My heart whispers that this is a fool’s hope. I’ve seen what’s been done. What’s been lost. I know that when she next looks at me, it will not be with adoration or gentleness or passion. These last two months, for her, already feel like they never happened.
But for me…
In the space between aching heartbeats, we’re ripped from the light and thrown back to the dark. We slam into chilly water, as though the bright place spat us out.
As the sea swallows us, dragging us down again, I keep Raina in my arms and swim against the weight of the ocean to the surface. The moment the night air hits my face, a low-rising swell pushes us toward the nearby shore.
Starworth Tor was so far before, an impossible distance to swim. Now we’re close enough to the cove that the torchlights where Zahira usually sits at night are clearly visible.
My feet quickly meet sand, and by the blessings of the Ancient Ones, I carry Raina from the mighty Malorian and collapse to my knees on the shore.
As creeping waves roll up behind us, their foamy crests dying on the beach, I lay Raina down and call forth all the starlights I can muster, which is only a few. Careful, I turn her onto her uninjured side and rub her back as she coughs and splutters into the sand.
Straddling her, I press my forehead to her shoulder, trying to breathe. At least she’s here. At least she’s alive. Thamaos and the prince and perhaps even Vexx want her, for punishment, I’m certain. But by the gods, they will not have her.
I hear voices. Soft laughter.
“Zahira!” My voice is a ragged, weathered thing in the night, burned by salt and water. I lift my head. “Yazmin!”
After a moment, they appear from the shadowed curve of the cove, one of them carrying a torch. Their silhouettes move with uncertainty at first, walking with hesitance, being careful.
But then they’re running.
There are three. Zahira, Yaz, and… Nephele.
“What in Loria’s name?” Zahira cries as they collapse beside me. Nephele drops to her knees next to her sister and stabs her torch in the sand.
“Raina!” She smooths Raina’s wet hair back from her face and snaps a look at me. “What happened?”
Yaz falls to her knees too, immediately scanning Raina and I for injuries. She presses her hand to my cheek. “Alexus? Are you both all right?”
I can’t answer. I just swallow the tight knot in my throat and shake my head as Raina turns a look on me, piercing my heart with a hateful glare.
Holding her side, she shoves at my chest and scuttles out from beneath me toward the cove, panting, clawing at the sand and struggling to her feet, as if my very presence is a poison.
Every wide eye is on her back as Nephele rushes to her side, folding an arm around her waist for support. “Raina, what is it? What’s wrong?”
There’s little light—only the moon, my few starlights, and the flickering torch. But it’s enough to see what Raina signs. “Get me away from him. I never want to see his face again. I need to find Finn!”
“Just go, Nephele,” I shout, digging my hands into the wet sand. “Just do what she wants. You’ll understand soon enough.”
My friend is hesitant. I see her worry. But at my insistence, they slip into the cove’s shadows and disappear toward the main house. I swear it feels as though Raina Bloodgood rips out my beating heart and carries it with her.
Zahira clasps my shoulder, her eyes glinting with sadness, the corners of her mouth downturned. “Alexus. I’m going to need you to talk to me.”
I shove to my feet and tear off my sodden jacket, throwing it to the ground, and redirect my mind because I have no other choice. “I will,” I promise her, swiping the dripping water and tears from my face. “But first, we have to find Helena and Rhonin.”
No sooner do I speak their names, Zahira looks past me, and her face falls even more. When I turn, Rhonin and Helena are walking around the rocks that jut from the eastern side of the cove, Finn’s lifeless body slung over Rhonin’s shoulder.
“My gods,” Zahira says, covering her mouth.
And I go to meet my friends.
A new day rises, and I’m there to greet it.
Callan strolls onto the beach and sits beside me on the sand under the early morning light. They hand me a steaming cup of Yaz’s tea. “Rhonin finally let Keth and Jaega take over his watch at the main gate. You should let me take over for you now. The guards at the wall changed out shifts seamlessly. If Rooke and Vexx knew where you went last night, they would’ve already sent a legion here. But they don’t. They are not all-seeing. You need rest.”
They are not all-seeing. But the prince has an eye on his flag for a reason. I think about Crux, that godsdamn beady-eyed bird, and glance at the sky. Did I kill it? Or is it out there looking for us?
