“Finny.”
It came to him like a whisper caught in a breeze. The soft note of her familiar voice was nearly drowned out by the rushing of blood in his left ear.
The soles of his feet skidded in the dirt, and he whirled around. “Naia?”
An itch burrowed in the center of his skull. A droning, black pang. A tick latching into skin.
The hairs on his nape rose as he took in his sister standing before him in hues of gray. Her silver-coined waves hit her waistline. It was still an odd sight to see her in jeans and a crop-top and not some gaudy gown forced upon her by their mother.
“Finny.” Her eyes flicked back and forth on his face, her expression severe. “Make haste. We must leave.Now.”
Hope had him lifting his hand to meet hers as a sense of rationality collided with his relief and desire.
He closed his fingers into a fist and squeezed. The itch in his brain quivered the nerves in his jaws. He rolled his shoulders. Something did not feel right.
He pinned his focus on Naia, scrutinizing the feel of her energy. Something he could easily identify in a sea of people. Naia was tranquil, like standing before a morning sunrise, sipping on espresso and gazing out a window during a thunderstorm. An energy he could not pick up on then.
The sister he knew would’ve thrown herself at him in a bone-crushing hug, crying and smiling like the emotional fool she was.
Finnian glanced behind his shoulder. The beast was gone. Maybe it was never there at all.
“You are not real,” he murmured.
A deep rumble of laughter spread goosebumps down his arms.
He jerked his head around to find the tall, curvy figure of his sister being swallowed by an oil-sodden cloud.
Finnian’s stomach twisted and he backed up on his heel.
Her silhouette transformed a foot taller, and her shoulders filled out into broad ones hidden beneath a fitted suit.
Cassian’s eyes shone like golden jewels through the abyss, turning and swirling around him. “Why hello again, Little Nightmare.”
Finnian’s eyes jumped from the High God’s lips to his eyes. The fear thudding his pulse made his hearing unreliable. It twined like a vine in his ribcage. There was no telling how Cassian would punish him for escaping Moros.
The cage of darkness lifted from around them, an inky mist ascending overhead and dissolving through the creases of the woven canopy of the tunnel.
Metallic light pierced through the branches. It shone across Cassian’s profile as he stopped a few feet in front of Finnian, his hands stowed away in his front pockets, suave disposition fully intact.
He tilted his head, the movement dropping that singular, maddening curl into his face. “I must say it is impressive how much destruction you spawned in my prison.”
Finnian dug his fingers into his palms, capping the urge to hex the High God. “Come to drag me back?”
“Since Moros wasn’t to your liking, I figured the Serpentine Forest with the roaming Achlyswould suffice.”
Finnian glowered at him. “I’ll burn this entire godsforsaken forest to ash before they touch me.”
“I do enjoy your fire.” Cassian pulled a vial from his pocket filled with a glittering silver substance. He held it up. “Do you know what this is?”
Finnian swallowed, unease tightening in his throat. “A binding potion.”
It was strong from the looks of it. Magic glistened in the liquid particles like tiny stars. Whoever ingested it would be bound to the person they received it from. In this case, since it was in Cassian’s possession, the victim would be bound to him.
Binding potions were temporary, but they sold for a high price in Hollow City’s black market. Finnian would know, given he had been a major supplier in its earlier days when the city’s population ran small. It was one of the first potions he ever created—with the help of his apprentices.
Cassian flipped the vial upside down. The viscous liquid oozed along the inside of the glass. “A witch gave it to me a long time ago. I knew it would find its use one day.”
Finnian’s eyes thinned, his heart pounding like timpani against the cavities of his chest. “If you cannot keep me contained in Moros, your next grand idea is to chain me to you?”
