Herpurpose.
I feel the gentle hands of the Lady of the Sky rest upon my cheeks. I feel Her quiet strength flowing into me, sealing the final fissures of doubt. Raising me up to be the servant She needs me to be.
Thisis why She allowed me to be misled.
Thisis why I had to suffer Temujin’s and Ghoa’s betrayals.
I would have never found the courage to believe in myself and embrace the darkness if I hadn’t joined with Temujin and his Shoniin. I would have never known the truth about Ghoa or had the strength to defy her if I didn’t experience her cruelty firsthand. And I would have never believed I could lead these people—I would have never even known about their suffering, and the suffering in the Protected Territories—if I hadn’t been sentenced to Ikh Zuree and removed from the war front. So my eyes could truly be opened. So I could become the Kalima warrior they need.
It was all part of Her plan.
It was all leading up to this moment.
“I can shield you with the darkness …ifyou’ll follow me.”
I hold my breath, praying they can’t tell how tightly my fists are clenched. Or how badly my legs are shaking. It’s quiet for one excruciating minute, then two. It’s like waiting for the executioner’s blade to drop.
Just when I’m about to retreat, a stampede of little feet bursts from the center of the crowd. “We’ll follow you!” Tears pulse in my eyes as the children I helped Inkar train scrabble forward and surround me, sliding their hands into mine.
“And I.” The old man who stole my staff steps forward and raises it like a saber.
After that, the pitter-patter of agreement becomes a cloudburst—a torrential downpour that drenches me. Cleanses me.
Serik slips his arm around my shoulders and looks at me with the most adoring crinkled smile. “And I.”
While the shepherds collapse their tents and gather their belongings, Serik and I slump beneath a tree to catch our breaths. The entire length of his side presses against mine, and even through our clothes, the rush of heat is electric, sparking up and down my body. And not just because he’s a Sun Stoker.
“Thisis what I dreamed of, all those days we spent lying under the larch trees,” he murmurs. “You and me, against the world.” His fingers trace a maddening trail up my arm and when I turn my head, I find he’s already looking down at me. My eyes inadvertently drop to his lips—so close, I can practically taste their heat. My heart’s hammering so wildly, he can probably feel it echoing through his chest.
“Stop looking at me like that.” I jab my elbow into his side. “It’s distracting, and we still have very important matters to discuss. Plans to make.”
Serik feigns a groan. “Would it kill you to relax for a minute?”
“I still don’t understand how you survived. Ghoa had your cloak, and you’d never give it to her. She’d have to pry it from your cold dead body.”
“Which was very nearly the case. One of Ghoa’s minions spotted me while I was traveling with the caravan to Visva. They chased me down an alley and caught the back of my cloak when I tried to hop the fence. It was either the cloak or my life. I seriously considered choosing the cloak.”
I chuckle and he flashes a wicked grin. “Once Ghoa had the cloak, she must have started wearing it, knowing you’d be scouring the city for me if we had separated. That it would only be a matter of time before you delivered yourself—and Temujin—into her hands.”
I cringe because it’s so devious. So underhanded. So like Ghoa—preying on my feelings. And so like me, playing right into her plan.
“Don’t look so exasperated,” Serik murmurs in my ear. “I’m delighted to know it’s common knowledge that you can’t live without me.”
“I can live without you,” I grumble, but Serik wags a finger in my face.
“Actually, you’d be facedown in that temple, burned to a crisp.”
“I still can’t believe you came back for me. That you were going to leap onto the palace steps and save me.”
“You know I’d do anything for you,” Serik repeats the declaration I made in the supply shack, and my stomach flips end over end. There’s only one word for that kind of devotion. One reason you’d sacrifice yourself for someone else.
A slow, heady tingling starts in my chest and seeps outward like honey, until my entire body is glazed with sweet, liquid heat. My skin buzzes with an energy even stronger than my Kalima power.
Thisis the feeling I searched for all those nights on the rooftops of Ikh Zuree. I’m not just flying; I havebecomethe sky.
Serik cups my face in his hands and gently strokes my scars. Fragments of my former self tell me to look away, to shrink and retreat. Anything this perfect must be a lie. But I’ve been fooled by enough lies lately to recognize a truth this undeniable.
Wherever the battle takes us, we will charge into the fray side by side.
