CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
FARON
SO,” FARON SAID.“HOW LONG HAVE YOU AND MY SISTER BEEN…?”
“I think there are more important things going on right now,” said Signey Soto, her face darker than usual as she avoided Faron’s eyes. Her accented patois was very formal, without a hint of slang, but somehow hers didn’t sound as arrogant as Aveline’s did. Maybe it was her shyness or her clear affection for Elara. Maybe Faron was feeling regret over the years she’d wasted resenting Reeve or the mistakes she’d made that led to this point. Either way, she found it hard to hate this girl. She’d brought her sister home safely when Faron hadn’t been able to, after all.
“It’s just a little weird,” Faron continued, “that your ancestor is attacking my island, and you’re… kissing my sister. I don’t disapprove, mind you. It’s just strange.”
“Whereishe?” Signey asked, glancing back toward Pearl Bay Palace. “Gael, I mean. I haven’t… Is he…?”
Whatever Signey wanted to ask was drowned out by the sounds of battle. Over the water, Nobility’s purple flank spun like a top as the drake rolled out of the way of multiple gusts of fire. Two dragons were doing their best to destroy it, and, while it was intact sofar, Faron didn’t like Aveline’s odds. The other dragons were occupied with Mercy and Justice, the final two drakes that had arrived at last. All thoughts of Signey’s personal crisis dissolved from her mind as Faron tried to figure out a plan. She couldn’t fly Liberty alone, but the drakes needed help.…
“Zephyra and I need to get up there,” Signey said. “But we’ll do more harm than good if the Fury takes us again.”
And that was when Faron realized what she had to do. There was a purpose to this power that she’d learned from a god who had used her as a pawn. A reason for the careless way she’d wielded it in Seaview.
“Let me help you,” Faron said. “I have the power to command living souls. If you guys fly up there, I can send my soul with you. If you start to go feral again, I can order you to be calm. If—” Her throat closed as she thought of Roger and Jarell, the souls she’d controlled to save Reeve. “If you’ll trust me, that is. It’s a new power, and I’m still learning all the… the boundaries. I can’t promise it will be as smooth as all that, but Iamvery familiar with your souls by now. And maybe that will make all the difference.”
Signey stared at her. Then she said, “Elara trusts you, so I trust you. Do your best, and so will I.”
Do your best.Faron held those words close as Signey strode back over to her dragon. Elara was the only person who had ever expected her to simply do her best. Everyone else expected her to succeed. To excel. To be the Childe Empyrean. But she had confessed her weakness to Signey, and her only request was that Farontry. There was a freedom in that trust that made Faron able to breathe again. No matter what happened, she could do that much. She could try her best.
Signey and Zephyra took off toward the fray. As soon as they flew past Lightbringer’s line of sight, Faron felt the bright red edges of the Fury—ofhisFury, she realized—trying to take over their minds.
Stay calm, she pressed into their souls.Focus.
They flew on, steady and in control. Zephyra attacked the red dragon that was attempting to set fire to Nobility’s left wing, her teeth and claws aiming to hurt but not kill. These were still her friends, after all, and it wasn’t their fault that Faron didn’t have the time or the energy to help them, too. Faron tethered herself to Zephyra’s soul, looking for any signs of violent danger, but her eyes followed Nobility as the drake tried to outfly the blue, yellow, and green dragons that remained behind it.Come on, come on, come on.
The three dragons went spiraling upward as one of the drakes shot blast after blast at their stomachs to knock them off course. Nobility flew onward, toward Pearl Bay Airfield. With Zephyra helping break the line of dragons, the other drake appeared to distract Lightbringer before he could knock the queen out of the sky. Still, Faron did not relax until Nobility sank out of view for a safe landing.
Winged war beasts filled the air, two drakes and Zephyra against four dragons and Lightbringer. The odds were abysmal, but they had survived worse odds before. Faron needed to believe that they would survive this, too.
“Empyrean.”
Faron drew her soul back into her body just in time to see a furious Aveline marching toward her, trailed by Nobility’s armed pilots. Her dress was a heavy golden brocade fabric that fell to her knees, matched by a gold head wrap and diadem. She was Irie’s wrath made flesh, and Faron almost shivered at the sight of her.
“I’m sorry—”
“Shut up,” said the queen. “I am so sick of people coming in and thinking they can take the island of my ancestors away from me. I am so sick of being looked at as a child playing at ruler, as weak or incompetent or nothing more than an accessory to you. I amso sickofwarand of being unable to protect my people. It ends today. It endsnow.”
Power swirled around her, whipping the loose fabric of her head wrap. When Aveline drew on the power of her astrals, she drew on the power of Iryan queens. Faron had never asked if she got to see her mothers, to talk to them, when she was summoning, but Aveline was holding so much power that her dark eyes seemed to glow with tiny stars as she stormed past Faron and toward the castle. This was far more magic than she’d wielded the night of the Summit, far more magic than she’d wielded in the five years since the war. This was a warrior queen hungry for blood.
“GET OUT OF MY PALACE!” Aveline screamed.
Her magic lifted her into the air in a trail of sparks. Up and up and up, she went, until she collided with Lightbringer so hard that the dragon actually tumbled backward. Aveline’s protective rage, her love for her island and her people, was more powerful than any Fury he could create. She threw her fist forward, and a golden dagger sank into the dragon’s body. When Lightbringer cried out in pain, Faron could almost imagine the violent smile on Aveline’s face.
In that instant, she felt like she understood the queen better than she ever had. She, too, was so sick of war, of being unable to protect the people who she cared about. And maybe that had led her down the wrong path, but it wasn’t too late to make things right.
With Lightbringer distracted and the drakes handling the fight in the sky, Faron made her way back into the castle where the last remaining obstacle still hid.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
ELARA
PORTSOLTEMPLE WAS UNDER LOCKDOWN WHENELARA ARRIVED.
Santi streamed around the grounds like white-clad ghosts, channeling astral magic into a protective shield around the temple. One of the dragons, Alzina, was still stomping around the center of Port Sol, but the temple was a gorgeous landmark on the far side of the city, and it wouldn’t be long before it caught her attention. Elara would have to get through to the gods before then.
