“Iwasn’tasking about your love life.” Gael Soto stopped in front of her and tilted his head. His smirk was damnation incarnate. “Was I?”
“Do you have the information I need or not?” He was taller than her, but not as tall as the gods she was used to. If not for the translucent quality to his pearl-white skin, she would have thought that he was a normal boy. Maybe that was the real reason he’d trusted her with his name. Maybe he’d correctly guessed she’d never take him seriously as a deity. “My sister is in a precarious position.”
“The magic you seek is ancient and dangerous,” said Gael. The sunlight crowned his dark hair, eclipsed his earthy eyes. “The bond between a Rider and a dragon is a union of souls. To break it, you require absolute control over souls, dead and living, human and dragon.”
“Like at the Summit.” Faron remembered the feeling of chaining herself to that dragon’s soul—the raw power that dwarfed her own—and shivered despite the heat. “Why do you know this and the gods don’t? What are the risks?”
“Your astral magic is effective because the souls that your people channel no longer have a will of their own. They’re impressions of the dead whose only desire is to taste life. Most summoners could not command a living soul, with its own wants and drives,without being consumed. It’s only your practice with calling on the gods that makes me believe you are uniquely suited for this kind of magic. Though, to be fair, they are willing souls weakened by the travel between realms.”
“Weakened?”Nothing about the power at her fingertips had ever felt weak.
“When you have limitless power in your own plane, the loss of some feels like nothing at all.” Gael studied her from the top of her head to the toes of her shoes, frowning thoughtfully. “You asked the risks. The risk is that this may be beyond even your capabilities. The risk is that you will lose the person you think you are. The risk”—the smirk returned—“is that I am the only one who can teach you this power, and I require some convincing.”
Faron had to bite back a smile, the last of her discomfort fading. She’d always been good at this part: bargaining, haggling,lying. Gael Soto was all confidence, all ageless radiance, but she was a little shit. He didn’t intimidate her. “I don’t suppose you accept rayes.”
“You’re asking for my help. In the future, I’ll require yours—”
“I don’t make blind deals,” Faron said immediately. “And everyone I know has warned me against you. So here is the only bargain I will make: Prove to me that you really can help. Prove to me that your methods are effective, and that this magic actually exists. If you can do that, I’ll listen.”
Gael Soto raised a single eyebrow. “Only listen? After gaining so much?”
“I only want one thing: my sister’s freedom. You could teach me everything in the world, and it would be useless to me if it doesn’t help me with that. Prove yourself, and I’ll listen. And if I agree towhat you have to say,thenyou can show me how to use all I’ve learned to free Elara.”
The waves crashed over the sand, then retreated in a ripple of white foam and colorful shells. Rhythmic and calming, it was the only sound for such a long time that Faron thought she’d asked for too much. That Gael Soto would disappear to find another pawn in whatever scheme he had concocted. That she would be stuck waiting for books to solve the problems that the gods could not.
“All right,” he said. “I accept.”
Faron tried not to show her relief. “Let’s start now, then. How—”
Her stomach growled, so loudly that it even caught the young god’s attention. He looked torn between bewilderment and delight, two expressions sohumanthat she almost forgot, again, that he was dangerous.
“You should eat,” Gael Soto said, beginning to fade at the edges. “There is no reason to rush, Empyrean. I will always come when you call.”
“But I didn’t—” she began, but it was too late. Once again, she was alone on the beach with more questions than answers.
“Please tell me you have found something,” Aveline said from the fireplace. “Something. Anything.”
“You’ll get gray hairs before you’re even twenty-five if you don’t calm down,” said Faron. She was curled up in Reeve’s favorite armchair, her legs thrown over one side, her skirts an added cushion bunched beneath them. The chair sank under her, already accustomed to the weight of Reeve and the ten or more books he tried to read at once, all day, every day. Faron’s decision to call Avelinewas partially to get him out of the library. “Isn’t the Summit over with?”
“Somehow word has spread that your sister is in Langley.”
Faron sat up. “What?”
“It is impossible to know who could have leaked—”
“You had representatives from all our enemy countries in the palace, and you don’t know who could have leaked it?”
“—but I suspected it might be someone with an interest in sowing civil unrest.” Aveline sighed, and the flames flickered in response. “Protests in the capital are at an all-time high, and it is spreading to the surrounding towns. So I ask again: Please tell me you have found something that will allow us to bring Elara home.”
“I wish I could. Really, I wish I could.” Faron toyed with her skirts, feeling an uncommon flash of guilt. But she didn’t think that telling Aveline of her deal with Gael Soto would do anything but worry her. Besides, she hadn’t yet told Elara. “Reeve is still researching. The gods have given me no further guidance. I hate waiting as much as you do, but that’s all we can do right now.”
“Right. Okay.”
But the call didn’t end. Faron watched the flames dance, the wood crackle. Finally, the queen spoke. “I didn’t think they would react this poorly.”
Faron was surprised more by the vulnerability than she was by the words. Gone was Aveline’s clipped, sanctimonious accent; instead, she sounded young. Too young.
“I expected some backlash, of course. We’ve received a number of complaints since the first Summit announcement and throughout the planning. But the protests. The signs. The anger. I just—did I do the right thing?” Faron couldn’t see Aveline, but she was surethe queen was pacing the length of the room. Her voice sounded close and then far away, over and over again. “We cannot survive on trade with the other islands alone; our imports and exports are largely the same. The rest of the continents are too far away for meaningful engagement. We needed these trade agreements with Nova. Didn’t we?”
