“I’m a little offended that you didn’t include me in workaround royalty,” Kai told him.
“Well, I didn’t want to give away everything up front, did I now, brother?” Sylas teased.
Ariana ruffled Kai’s hair. “The ego is staggering, baby. You already have your Kai Hunter fan club, remember?”
“That might be considered excellent fuel for an ego—if I had one, Ari.”
She gave him a look, then they both burst out laughing.
Sylas joined them with the laughter.
Kai rubbed his shoulder.
I’d noticed him doing that several times already in the last few minutes since Temperance had left. It was like he needed to touch Sylas to make sure he was real.
Here and actually alive.
Fuck. Win was gonna be the same way, even more so, once he found out.
But… being down there with Ruxnoth… would he believe his dad was still dead all that fucking time? That… no. Maybe he’d feel him through their necromantic blood link or something.
“Are you okay, Zayn?”
I blinked and looked to see Velra walking up to me.
“Sort of.” I shifted my weight. “How about you? I’m so sorry… about Winter… and Sylas going through all that.”
“It’s been a lot. Without a doubt.” She smiled and rubbed my arm. “But we persevere. Keep moving forward.” Her eyes twinkled at me. “For those we love, hmm?”
I smiled back. “Yeah. Yeah, we do.”
“We’ll bring Winter home.”
“I know we will.”
Vax came down the porch, while Remnant was now pacing in the shade on his phone—to Lazriel, it sounded like. Apparently he’d been running in wolf form with his mom atGlacialis Arx,allthe insane stress of everything needing an outlet. Made sense he hadn’t come along for this, if he was on edge like that. It hadn’t exactly been a situation that could handle that sort of thing—and that was coming from me.
“I have an idea that could bring Winter home sooner,” Vax spoke to Velra as he stopped beside me and slid his arm around my waist.
I leaned into him, nuzzling a little, the contact like a super-salve after that fucking battle madness. It had only been about ten minutes since Evira had been bear hugging me—well, dragon hugging me—but I guess I needed another boost now.
Vax explained, “The vibrational leash I have on Winter has been compromised with him being on another metaphysical plane entirely and one unnaturally grafted to the fabric of reality. But in the same vein—vibrational resonance—if I can access enough power, once Sanctus is located, I could deliver it through said entry point and damage its structural integrity. Significantly. But I need to speak with the High Empress to obtain support for such a thing.”
“That’s really impressive,” Velra told him. “But the position it would put you in—”
“All will be well, I can assure you.”
Off Velra’s look, I told her, “He always has some Machiavellian plan up his sleeve.”
“Wow, okay,” she said, then told Vax, “Well, then what I’d tell you before you head off and do that is that I have the full support of the Dark Fae Realm. Should you need that, it’s there. Not to mention, my family’s backing as well. You can name-drop, do whatever you need to add pressure. Understand?”
Vax smiled. “Yes, I very much do.”
We all looked out then as a curse came from Sylas and he nearly collapsed, but Cassius caught him before he hit the ground.
Velra called over to them, so much worry all over her, “You need to rest. Now, Sylas.”
“Yeah, I’m getting that message loud and clear.”
