“I have another theory, then,” she says, her face falling more serious. “This mysterious illness has something to do with the curse Fia mentioned.”
“It doesn’t,” I reply, shaking my head. “If I were cursed, Hel, surely there would be more to it than a sick stomach. And Neri seems fine.”
She gives me a squinted look, lips pursed as she drums her fingers on the bed. “Except he was bleeding profusely instead of healing quickly like gods were known to do.”
“I think all the blood was because he’s newly resurrected, just like his power not being quite where we’d hoped. It might take time for his body to adjust to being something more than human.”
She tilts her head, as though mentally weighing that information. “I suppose we’re going to find out.”
A pang of hunger strikes, as though my stomach just needed a little food inside it to remember its purpose. I force another bite, but that’s all I can manage. I move the tray and ease my legs off the side of the bed. Hel stands and waits beside me, a protective little sister there to catch me should I fall.
“Alexus is going to throttle us both,” she warns. “You know that, right?”
I shrug. “I can’t care. I have to know what’s discussed. I will not be left in darkness because everyone is worried over a little fainting spell.”
“Just be prepared for a fight,” she says as I get to my feet. “I have a feeling it will be two against one.” There’s a sliver of silence, then Hel sucks in a hissing breath, severe enough that I look up and meet her eyes only to find tears welling there. “I can’t stop thinking about Raina and Finn,” she struggles to say as her rebel tears fall and she clutches her chest on a sob. “It hurts so much.”
Those words strike me as deep as any blade.
I gather Hel into an embrace, cradling her head against my shoulder. “Cry,” I tell her, even as my own tears threaten to flood anew. “We cry it out,” I say against her hair. “You and me. Together. Right here. And then we replace all the worry and sadness and heartache with rage and determination and clever thinking. That’s what they would want us to do. All right?”
I know that there will be moments of great courage, perseverance, and resourceful thinking in the days ahead. But for now, Hel and I sit back down on the bed, two sisters where there had been three.
And weep.
8
NERI
Most of our band stands around the long, gleaming table in Fia Drumera’s grand meeting hall, watching as two of her scholars wave their hands above the shining wooden surface until a map suddenly appears, etched by fire into the wood.
As the magi step aside, me and the red-haired spy named Rhonin move closer. With a strange sense of nostalgia, I touch the blackened indention where the Iceland Plains meet the sea. To my left, Rhonin traces a fingertip over the jagged lines representing the dense trees of the Forgotten Forest, located in the northernmost portion of the Eastland Territories.
“I know you’re worried about Raina, and if and when she will return,” Fia says to Thibault. “But someone must travel north to warn your people.”
He stands to her right, eyes murky as he stares unblinking at the map, rubbing his bearded chin. Zahira stands to Fia’s left, lips quirked in thought as she too studies the lines of these lands, the worry for her wife evident in her tired eyes.
“Raina will return,” Fleurie announces. “And Alexus will feel it through the runic bond when she does.” The godling, cleaned up and wearing a blood-red outfit, pushes off the wall where she’s been admiring an old galatine sword and shield, forged with the Tiressian flag on the boss, since we entered this room. She strolls to Un Drallag’s side and nudges him with her shoulder. “In the meantime, we must prepare for the fight that lies ahead, right?”
He only nods. She seems appeased by that simple gesture, but I lived inside him long enough to know when his mind is at work. I don’t trust that nod in the least.
“Alexus can stay here should he need to,” Fia says. “It’s highly likely that Raina will return from where she left anyway.”
“It could be a year before she shows up,” I say, mentioning the obvious since it seems no one else plans to. “That’s how long she was in old Quezira, yes? Is Thibault supposed to hunker down here and wait for her while the people of the Northlands have no leadership and Thamaos plans his attack?”
Un Drallag’s nostrils flare, but he keeps his gaze on the map. The queen, however, drags her stare toward me.
“You’re right,” she says. “The North does need a leader. You should be the one to go. You’re their god and former general, after all. Your people need to understand that this is no rumor, no game. They need to grasp that their land has already been infiltrated once, and Thamaos will only do it again. His resurrection means they have lost any neutrality they once held. He will want revenge, dominance, and power over not only this holy land and all the magick within, but all of the Tiressian empire as well. That is the only existence he knows.”
I scowl at her words. General is a term I never applied to myself. That’s the historians’ doing. I’m no leader. Never was. I’m a warrior with the senses of a wolf. I’ve always kept my pack small and close. During the Land Wars, I positioned people specifically like Colden Moeshka within the ranks of my army, people whocouldlead. My job was to teach. To train. To prepare. To strategize.
Irritation prickles the back of my neck as I lean my hands onto the table’s edge. The move still doesn’t bring me eye level with Fia’s small stature. She’s a tiny thing, full of intelligence, cunning, old magick, and raging fire I placed inside her veins so long ago.
“They won’t listen to me.” I speak sternly. Pointedly. “Thibault should go. He’s their Collector.” I gesture to Zahira. “And perhaps the captain can go with him. Because if I walk into Malgros announcing that I’ve returned from the dead, no one will believe it.”
“Thenproveit.” Fia mirrors my stance, steepling her fingers on the Summerland side of the table. “I know the things you are capable of. So show them who you are.”
I scoff and shake my head. “Need I remind everyone that my power failed me today when I faced the Brotherhood’s magickal shield wall? I’m not myself yet.”
