If witches were monsters, then Maura was the thing monsters feared.
But before I could do any of that, I had to find fucking peace.
“First, I have to survive the Peace Gate,” I sighed. I was tired just thinking about it.
“You will,” Garrick said firmly. A command, not a suggestion.
Tomin’s smile returned, and he opened his mouth to speak, but the words never made it off his tongue.
The gates creaked open, and Alize stumbled out the exact way she’d gone in. The same physical route. Everything else about her had changed. She wore the same gold and tan clothing she’d worn through all of the previous gates, the ensemble that enhanced her brown hair, bright eyes, and luminous skin. But her skin was no longer luminous. It had gone pallid, all the color drained from her face. Her short hair pointed out in every direction, like she’d been tearing at it. There were tracks of moisture down her cheeks. She’d been crying. The infallible, untouchable Alize had been crying.
Was still crying, I realized.
A sob tore from her chest as she stumbled forward. A lone figure broke from the small crowd beneath the trees. It moved with incredible speed—fae speed. It certainly was not the fae king.
Edmund.
He caught her a few yards from the gate, close enough that we could hear the hushing sounds he made as he caught her. He gripped her forearms tightly to keep her upright.
“I’m sorry,” Alize sobbed, tumbling into her brother’s chest. “I… I’d seen what he did to Garrick and I… I had to stop it.
My Lifebind stiffened beside me.
“Alize, I am fine. It is fine,” Edmund was saying. His sister shook her head, her chest heaving with silent sobs.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t stop it,” she said.
Edmund stared down at her. I could feel the intensity of it from where I stood. Then he pulled her in tight against his chest, her face disappearing completely beneath this thick cloak and muscled arms.
I did not know what any of it meant, and I did not get the time to piece it together. Varian replaced Tomin at my side, and though she said something, I did not hear it. I did not need to. I understood.
It was my turn to enter the Peace Gate.
CHAPTER 36
KORYN
The iron barsof the gate scraped against the stone as it locked into place behind me, sealing me inside the mountain. I was trapped here until the Goddess of Peace decided to let me out.
Herewas a cave. At the entrance, it was just as I’d seen from outside—two stories tall and as wide as the temple. But that changed rapidly. Within a few steps, it narrowed dramatically. The ceiling was still well above my head, but long stalactites dangled down, their tips just a foot or two above me. Garrick would have a hard time.
Isanara already was. The cave was just a little wider than my outstretched arms. She could not walk beside me, not with her recent growth spurt. Her back nearly reached my waist now. She had to tuck her wings in tight against her spine to maneuver without scraping herself against the unforgiving stone walls.
This is uncomfortable,she complained.
I did not suggest that she might have stayed behind. Neither of us was letting the other out of our sight within the Seven Gates. Not again.
Keep your wings in,I advised.
I received a low hiss in response. Great.
With my familiar hissing at my back and the stalactites dripping down from above, the path was clear. Forward.
Within a few minutes, the grayish-white daylight had disappeared. For several minutes, we walked in complete darkness. I stumbled twice. After that, Isanara kept her head planted against my hip. I was too clumsy to be trusted, apparently.
But the darkness did not last.
Without the daylight, the true colors of the stalactites shone through. They were not made of stone; at least, not the same stone as the walls and floor. Veins of iridescent blue and green ran through them, bright enough that I could see the lines of my hand when I held it up in front of me. The stones’ shimmer reminded me of Isanara’s scales. The color of Garrick’s eyes.
