.
Not yet.
While they dined on the floors just outside Six’s cage, they pored over maps of the Sawteeth, planning their entrance and exit. The Masters’ plan was as good as it could be, all from the intel they’d gathered from tortured darksouls. From Ehvermages who could sense when a person was lying or telling the truth.
They need only execute these simple steps.
Leave the moment Realmbreak hits – the Long Day – three days of sunlight – their best hope in terms of time.
Find the black doors, the entrance to the Acolyte’s domain.
