Iba stared at Remo as though seeing him for the first time.
“But your grandfather also kept me alive, Remo,” Cruz said slowly.
“He should’ve freed you as soon as Lily reentered Neverra!” Remo snapped.
Iba observed them both quietly.
“But then he would’ve had to reveal his prison.” Cruz was so cool and collected.
I didn’t get it. If I’d been him, I would’ve been incensed. I would’ve demanded Gregor’s ashes. I would’ve requested to exact justice myself.
“If I may make a suggestion, Ace.” Cruz stared at the golden circlet gleaming atop my father’s head. “Have him erase his prison, then lock him out of Neverra. He was born on Earth, so once his fire burns out, his blood will sustain him a couple more years.”
My father looked steadily at his friend. Even though he was two decades younger, he was clearly as wise as his biological age. “Does that seem fair to everyone?”
I placed a hand on top of Remo’s. “I think he should be stripped of his dust.”
“Agreed,” my cousins said in unison.
“Remo? Faith?” my father asked. “Do you have any objections?”
I felt the torment swirling through Remo’s body. Saw the little knots of tension forming in Faith’s neck.
“No,massin,” Remo said.
Faith flinched but ended up shaking her head.
“Then it is decided.” Iba sighed and pressed himself away from the edge of the sparkling sapphire table he’d leaned against during our recounting. “Silas?”
“Yes, Ace?”
“Can you help Cruz settle in? I think he may like one of the stilt houses on the Pink Sea, but it’s up to him.” Iba stared at his friend again, then went to him and squeezed his shoulder. “I’m coming by to see you later. If that’s all right with you?”
Cruz’s wavy locks fell into his eyes. “When has answering in the negative kept you away? Do you respect people’s wishes now?” His tone was playful, and yet I watched my father’s face for a reaction.
When a smile crept over his mouth, followed by a bark of laughter, I released a short breath. “How would I have gotten Cat if I took no for an answer?”
He winked at Nima who shook her head but grinned.
As though remembering others were present, he shot all of us, but especially Remo, an eloquent stare. “No means no, children. Are we clear?”
Remo’s fingers tensed, which made me smirk.
As my parents took off toward the door, they called out, “Amara?”
I sensed they wanted to have a little chat about the nature of the proprietary hand on my hip. To Remo, I murmured, “I’ll comm you,” then I hugged Sook and Giya. “Thank you for having my back. I love you guys.”
“Shut up,” Giya said, her tone distorted by emotion.
As she knuckled a tear from her eye, I caught Cruz staring at her, the smile gone from his mouth, replaced by some other look. Giya didn’t notice. I didn’t think anyone but me noticed. When our eyes met, his shot to the buffed marble beneath his bare, sandy feet.
Huh . . .
Maybe Cruzwoulddisrupt Lily and Kajika’s future, just not in the way I’d imagined. Or maybe the romantic in me was reading way too much into the attention he’d paid Giya.
On the platform outside the front door, my mother hooked her hands around my father’s neck as he cradled her and soared into thelustrium-flecked darkness. The brewing storm had receded and given way to a glorious violet sky. I’d always liked nighttime but had a new appreciation for it after the endless white.
As I stood on the overhanging deck, I gazed out at my kingdom with its reflective portals and dusty-rose ocean, its tall gray cliffs and swirls of starlight. Faeries were out tonight, like every night, but somehow there seemed to be more bodies crowding the sky. Many hovered around thecalimbor, but none too close, kept back by a belt of bobbinglucionaga. I closed my eyes and took a long, deep breath of freedom, savoring the warmth flickering inside my veins, and then I dove.
