As Kaïs turned away and began signaling behind them, Ana suddenly remembered something else. A promise she was going to keep to an old friend.
“Kaïs,” she called after him. “Shamaïra, we have her. She’s safe at our camp.” It felt good to remember a spark of light in the seemingly endless darkness. “She’s waiting for you.”
His eyes shimmered with the vastness of oceans, of time, of loss and longing that she might never understand. Before Kaïs could reply, someone leapt onto the balustrade of the Kateryanna Bridge between them, holding on to a statue of a Deity for balance.
“Affinite Battalion!” Daya roared, lifting an arm. “Bregonian reinforcements have arrived! Wait for their archers, and we take the gates!”
With a sudden whistle, a thousand arrows plunged through the smoke and fire, raining down upon the other side of the bridge, before the gates. Ana wrapped an arm around Kaïs’s waist, steadying him and keeping her other hand on the balustrade of the Kateryanna Bridge. The Tiger’s Tail roared into eternity beneath them as Daya’s shout rang out with the final command.
A shout rose into the night sky from the Bregonian reinforcements and the Affinite battalion as they charged toward the entrance of the Salskoff Palace.
With an earth-shattering boom, the gates of Salskoff cracked.
And, slowly, they opened.
Inside were silhouettes, blurred with smoke and vapor from the siege. Yet in the darkness, a spark flared; a torch was raised, and began waving a signal.
Theirsignal.
Wind pulsed through the entrance, and suddenly, Ana saw who stood inside.
Linn, her daggers glinting in the torchlight.
And, by her side, Ramson, one hand on his hip, the other waving the torch.
They had done it. They had broken through the Salskoff gates.
Daya let out a shout of triumph; everywhere, their troops were cheering, clapping their hands. Through the crowd, Linn was making her way toward Ana.
Ana untangled herself from Kaïs and stepped forward, wrapping her arms around Linn’s familiar, lean build. Her friend let out a small choked sound as she hugged Ana tightly.
When Linn drew back, however, her expression was grave. “Ana, I bring urgent news.” She touched a hand to her chest. “I know where the Deities’ Heart is—the artifact Morganya seeks. I found out through my Temple Masters. It has the ability to destroy the siphon, return your Affinity…and save your life.”
It took Ana several moments to process Linn’s words. As she took in the earnest, anxious expression on her friend’s face, the realization finally cleaved through the maelstrom in her mind: Linn told the truth.
There was a way to the Deities’ Heart.
There was a way for her to live.
She squeezed her friend’s hand. “I must first settle the battle and secure the Palace,” Ana said, “and ensure that Morganya and her troops are being held. That they properly surrender.”
Linn’s lips curved in the ghost of a smile. “Then, we go.”
For some reason, Ana looked across the bridge, past all the people gathered before it, celebrating, and met Ramson’s eyes.
His lips were curling, that old, cunning gleam returning to his eyes as he tipped his head and raised an eyebrow. And suddenly, in the fog of her loss, a ray of light as clear and as bright as the sun. An image of a quiet dacha, the silence of a predawn morning, a sunrise that breathed life and fire into the world.
Between one heartbeat and the next, in the space between her and Ramson, Ana saw a world of possibilities unfurl.
Take the Palace.
Defeat Morganya.
Find the Heart.
Transition the government.
They were so, so close. Between the smoke and the snow and the swirling mist, the tantalizing promise of a life after—of a forever—hung in the air.
