She squeezed my hand. And for a fleeting moment, I was transported back to those years in Sunspire—my days spent with Lesha, Sonoma, and Amanti. A family of protectors. Of warriors. Sisters and friends. No matter what. Grief stole my joy as those memories washed over me.
“What is this?” I looked down, noting the mark the oracle had given me.
Amanti’s hand closed over my wrist and pulled my sleeve back to reveal it fully.
“I made a bargain with the oracle in Grey Oak,” I told her.
“Meerdra.” She dropped my arm, not nearly as upset as Rydian had been about it.
“She said you told her I would come.”
“Sonoma said she’d had a vision,” Amanti told me quietly. “I delivered the message about eight months ago. Before I went south.”
“Sonoma never mentioned visions to me before,” I said, trying not to hate how many secrets my mother still carried even from the Afterlife.
“I suspect it was more of a message,” Amanti said. “From your father.”
Of course.
We walked on in silence, my memories drifting back to the past. To the three Aine who had raised me. Become my family. Two of them lost now.
“You are troubled,” Amanti said, noting my expression.
“I keep thinking about her,” I admitted. “Lesha.”
Amanti’s expression pinched. “Me too.”
“I should’ve gone with her,” I said, the truth cutting its usual path straight to guilt. “If I had?—”
“If you had, you’d both be lost,” she said. “She made a choice to protect you. That doesn’t become your failure just because you survived.”
Her words cut at wounds inside me that had been there so long I’d forgotten to tend them.
“She might still be out there,” I said.
“If she is, we will find her. Together.”
I swallowed hard, tears burning. “Promise me.”
She didn’t hesitate. “On my blade and what’s left of my wings.”
Her mouth quirked at that.
I shook my head. But the knot in my chest loosened just enough to let air in.
“Okay?” she asked.
I nodded, not trusting my voice.
We started walking again.
By the time we’d rounded the meadow and returned to the cabin, a draft had slid over the yard, colder than before. The sun had dipped behind the horizon, casting long shadows across the stones, but it was more than just sunset heralding in the twilight.
Beyond the cliff’s edge, something approached.
Amanti didn’t comment, but I felt her tense, bracing for something. Or someone. Thorne and Daegel were suddenly there. At the edge of the clearing. They didn’t draw their weapons, though. They only waited; their gazes trained on a narrow dirt path that wound away over my shoulder into the trees before descending sharply.
I felt him before I saw him—like a storm rolling in. The hair on my arms lifted.
