Not even the wind swayed the leaves.
“I think we lost them,” I breathed, the words fragile as the peace around us. Rising, I dusted myself off. “Not in the way we were expecting, but I’ll take it.”
Heraphia let out a choked laugh. “We’re alive.”
“For now,” Zuriel grumbled, helping his wife to her feet. His stark white hair was plastered to his face and neck, revealingthe severe points of his ears. “But we can’t stay here. We’re too visible.”
He wasn’t wrong. I grabbed my boots and shoved my feet back into them, cringing at the grit between my toes and the way they squelched when I took a step. “Let’s hope that doesn’t alert them to our presence.”
My friends weren’t any better, clothes clinging to skin and water dripping from packs.
I wrapped my arms around myself and strode away from the riverbank. Heraphia followed, with Zuriel bringing up the rear, using a fallen branch to sweep away our footprints. He discarded it when we reached the next treeline.
Yet even as we disappeared among the trunks, my shoulders refused to unclench, with my ears primed for the slightest sound.
Even when we’d traveled far enough to fly, my lungs refused to allow air. I immersed myself in the well of undulating white in my chest, the source of my Goddess-gifted power, and tugged on my primary light magic to form wings at my back. Each furious flap of feather did nothing to ease my anxiety.
The river might have aided our escape, but I wasn’t naive enough to think that they hadn’t caught the scent of my blood. And when the Issaraeth had a target, it was only a matter of time before he hunted it down.
3
Fire crackled in front of me, each pop a sharp little reminder of my failure. The two Seers had beenright therefor the taking—my mouth, open and poised to deliver the Command to break their minds and bend them to my will. And then, they’d vanished into the dark waters. My crew had scoured the banks for any sign of them. Ilae, my loyal auravane, had lost sight of them too.
With the river’s rage behind them, I doubted they survived.
Which meant I was going to have to write to my sister, the Korona, and inform her of their demise. For a decade now, I’d searched for them, and each time I’d been close, they’d slipped through my fingers.
Her vicious, accusatory tone punctuated the sizzles of the flames.
“Vaeron, you fucking imbecile! How could you let twopowerful Seersdiewhen we need them the most? Our father was right about you. You’re useless. Why do I bother keeping you around?”
I yanked on the end of the leather strap binding back my hair. Wound it around my palm. Squeezed until her voice disappeared from my head.
Her animosity wasn’t personal. It was a result of stress.
Her position at Koron Stadiel’s side had always been tenuous at best. Our father had used her as a pawn for his own ambition, marrying her off when she was scarcely old enough not to be considered a child.
Like all Angels with ice-blue irises, the Goddess had blessed Iaoth with a powerful, unique secondary magic—the ability to manipulate memories.
But the more she used her power, the more brittle and prickly she became, like she couldn’t remember who she was or how to be fucking nice to her own brother. She was the only family I had left. The only person I had left.
And the Koron? Well, he didn’t snatch his position from his competitors for the throne because he was handsome.
If I hadn’t come of age that same year, my father likely would have thrown me into the ring with males triple or more my maturity.
I’d never been so grateful to be born when I had.
My second-in-command sauntered over and dropped to the ground beside me. Throwing an arm casually over his knee, he regarded me with that keen awareness that made me want to curl my lips back from my teeth.
“What do you want, Maelsar?” I grumbled.
“I don’t think they’re dead,” he announced, so fucking sure of himself as always.
An annoyed sigh slipped out before I could stop it. “And why do you think that?”
He lifted a shoulder and let it fall. “Because I’m pretty sure I saw the heir to House Ilytharï with them.”
“That proves nothing. Life and death are the Goddess’s domain. Not his.”
