‘And what does yours say, Firemage?’
He let out a deep breath. ‘My soul has not known, for a very long time, which way it leans.’ She could hear him swallow. ‘I know that Soraya believed in what Zey and many others believed. I know they all died for it.’
‘My mother and father, too,’ Ezer said.
‘But countless others I have known and loved … they fight for the Five. And I believe in them, too. That their souls are good, and their hearts and minds are in the right place.’
‘What if I don’t know if I’ve ever believed,’ Ezer said, ‘in anything?’
She swallowed a lump in her throat. To be so honest, so raw with someone … she’d never had anything like it in her life.
And later, if she failed, it could all be whisked away.
‘Later,’ Arawn whispered, as if he sensed her thoughts. ‘You’ll see with your own eyes. And … you’ll make it across. You’ll find the Acolyte.’
‘And what if what I find isn’t what we thought?’ Ezer asked. ‘What if the darkness is really the light? What if Lordach was wrong about the Five, all along?’
‘Then you’ll have to make it back to me,’ Arawn whispered. ‘So, we can face the truth together.’
She nodded.
And then she kissed his neck, and he leaned into it, and before she knew it, they were intertwined again, and the sun was rising beyond the darkness, and her fate was barreling towards her.
And she didn’t want time to press on.
But it did.
It was the first day of Realmbreak.
When the door to the catacombs opened, Kinlear found Ezer there alone, standing by the door to Six’s cage while the raphon finished a meal of bleeding meat. Like nothing had ever gone on, in the wee hours of morning, between a Minder and a Firemage.
‘Ezer.’
She spun as more footsteps sounded, and Izill stepped into the torchlight.
‘She insisted,’ Kinlear said with a small smile. ‘She is quite terrifying, despite her size. I swear, the two of you could have been sisters.’
Ezer rushed forward and pulled Izill into a hug.
‘You’ll do this,’ Izill said against her. ‘And then you will comehome. We’ll spend far too long in the library together, eating chocolate and drinking coffee and sharing stories and—’ Her voice broke, and when Ezer pulled away, Izill was crying.
‘Don’t do that,’ Ezer said. ‘It will make me cry, too.’
Izill nodded. And then she surprised Ezer by walking right up to the bars of Six’s cage. Anyone else would have balked, screamed at the sight of the Acolyte’s beast. But Izill wrapped her fingers around the bars and said, ‘Keep her safe, Six. Or you will havemeto deal with upon your return.’
The raphon lowered her head in acceptance and began to purr.
It was not a grand exit, with people gathering on the cliffside to watch them go.
There was only the King and Queen, the Masters and Arawn.
The snow fell gently from the sky. The wind whistled past her ears and for the first time … it wasonlythe wind.
No whisper.
No voice upon it, guiding her in what was to come.
‘Today marks the first of Realmbreak,’ the King said, as they stopped before him. ‘You have until the third day before night returns. The godsblessing, Kinlear … you’ll want to make it back before that final hour.’
