“A lunafleur for you, Little Star,” I croak, tucking the lunafleur bloom behind her ear amongst her tangled web of golden curls, just as I always did. “As many as you like, actually.” Seren’s breath hitches. Her fingers fly to the bloom, brushing its petals in disbelief.
Her gaze snaps to mine. And I know she’s remembering, too.
And it’s then, pressing a palm into the earth, clutching the lunafleur to my chest with the other, that I realize The Shadow Wastes were never a wasteland.They were a lie.
CHAPTER SIXTY
KAEL
She is beautiful.
Not just in the way I have always known, in the way that turns heads and makes men stumble over their words—but in a way that feels otherworldly.
Her joy is as bright as her magic. It radiates from her in waves, unrestrained and uninhibited, as if she has forgotten, for the first time in her life, how to be anything butfree.
A mane of undulating auburn frames her face and tumbles down her back, rich as the earth. She moves through the wildflowers with the lightness of someone who has never known a place like this could exist—dragging her hands through the lunafleurs, pressing them to her nose with an audible inhale, eyes alight with something soft. Something I didn’t know she possessed.
A goddess.
I don’t know if it’s the tether—the connection that refuses to quit between us—or if it’s simplyher. But I feel it too.Her wonder. Her breathlessness. Her awe.
It seeps into me, as if her emotions have taken root in my own, twining together like vines.
I glance toward our group and find Therion with a subtle,knowing smile, his gaze lingering on Seren. Merrik is grinning outright, and I know why—this is why we fight. This is what we’re trying to restore. To lift the curse. To free our people. To returnthisto them.
Daelen slaps Merrik on the back in easy camaraderie, sharing a look of understanding.This is how it’s meant to be.Even Jax, ever unimpressed, looks momentarily stunned before quickly masking it behind a scowl.
The moment is fragile.
And then, like a blade cleaving through silk?—
“We keep going,” Zakarius snaps, his voice as cold and cutting as the steel at his hip. “Every moment we stop, we make ourselves easy targets.”
The dream fractures. The moment is over.
But when I glance back at Elyssara—kneeling in the grass, laughter still on her lips—I can’t shake the feeling that some part of her just found something she hadn’t even known she was looking for.
Ronyn spins toward the group, arms crossed, head tilted, that signature roguish grin tugging at his lips.
“I have a few...thousandquestions,” he says, throwing his hands wide as if trying to physically encompass the absurdity of it all. “Like, oh, I don’t know—maybe mentioning the existence of an entire hidden paradise would’ve been helpful? Cryptic assholes, the lot of you.”
A startled laugh tumbles out of me before I can stop it, quick and sharp, like something unshackled. Therion barks a real, unguarded laugh—a rare thing from him.
Merrik’s rich chuckle ripples through the air, “We protect our land like we protect our people, lad—with our lives.”
Seren’s mouth falls open. “Wait, what? There’s no record of this anywhere!”
I nod. “It’s forbidden to keep records here.”
She looks ready to combust. “But that’s?—”
“And,” I cut in, “you can wield magic whenever you want—nomandatory Royal Guard, so no one is keeping track of the magic they sense.”
Seren looks like I just told her the sky was a lie. “So, Starborn are just... free?”
Zakarius exhales sharply, disdain twisting his mouth. “She doesn’t belong here.”
His glare is fixed on Elyssara—not in curiosity, not in scrutiny, but incontempt.A silent fury ripples from him, his hands clenched tight over his reins, jaw ticking with the force of his restraint.
