Elara had known her sister for seventeen years. She had watched Faron take her first steps, say her first words, drink her first sip of rum. She didn’t need enhanced senses to know where she was. SheknewFaron, all the way down to her soul, and she knew that there was only one place she had to be right now.
She ran for Pearl Bay Palace.
Only a few yards separated her from the front steps when she saw the first body. A charred husk was strewn across the path like a warning, and several more followed when she gave that one a wide berth. Elara’s stomach dropped further and further with every corpse until she stopped running toward what would clearly be her death and instead redirected the energy of her aunt’s soul into two swords made of pure light. She kept one wary eye on the dragon, but if the First Dragon had noticed her, then he clearly didn’t consider her a threat.
That would be his mistake.
Elara jumped as the palace doors slammed open, but there was no enemy. It was Faron;it was Faron, racing down the stairs towardher. She barely had time to dismiss the swords before her sister was in her arms, clinging to Elara as tightly as Elara held on to her.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Faron cried into her neck. “I’m so, so sorry, I messed up, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, I’m here, it’s okay,” Elara murmured back, squeezing Faron that much tighter. “It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know. You didn’t know.”
Faron sobbed out her version of the events, from training with Gael Soto to cracking open the door to the Empty, from the First Dragon—Lightbringer—destroying Valor to the Queenshields’ deaths, from losing her connection to the gods to losing Reeve.
Reeve was… gone? Disappeared?Reeve?
No.
Not Reeve.
They didn’t have time to deal with any of that. Carefully, she extracted herself from Faron’s arms and reached up to brush the tears from her sister’s cheeks. She gave Faron a quick recap of everything that had happened since the night in the boathouse: every secret she’d kept, every mistake she’d made, every treacherous word out of the Warwicks’ mouths, until her sister’s tears had stopped flowing and her face was reddening with anger instead.
“We can fix this, okay?” Elara promised. “But right now, dragons are attacking the island, and the queen is heading this way on Nobility. We need to clear a safe path for her to land.”
“I can do that,” said Faron. “I can at least do that.”
Faron closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. When her eyes reopened, they were glowing a strange amber color. Elara opened her mouth to ask what she was doing, but Faron lifted a hand toward the bay where Zephyra was stillsetting fire to boats, and Zephyra froze. Her flames sputtered to a stop, her body hovering in midair. Her head twisted from side to side, and then she flew toward them. Elara drew her conjured swords just in case, but Zephyra landed a few feet away without trying to attack. She lowered her body so Signey could slide down and then lowered it even farther until she was lying on the ground, as docile as a pet.
“Elara!” Signey said, checking her over for injury as soon as she was close enough to touch. “Are you all right? I’m sorry we—”
“AmIall right?” asked Elara. “Areyouall right?”
“I’m fine. What just happened?”
“The power that Gael taught me isn’t all bad.” Though they were no longer bonded, Elara and Signey turned as one to face Faron. Her sister’s smile was small, there and gone in an instant. “More important, I can control it now. I’m not sure if I can do it for all of them, but I… I owe it to everyone to try.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” said Signey, “but it’s an honor to meet you, Empyrean. Uh, Miss Vincent.”
Faron gave Signey an odd look before gripping Elara’s shoulders. “Listen, I can’t fix this mess. Butyoucan. You need to go to the Port Sol Temple before they burn it down. You need to see if you can reach the gods now that you can summon again. Their power was the only thing that could open Lightbringer’s cage, and I think they’re the only ones who can still end this.”
Elara hesitated. “I can’t leave you here alone.”
“I’ll stay with her,” said Signey. “Zephyra will, too. If we start to slip back into the Fury, she can pull us out. And my combat scores were just below yours, so she’s in good hands.”
There were a number of dead bodies at Rosetree Manor toprove her point, so Elara didn’t argue even though Faron was eyeing Signey suspiciously. Elara pressed a kiss to Signey’s cheek, and it warmed under her lips. She tried not to linger on how cute that was, turning to face her sister’s shock head-on.
“Take care of each other, okay?” Elara said. “I want this girl to live long enough for me to take her on a date.”
“Right,” Faron said.
“And my sister is the most important thing in the world to me,” she told Signey, “so if anything happens to her, that date is canceled.”
“Understood,” Signey said, though she couldn’t quite tamp down her shy smile.
Elara lingered, trying to memorize their faces. Faron’s swinging braids and dark eyes and stained day dress. Signey’s arched eyebrows and pointed nose and smooth skin. Even Zephyra’s forest-green scales, massive gold eyes, and sharp talons. Three of the beings she loved most in the world, uniting in her honor. She wouldn’t let them down.
With a final nod, she called on her aunt’s power one last time to get her to Port Sol Temple.
