There are so many of them. You need to send more forces toward the center, I told Arran. Maybe he would follow my suggestion; maybe it made no sense at all and he’d know better.
Grab Lyrena’s arm. Through the void.
Women screaming and screaming and screaming.My husband.
The sea was wilder now that we’d passed the center of the Spit. The Crossing. Whatever the fuck it was called. From this position, I could just see the cliffs in either direction through the now steady rain.
Lyrena fought at my side, but all the succubus around me were on the ground. Where—how? There were no terrestrials. Was the sea swallowing them up? How could that be? Did the monsters drown? We should have started pushing them into the sea months ago.
“We need to go farther,” I yelled to Lyrena. But the wind and the rain stole my words. Or was it the roaring of the sea?
The waves attacked the edges of the narrow strip of land, vicious and driving. A torrent of water spiraled upward, then plunged down, taking a succubus with it. How—
I don’t understand.
I felt Arran’s jolt. I hadn’t meant to say that. I reached for Lyrena, halfway into the void already. My fingers touched her wrist—but there was nothing there.
The world spun around me, a second of darkness and then a burst of gray and clouds. I was alone. I’d left Lyrena behind.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Arran. Lyrena and I are separated.
But I was not alone.
I was surrounded by strange blue creatures. And directly in front of me were two faces I’d thought I would never see again. Two males whose faces could only mean my death.
50
CYARA
Night fell quickly on the Isle of the Dead.
Cyara wondered if the stars would even dare to shine their light on the forbidden island of Tirbyas as she followed Diana and Percival for what she thought was the third hour. She had not thought the island to be big enough for that. But as far as she could tell, they were not walking in circles. Just continuing over the unremarkable, barren ground. Eventually they’d come to the sea on the other side, she supposed.
Prayed was more accurate.
Cyara prayed to Nimue, to Accolon, to all the other Ancestors. They’d left a mess for Arran and Veyka to sort through, it was true. But she still trusted them more than the witches that had occupied this island and the eerie magic they’d left behind.
Diana and Percival were both quiet, speaking neither to her nor to each other. But whatever call Diana answered, it must persist, because the woman did not hesitate in her steps. She did not stumble, not once.
Cyara kept her wings tucked in tight, ready to take flight at any moment. She’d seen the Gremog leap out of its tunnels inthe Effren Valley to protect the goldstone palace. There was no telling what sorts of protections the witches had left behind to guard their ancient island. Or what sorts of tests Merlin had contrived, if she had indeed stored the grail on the island to await its worthy wielder.
The moon had just appeared over the horizon when Diana stopped. Percival came to her side, his head tipping back to admire the stars. The first of those had appeared as well, hanging midway in the pale purple sky.
Cyara pushed down the knot of unease that had taken up residence in her chest, forcing herself to take the steps to come stand beside them. The sand made no sound beneath her boots as she—
“Ow!” Cyara screamed, her forehead colliding with stone. She fell backward, crushing her wings at an awkward angle behind her, sending a slice of pain up the left one. She tried to roll, ripping out her own feathers in the process. “What in the Ancestors?”
“What is wrong with you?” Percival squatted down at her side, his eyes drawing together until his thick black brows formed a single line across his forehead. Diana only half turned, gave Cyara a cursory glance, and then turned back to the sky she’d been looking at before as if it held the answer to every question she’d ever wondered about.
Cyara squinted over Percival’s shoulder at the pillar of crumbling stone “It just appeared out of nowhere.”
One second, there had been nothing but open space in front of her. The next, she was on the ground, her head throbbing and wing aching, and a half-tumbled down white pillar stood in the space directly next to where Percival had been standing.
Percival’s unibrow shot upward, his dark eyes blowing wide. “How hard did you hit your head? What do you think we stopped to look at, the two stars that are just barely visible?”
Cyara blinked. That was exactly what she thought. But as she got back to her feet, mindful of her aching wing and the bruise already forming on her backside, she was forced to reconsider.
