“I’m afraid not, my queen, though I’ll tell the crew to push the windrams hard. They’re good for it. We fed them well not long before our departure.”
So little time.
Lore squeezed my hand.It will be enough.
I had to be.
Lore looked Dorion and Laphira’s way. “Below deck, you’ll find two suites on your left. Pick whichever pleases you. Mine is on the end.” With a nod to them, he took my hand and urged me to the prow, where we stood with the wind buffeting our faces and the crisp smell of the sea surrounding us.
Farris curled up on a pile of rope nearby to take a nap.
The sun slowly set.
Off to our right, Dorion and Laphira stood close together, their eyes on the sea. Wind whipped her hair around her face, and she didn’t bother to tame it. Like me, she watched the horizon with something fierce in her gaze.
The harbor fell away, the mountains of Evergorne slowly fading behind us.
“I wish we were closer,” I whispered.
Lore tightened his arms around me.
Every moment felt precious now, stolen time before an uncertain future. I wanted to memorize the feel of him holding me, the way his breath warmed my temple.
Everything would change tomorrow, one way or another.
“We’ll find the Dragon’s Nest,” he said. “And then we’ll finally end this.”
From his mouth to the fates’ ears.
At sunrise, we still stood on deck, sipping piping hot mugs of tea and nibbling on sweet biscuits. Watching the sea surge up the front of the ship. Squinting at the horizon. All of us wishing something that looked like the Dragon’s Nest would lift its hand and urge us toward it.
The wind pulled at my braid as I leaned against the railing, the scent of salt and sun-drenched wood wrapping around me, sparking memories of the times I’d stood here with Lorant. With Merrick. Now with Lore, the man who was the best and worst of them both. I embraced it all.
The ship cut through the waves, slicing a path toward our destination, and that frustrated me. We’d reach Starfall Break, but we didn’t know how to find the Dragon’s Nest from there. We had to rely on scattered clues.
Farris padded up beside me, brushing his shoulder against my leg. He nudged his nose toward the leather pouch tied to my belt, holding the talismans.
And the feather.
I slipped it free and held it up by the stem, twisting it. The white faded into the soot-dark tip, ash kissed by magic. It was an ordinary feather. Only…
No. It wasn’t.
The heart waits where stone sings and scales remember. Let wings be your guide.
Feather. Wings.
Here I was, holding wings. The connection hit me so suddenly I felt foolish for missing it.
Farris whined, stepping back to watch me, his eyes as sharp asa storm roaring toward shore.
I pulled the talismans from my pocket and stared at them lying on my palm. Inside the labyrinth, I’d used the pendant to summon King Tallin to correct a wronged fate.
Could the talismans and feather could do the same thing here?
I had to try.
Kneeling on the deck with salt spray kissing my cheeks, I laid out the three talismans—Essence, Devotion, Dominion—letting them settle on the wood like they belonged there.
