“Good,” I said, the words hard to get out. “Ameirah will need you.”
“Tempted to say she wouldn’t need me to heal her injuries if you’d done your job and kept her safe, but I don’t like to kick a man while he’s down.”
“Yet you said it anyway.”
He shrugged, arms folded over his chest as he assessed me with a critical stare. “I know Ameirah thinks I’m a pretentious fucker, but I value family. Even more so after—Naila.”
Yes, he was that traitor’s brother. My gaze hardened, and I analysed him in a new light.
He rolled his eyes, mouth flat. “Before you start throwing baseless accusations around, I didn’t know any of the shit she did until later. And everything I’ve done since has been to correct the mess she started.”
I ground my jaw, biting back a hundred different words. Finally, I asked, “Do you know why she did it?”
“I know whyshedid it, and I can guess at why she was given that task. She wanted power. She always felt inadequate, even though it was total bullshit. Our father is—not an easy man to live with. Never wanted a daughter and took that out on her. Naila never spoke to me about it, but I knew when shejoined your legion, it was a middle finger to Father. Or worse, my sister trying to earn his approval. He’s always praised magic and strength, practically drummed it into us. No doubt, whoever turned Naila convinced her she’d become immensely powerful.”
“And why she was given the task?” I prompted, digesting the information. Understanding, but never forgiving. Not when she shattered Shula’s heart, deceived all of us—all in the Legion of Fyreveinandall of Ithanys. Not when her treason led to so many deaths it was impossible to even estimate a number. Not when we’d had to bury the bodies.
“It was how that bitch queen held so much land in the last war, how she conquered so much power and kept us defeated. She turned us against each other. This war between us and Kalder? It servesthem.It has never served us. Tell me—why did the war begin?”
I opened my mouth, but I couldn’t remember why. No one I knew could remember what had begun the feud.
But the Zalaam queen? She was a historical figure, not a current threat. And yet… both the Torn Idle and Chakir Kissami said our enemy were araethawn. Not the peaceful kind who’d become victims to the war in a different way; the ones she corrupted into her Zalaam warriors, her twisted army.
“Exactly,” Khalid said grimly. “We—” He shielded his eyes with a hand as he scanned the skies. No, watched a wyvern shooting straight across Earlsorn, not making an attempt to hide their approach.
I whipped around to warn the others, but Khalid grabbed my elbow.
“It’s Zaina. She’s one of us. But she’s supposed to be in Morysen with Kamaal.”
“Something is wrong,” I growled, pulling my arm free and calling my legion from inside. An itch began between my shoulder blades, and my feet burned with the need to run.
More and more,the lightning soul said in a low voice.The threads converge.
What the fuck does that even mean?
It’s almost time,she replied, and even she had the sense to sound worried.This path will always bring me face-to-face with my greatest enemy, and the time is almost upon us.
Your greatest enemy. The araethawn?I asked, watching the sapphire wyvern sail closer, the rider atop the small creature familiar by face if not by name. I’d seen her with my brother enough times to know she was one of his closest friends. Even if I hadn’t knownKhalidwas part of his unit. The others too had been kept far from the capital. The distrust burned, but it was easy to brush it off and focus on Ameirah.
I didn’t notice the lightning soul declined to answer. Not as the sapphire wyvern landed at the end of the narrow street and their rider leapt off, running the moment her boots connected with the ground.
“He’s gone,” she shouted, her expression stark with panic. “Kamaal’s gone. The last time anyone saw him, he left the palace aerie with Ameirah.” She panted, skidding to a stop in front of us, eyes on Khalid as she rasped. “AndKaazhim.”
By how soundly Khalid swore, I knew the esteemed gentry was no ally of ours. I wasn’t surprised; he and my father were as thick as thieves.
The Legion of Silverstorm explained what they knew in hasty answers to blunt questions. And together we made a sprint for where we’d left our mounts—then, we were airborne, flowing into formation towards Morysen.
I prayed we weren’t too late to stop whatever Kaazhim and the king had planned for my wife and brother.
CHAPTER 29
AMEIRAH
“Fly, Raya!” Kamaal roared over the shouts of fae and the wyvern screeches that filled the sky. “As fast as you can, take us east!”
East? From this angle in the city, east would deliver us to Earlsorn, or Strava. I had no intention of going anywhere near my former home, but if it got us out of the city, I’d handle it.
All around us, in every direction, leathery wings beat the air, talons carved paths through the sky, andfireraged. Bright orange plumes painted blackened streaks across the tallest spires, the medina, and homes—homes that had been full of families—were ablaze. Smoke rose in dark columns from so many corners of the city that I couldn’t count them, and for a second, the raging grief inside me stumbled.
