Zephyra snarled so loudly that it drowned out Elara’s words. Fire licked at her arms, not on the outside but on the inside, boiling her blood, swallowing her calm. She realized too late that her mouth was open and she was screaming, screaming,screaming.…
No, she thought, one final cry for help.
And then she thought nothing at all.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
FARON
YOU SEEM TROUBLED,” GAEL OBSERVED MIDWAY THROUGH THEIRtraining session. “Are you well?”
Reeve was awake, which meant that Reeve was in the library. Unable to face him after her confession, Faron had summoned Gael Soto to make sure her newfound powers weren’t a fluke. Gael circled her on the patio, and, for once, his eyes on her weren’t making her skin crawl. It was easy, now, for her to sink into a state of concentration and feel every living soul moving through the surrounding area. If she wanted to, she knew she would be able to take control of them just as she’d taken control of those men. But she was no closer to helping Elara than she had been before she’d mastered this technique, and all she could see was Reeve’s unfathomable expression as he kept his conclusions to himself.
Had Gael already led her down a path away from the gods? Was she fooling herself into thinking she was using him instead of the other way around? Was she a monster or a saint?
“Those men,” she said. “The ones I… Are they all right?”
Gael stopped in front of her, tilting his head. “You ordered themto leave you alone. You’ll never see either of them again. What does it matter if they’re all right?”
Faron gaped at him, but that only seemed to confuse him more. He came to her as a teenage boy, thoughtful and charismatic, so it was easy to forget that he was a god… or close to it. As much as Irie, Obie, and Mala hated him, it didn’t change their obvious similarities, their obvious lack of empathy for human affairs. She was asking them to care about disputes between crabs, between fish, between dolphins.
The difference, as far as Faron could tell, was that Gael seemed willing to try.
“I don’t agree with the way they’re processing their grief, but I can’t blame them for it, either,” Faron said. “Reeve is okay now. I want them to be okay, too.”
Gael resumed walking. Faron let him sit with that and slid back into her mind, searching for the souls of Roger and Jarell, to see for herself if they were healthy after what she had done to them. She stopped only when a hand covered her cheek, pulling her attention back to Gael. He was fully solid when he came to her now, no longer translucent as a ghost, no longer limned with divine light. Maybe that should have unsettled her, but instead she found herself relaxing into his touch. She had given him a piece of his life back, in this way. She’d done at least one good thing.
Besides, like Reeve, he had seen her at her worst. Unlike Reeve, he could not judge her. His reputation was far worse than anything she had done to this point, and she found that comforting today. They were both monsters. Maybe that was why they would save each other.
“The men are well,” he said softly. “Your kind heart is a credit to you, but you’ve wasted enough of your energy on them. Shall we keep working?”
Faron opened her mouth to respond to his question and gasped instead. A soul both vast and celestial was close, and she recognized the impossible force of it from that night in the Victory Garden. It was a dragon’s soul, hurtling toward her island, and she could feel its rage as surely as she could feel her own heartbeat. She’d never felt it so strongly before and never from so far away. Mastering Gael’s teachings had enhanced her awareness… and clearly not a moment too soon.
“Empyrean!”
She was already heading for the door seconds before a servant burst through it. “I know. Take me.”
Faron found her shoes and dashed through the manor. Reeve was already waiting in the front yard, where Nobility was parked, its door slowly lowering into the grass. Clearly, Aveline had sent for her. The sun reflected off Nobility’s silver gears, nearly blinding Faron, but she couldn’t concentrate on anything but the pounding of her heart.
This was it. This was her chance to prove that all her training with Gael had not been in vain. That she had done the right thing learning from the one god who knew his way around dragons. That this power wasgoodbecause she would use it for good.
Everyone would expect her to summon the gods, but Faron would instead wield her new magic. Gods, she wished she’d had more time to practice.
A man appeared at the top of the exit ramp, his smile at odds with the urgency of the situation.
“Oh good, you’re together,” said the head pilot, whose nameFaron could not remember. He dipped his head in a polite bow and then gestured for them to hurry aboard. “Her Majesty was very clear that we not leavethat onealone in her mothers’ house.”
If Reeve was offended by being referred to as “that one,” he didn’t show it as he led the way. Faron tried to absorb some of his innate confidence as she followed, but her heart still felt close to giving out.
Nobility took off as soon as the door was closed. While Reeve retreated to one of the upper suites, Faron remained in the open room around the center cockpit, watching the clouds pass. Her skin was clammy as she reached out to check the status of the dragon speeding toward the island like a massive ball of ire. She had barely taken down the dragon at Pearl Bay Palace. Who was to say that she could even do it again?
Youcan, Gael assured her without actually appearing.You’re stronger than they’ve ever led you to believe.
I’m the Childe Empyrean, she told him.No one is stronger than me.
His voice was amused. Perhaps even fond.So you are. And yet you’re also so much more than just that.
Faron moved to the windows, the same windows that she had stared through what felt like a lifetime ago, and watched the clouds bob outside as she considered her next move. The drake would get her close enough to the dragon that distance would no longer be a barrier to her powers—if that weakness even still held now that she had gotten stronger—and then what?
