“The time is now, dragon.” She reached down, her hand finding my chin, tilting my face up with gentle firmness. “This moment has been written in the stars since before magic came to this world, child. I know where we must go. But prepare your heart as best you can.”
Her words felt like a promise, a reprieve and devastation all at once.
I looked up at the woman through tears that burned and whispered, “Where?”
Chapter 49
Syneca
When mortals ask if I fear death, I tell them this truth: I fear it precisely as much as they do. I will die only once. The difference is I know someone beautiful will be born from my ending.
Even the Oracle wore a cloak as we stepped into the city.
Just the two of us. When I’d looked back at Riot before leaving the inn, his expression had been solemn. A look that felt too heavy for what should have been a simple rescue mission.
He wasn’t allowed to come. The Oracle’s request.
The fear that realization sparked, on top of everything else crushing my chest, pushed me one step closer to the edge I’d been teetering on since Gran’s face had appeared in that throne room.
Furies had locked the demon princes in the Underworld, and the Master was clearly on a mission to see their end. Aureth wouldn’t be safe here. And she knew it. It’s why she’d been hiding in the hotel. Why she’d said nothing at the Erelith wall when the sentinel had searched for answers. Why Riot hadcalled her a witch. The demon prince would know what she was the moment he sensed her presence.
But she knew. She always knew more than she said.
She’d known I was the Phoenix, not Vitoria. Known the oath was meant to be broken. But had she known about Tiberius? That he’d only wanted to get Calder to this city? Had she seen this coming and walked into it anyway?
And why had she left Riot behind? What did she know that made separating from her Guardian the safer choice? The questions spiraled as I followed her through twisted streets, but I didn’t ask them. Couldn’t form words past the grief lodged in my throat.
Calder. And Lucy.
And Gran.
My mind kept circling back to her. To the last time I’d seen her alive, actually alive, not standing bloodied in a demon’s throne room waiting to die.
Seven years ago. Sunshine fell through the windows of Eda Mire’s cottage, the kind of golden afternoon light that made you believe the world was good. I’d been studying at the table, Gran heating a cauldron in the back room for a new tincture she wanted to try.
Silas had stood first. Alert. Hackles rising.
Before we knew what was happening, hunters were filling the clearing.
Gran grabbed me, shoved me toward the back door with strength I didn’t know she possessed. “You must live.”
Silas had dragged me into the forest. I’d fought him quietly. Tried to go back. Tried to save her. Until the screaming.
I’d never stepped foot in that cottage again. Not until the scrivener’s portal had deposited us there, and even then I couldn’t step foot in that back room. Eda Mire had gone in afterthe hunters left. Come out pale as death, shaking so badly she could barely stand.
“There was so much blood,” she’d whispered. “Too much blood.”
I’d never questioned the missing body. Never thought for a second Gran could have survived that much violence. Never searched for her because I’d been so certain she was dead.
And she’d been alive. Suffering. Alone. For seven years.
The building Aureth stopped at was nowhere near the castle. Small compared to most here. Unremarkable. The kind of structure you’d walk past without noticing in a city full of glistening architecture and floating flames.
For the first time since we left the hotel, I questioned whether I should trust her. I’d trusted Vitoria and seen where that had gotten me.
But what choice did I have? Gran was running out of time, and I was running out of everything else. If I could save her, then maybe I could save Calder too, and we could go. We could get Pip and Wickett, get the fuck out of this nightmare city and never come back.
I followed Aureth inside.
