Kaiheard their concerns while also listening to thattap tap tapin the back of her mind. A memory. Drakaa’s own words from long ago.
“Several lines of fate are converging,”she’d said.“A great battle is on the horizon, and our people will play an essential part. You, especially, as your mother’s heir.”
“I’ll go,” Kai heard herself say as if from a great distance.
The war could be with Soterra, Perean, or someone else entirely. But one thing was certain: she had to be the one to lead it.
“I’ll stand before these kings and learn the truth,” she said. “And I will do so with legions of our warriors at my back—enough to remind them who they should fear.”
With the Unseen now an active clan, Kai could leave them to tend to their people should the need arise.
Shadi squeezed Kai’s hand, gaze fierce and full of fire. “You do this, you show the world who you are without question. You leave our lands as First Daughter, heir to the Matriarchy.”
The role she’d rejected for much of her life. But now she understood something she hadn’t before. With or without a title, she was meant to protect this mountain and these people, and she would do it to her dying breath.
“I do so gladly,” Kai said.
Doli’s hand joined Shadi’s atop Kai’s. “Take your wife and husband with you. Let them also see you at your full strength.”
Tears filled Shadi’s eyes. She turned toward her wife, her other half.
Kai then understood the depth of their loss. These females, whose strength and wisdom knew no bounds, felt weak. Fractured. Broken parts of a whole that would never feel solid again.
On a shaky breath, Shadi nodded. “You leave in one week’s time.”
Aweek later, Kai stood on the docks, the frozen sea wind stinging her cheeks.
Her stomach had been fluttery all morning, and she couldn’t remember when she last ate a decent meal. But all her preparation was paying off. And while her hands demanded shedo something…
There was no need.
Warriors filed up the planks to a fleet of ships in a steady rhythm. Oxbeasts bellowed against their handlers. Crates thudded into holds already filled with grain and steel.
Fala’s hand brushed hers on one side, fingertips cold and sure. “This is where it all begins.”
Kai released a pent-up breath, heart thudding. “Everything is going to change.”
Atsadi took her other hand and kissed her knuckles. “We’re with you to the end, beloved.”
And for once, fate didn’t feel like a trap. Kai believed him. She’d come through fear, anger, and grief to get here. Now, with Fala to one side and Atsadi to another, she had room for strength and resolve.
She had room to breathe.
To lead.
Together, they faced the horizon and whatever storm waited there.
Kai turned her face to the sea. She faced the future as Kai Silver Wolf of First Clan, heir to the Grand Matriarch of Yiria.
And the sharp edge of a union the world had never seen before.
Drakaa’s chambers lay in disarray, leathers and silks and weapons tossed aside while she crammed the barest necessities into a trunk. The fire smoldered in the brazier, half-forgotten, while she worked with hands too hurried for grace.
She hadn’t thought…
Never imagined…
The veins had been sighted in the lower tunnels. Jagged lines of gold gleamed through the rock where the collapse had ripped the mountain open.
