Only… that’s not what happened.
They didn’t cheat the Fates at all.
They found them.
Their real matches.
Their fated mates.
You can see it when Jules looks at Alaric, when Phoebe rolls her eyes at Kael but still slides closer, when Delia touches Thorne and his wildfire calms instead of consuming everything.
Those bonds aren’t accidents or loopholes—they’re right. Solid. Inevitable.
And it makes me wonder—really wonder—if the boons were never the point.
If the extra power, the heightened magic, the stronger wards… if all of that was just the side effect.
Maybe the Fates weren’t being cheated.
Maybe they were giving Nightfall exactly what it needed.
And maybe—I swallow, thinking of Dagan’s hand in mine, the way the quakes go quiet when we touch—the same thing is happening to me.
Ever since I stepped into Nightfall, the ground has been talking to me.
Quietly at first—little nudges, warnings before tremors, a shiver under my feet that meant not there.
But after the shelter today, after Dagan channeled power through me to help hold the Marches together, it’s like someone turned the volume up.
I feel the land now.
Not just as an abstract thing I study and measure, but as a living presence. A patient, ancient heartbeat under my boots.
Earth on Earth had always been a puzzle to solve.
Here, she feels like an ally.
Chapter 14
Alina
Flying to The Barrow
We sweep toward one of the higher balconies. It juts out from the cliff, ringed with carved stone balustrades, flanked by two trees whose branches twist grow out of the rock itself.
Their leaves shimmer in the breeze as we approach, glowing soft gold.
Dagan lands with a controlled impact, taloned boots scraping stone, wings flaring to balance the weight. He holds me for a moment longer than strictly necessary.
Maybe I imagine it.
Maybe I don’t.
“You can put me down,” I murmur, though a traitorous part of me wants to ask him not to.
“I could,” he says. “I am considering whether it is wise.”
“Is it a safety concern?” I tease. “Or an emotional one?”
