Mariah snorted and the eagle gave an indignant squawk. “A pet? Absolutely not.” She cocked her head. “A companion. Afriend.”
The eagle blinked her approval.
“Okay,” Matheo said slowly. “Friend.” He hesitantly lifted a hand.
“I wouldn’t do that.”
“But you just said?—”
“She’smyfriend,” Mariah said. “You’ll have to earn her as yours, dear Matheo.”
He took a step back, grumbling, “I would think being soul-bonded to herfriendwould be enough.”
Mariah’s smile widened, thoughts turning as she studied the eagle. She knew some Old Onitan, just enough to piece together a few tangled sentences. It was a dead language yet still taught in schools; it was important to hold on to the traditions of the past, they’d said.
Maybe this was one tradition that actually deserved to stay.
A word filled her mind, and it struck her with how perfect it fit.
“Cielle,” she said, testing the feel of it on her tongue. “Is that your name? Cielle?”
The eagle clucked happily, wings rustling under Mariah’s fingers.
“What does it mean?”
Mariah glanced at Matheo. “Not so fluent in your Old Onitan?”
He gave a wry grin, shrugging sheepishly.
She turned back to Cielle. “It means ‘bright, shining heavens.’” For a moment, she swore those heavens brightened in answer. A forgotten piece of the universe clicking into place, a long-kept secret giving a deep, feline stretch.
Mariah removed her hand from Cielle’s feathers. Her rage and resolve wrapped around her like an embrace, keeping at bay all the darkness biting at her heels. Cielle spread her wings and launched into the sky.
Mariah walked quickly to her closet. “How about paying our holy friends a little visit?”
Gods,Mariah was surprised to learn, needed to sleep.
Amasis had told her as much when Mariah had raced downstairs. The High Counsellor was sipping on a steaming cup of coffee as they lounged in the morning sunlight. Their brows had lifted in surprise as Mariah stormed into the room, asking where Rulene and Callamus went when not meddling.
Mariah’s own brows had lifted when Amasis had told her they were staying in Rulene's sanctum three rows over.
Some of her urgent, pressing resolve waned as she’d walked across the packed sands, Cielle flying overhead and Matheo on her heels. She’d toyed nervously with the dragon wings on her dagger, sinking into herself.
Sinking into the knowledge of what she must do.
Mariah now stood before the heavy door to the regal sanctum, a dwelling certainly fit for a goddess and her consort. Cielle landed on the branch of a nearby acacia tree, settling in the shade. Mariah drew in a deep breath and raised her fist.
The door swung open before she could knock. Rulene and Callamus wore curious expressions, their clothes pristine and their power flowing from them in heady, intoxicating waves.
“Mariah,” Rulene said softly, her sky-blue brows lifting. “What are you?—”
Mariah clung tight to that fury-fueled resolve as she interrupted the Goddess of the Day Sky.
“Tell me how to kill a god.”
Chapter 15
There was nothing Quentin disliked more than being bored.
