“He’s a fiend. A monster. Hehurther.” Her tentative hand rose and trembled before she laid her fingertips on the scar coiling up from my chest and around my neck. “He hurtyou. So many lives destroyed in his quest to rule the world.”
I gently held her wrist. I didn’t nudge her away. No one other than Fury had dared touch me in so long, I’d nearly forgotten how vital contact with someone who cared could be.
“This will be over one day soon,” I said. “And then there will be time for us.” For me and Tempest. A future where we might be able to let down our guards and care without worrying that the person we loved would be murdered before our eyes.
And a time for my sister and I to know each other completely.
“I want to hug you, if that’s alright.” Soft tears trickled down her face. “Say no if you don’t want—”
I tugged my sister close and wrapped my arms around her.
When she held me as well, it felt amazing.
All of usspent the afternoon in the parlor, strategizing.
Drask flew into the room, but while Tempest jolted when she saw him, she stroked his back after he landed on her shoulder.
Once Zayde found out about Reyla, he barreled into her and hugged her, lifting her and spinning around while she barked out laughter. They settled on the sofa after and kept looking at each other with wonder. When Reyla gazed my way with the same happiness in her eyes, it . . . I couldn’t even describe the feelings rushing through me, but I welcomed them.
Before I met Tempest, I would’ve shoved Reyla away, built a wall between myself much like the one I held between Zayde and I. Trusting but wary. Caring but not giving all of myself. Something vast was rising within me, and I wasn’t sure I liked it because caring meant being vulnerable.
Loving someone meant loss and pain.
Yet I couldn’t hold myself back. My walls were cracking, and I couldn’t find the will to reseal them. Relying on anyone but myself terrified me. But I was tired of living behind the wall alone.
“The dragons are amazing,” Airia gushed. “Whatever Madrood told them worked, because they’re cooperative.”
“They miss riders, strangely enough,” Fury said. “And our grooming.” She leaned into my side and linked our hands together, laying them on my knee. “Even knowing why we asked them to come back didn’t dissuade any of them from joining with us. I think Madrood helped there as well. He knows the king as much as anyone, and knowing someone terrifying is coming for Lydel has united us.”
“I also have a full staff for each aerie,” Airia said, her eyes wide with excitement. “It gives me hope we can do this.”
“Wewilldo it,” I said firmly. “Never doubt that.”
She sucked in a jerky breath. “The flying dregs are scary. I imagine they were hard enough to kill when they remained on the ground. In the sky, they’re more our equals.”
“I think we have to stop killing them,” Fury said.
“What?” Airia’s eyes widened even further as she stared at my mate. “If we don’t kill them, they’ll destroy every one of us. Or haul us to Bledmire, and you know what happens after that.”
Tempest explained about the powerless.
“Let me getEmber’s Shadow,” Reyla said. “Maybe it’ll reveal more details.” She pinched her eyes closed and scrunched her face in a cute way.
Damn, I had a sister. I adored her already, in a soft, squishy way so unlike the Vexxion I’d leaned into all my life. She’d cracked open another part of my heart and stuffed herself inside. There’d be no pushing her back out and . . . that was alright.
No, it was perfect.
She flitted, but she only made it to the open parlor doorway, where she collapsed against the frame. “I think I’ll walk the rest of the way.” She staggered out of the room, returning not long after with the book she dropped in Airia’s lap.
Airia started scrolling through it. “Blank pages.”
“From what I’ve seen,” Fury said, “the book will only reveal what it wants you to know.”
Airia snorted. “Which is nothing.”
“Back when the treaty was formed, the lesser fae wanted to forget they had magic,” I said. “A spell was cast to suppress it indefinitely. If present day Nullens knew they were lesser fae and equal to those living in faerie, that their magic was hidden, we’d hear them yelling even from this far away.”
“Lesserfae?” Airia said with lifted eyebrows.
