“The Flame takes not with hands but with longing. To offer is to bind; to bind is to lose. Beware, for the ash remembers all it consumes and keeps its trophies close. If thou wouldst have what lies in the ash, thou must offer in turn.”
Bargains. Always bargains and trades. She rubbed her temple and let her head fall back against the headboard. Weeks of endless, half-useless research—until now. This felt like the book itself had forced itself into her path.
“East House, East House,” she murmured, eyes narrowing at the hole from the arrow still cutting through the pages. A hole like this across the East Bird’s heart would look so very pretty. “Is this what you wanted me to find?”
The torches in the corridor outside hissed, a faint swell of heat brushing against the door. She pressed her lips together, sparks twitching over her fingers. She wasn’t sure if it was her imagination or if the damn House was actually listening.
Her jaw clenched, her thoughts snapping instantly to Jake. His eyes the other night, hollow with resignation.You deserve someone better.His voice, quiet and breaking.Stay alive, Lenna. Do me that favor.
She dragged her nails across the margin, leaving faint streaks of gold. She didn’t want better. She wanted him.
She blinked against the pull of exhaustion, but forced her eyes over the last, half-burnt line at the bottom of the page. The ink darker here, sharper, as though written by a hand that wanted to scar the paper:
“The East House keeps what is broken, binds what is willing, and bargains with no regret. To call upon its fire is to stand before ruin itself.”
Her vision blurred. She tried to reread the words, but they swam, doubling and vanishing. Her hands slackened, the tome sliding against her hip. She lay back against the pillows, her fingers brushing the burned cover, as though unwilling to let it go even in sleep.
Golden sparks dimmed across her body until only faint threads curled upward into the dark. Her eyelashes fluttered closed. Jake’s face lingered behind her eyelids, silver eyes that no longer burned for her, lips that whispered of a love stolen from him. Her rage, her grief, her want, her hope—they tangled until she could no longer separate them.
And then—
The shriek tore the night apart.
Golden sparks smothered her skin like a second flesh, rippling down her limbs until she blazed with light. Her head jerked up. Her breath stilled. In her hands—impossibly—navy sparks glowed, slipping like sand through her fingers no matter how she tried to hold them. His. Jake’s.
“No,” she whispered, clamping her palms tighter. Every spark lost was another piece of him gone.I must protect them. I must not lose him.
Above, the sky split, crimson wings unfurling across a void. The East Cardinal goddess descended with a cry sharp enough to rattle bone, her beak a gleam of polished death. She slammed into Lenna’s golden body, knocking her breath to shreds.
Lenna staggered, but she did not fall. She turned—and she ran.
Her golden sparks burned brighter the faster she moved, scattering light across the ground, but the navy bled away quicker, thinner, until only trickles remained. She pressed her palms together, frantic, but the sparks hissed out all the same, dissolving before her eyes.
The goddess’s voice ripped through the dreamscape. “His love is gone. I plucked it clean. What you clutch belongs to me.”
Lenna spun, her teeth bared. “Over my dead body.”
The goddess dived lower, wings stirring a storm so fierce it nearly flung Lenna off her feet. Still she clutched the dying sparks, her chest tearing with grief so sharp it felt like a blade.
The goddess laughed, a scream sharpened to cruelty. “You think you can keep what I have claimed? Foolish child. You will hollow yourself until nothing remains.”
Lenna’s lips curved into a feral grin. “Then you’d better try harder.”
The beak slashed close, grazing her cheek, and Lenna fell to her knees. Her fingers almost opened—almost—but she forced them tighter. When she dared to look, only one navy spark remained. One. Fragile. Trembling. But alive.
A sob ripped through her chest, but she pressed the ember to her heart, her body blazing with gold.Mine. He’s still mine.
The Cardinal’s shadow pressed down, her wings blotting out all else. “Release him. This is your final warning. Or I will end you.”
Lenna tilted her chin, blood dripping from her cheek, her smile sharp as steel. “Come and try.”
The goddess screamed, crimson feathers tearing the sky apart. The dream cracked open, shattering beneath Lenna’s feet—
And she fell through, his last spark still burning in her fist. She had not let go. She wouldneverlet go.
A loud noise made her jump in the bed, and when she opened her eyes, navy sparks inundated her guest room in the EastHouse. The door hung broken from the hinges, wood splintered where force had struck—the force being the man standing at the end of her bed.
Lenna opened her hand and Gave some golden sparks herself, letting Sweet Bitch form from them. She had fallen asleep reading Chapter 55 for the fifteenth time, her mind too tired to even realize she didn’t have the lynx cub’s company for the first time in weeks. Sweet Bitch stroked her snout against the palm of Lenna’s hand before giving an incredibly human-like bad look at Jake. She paced to a corner of the room, where she sat and started cleaning her head with her paws.
