Everyone turns to her.
“Tiana—” Ash starts.
“Don’t.” Tiana holds up a hand. Her eyes burn with rage. The same look Kestra had the day she stopped asking Father for combat lessons and started stealing mine. “Jadeve knows where these Seelie strike teams operate. I’m going to find them. And I’m going to end them.”
“You can’t do that alone,” Orion says.
“I work better alone.” Tiana’s chin lifts. “Always have. Committees slow me down. Debate slows me down. I don’t need a war council, I need a target and time. I can get a few out of the way by the month’s end. It’ll give the gods time to wake.”
Ash studies her for a long moment.
“You’re not asking permission,” Ash says finally.
“No.” Tiana’s smile is sharp. “I’m not.”
They don’t speak further. Don’t need to. It’s the same silence Mother and her spymaster shared, a whole conversation in a glance, and everyone else just furniture.
“Kestra and I will gather the Unseelie exiles with Cullen.” Jadeve nods toward my sister. “Build the force to retake the Unseelie Court from within.”
“Tiana hunts Seelie strike teams.” Ash’s voice sounds exactly like it did when she first showed up in Faerie. “Protect what settlements remain.”
“And us?” Orion asks, his hand still on Ash’s hip.
“The tavern first.” Ash looks at her hands. At the thorns pulsing faintly beneath her skin. “The glamour needs to come off. And we need the dead gods.”
“Not dead,” Kestra says softly. “Sleeping. There’s a difference.”
“The courts won’t retake themselves,” Tiana says. She’s already turning toward Jadeve, already planning, alreadyhunting in her mind. “We’ll meet again when there’s something worth meeting about.”
She doesn’t say goodbye. Doesn’t look back.
The others drift away to prepare. Giving us space. Or maybe just escaping the tension that’s been crackling between Kestra and me since she pinned me to that tree.
My shoulder still aches. Good. I deserve it.
“Kieran.” Kestra’s voice has lost its edge. Now it’s just soft. Just my sister.
“I know.” I can’t look at her. “I know you have to do this. I know I can’t stop you. I know?—”
“Shut up.”
I shut up.
She crosses to me. Small. Fierce. Our mother’s face with our mother’s power and none of our mother’s coldness.
Her hand presses against my chest. Right over my heart.
“She froze because she had no one to thaw her.” Kestra’s voice cracks on the words. “Father made sure of that. Isolated her. Controlled her. Turned her into the ice queen everyone feared and no one loved.”
“Kestra—”
“I have Jadeve.” She cuts me off. “I have an army to build and a court to reclaim and a purpose that’s mine. Not Father’s. Not yours.Mine.” Her fingers curl into my shirt. “And I have you. Even across the distance. Even if we don’t see each other for years. I haveyou.”
Tears burn behind my eyes. I refuse to let them fall.
“You are the bravest person I know.” The words scrape out of me. “You always have been. Even when you were small enough to fit in my shadow.”
“I was never in your shadow.” She smiles, but it’s watery. “I was just waiting for you to notice I had my own light.”
