Squirrels?Thea offered.
Squirrels were rejected. So were voles, rabbits, hares—which were worse than rabbits, apparently—and snakes, which was fine since Thea wasn’t even sure how to find one.
What kind of prey do you want, Mina?The magic would hopefully last a few hours, but it would all be for naught if she couldn’t strike this damn bargain. She didn’t have another card in her deck that would let her connect to an animal.
Something I can’t get myself. Impress me.
Okay. Something an owl couldn’t hunt.How about tea cakes?
Tea cakes?
She could feel the animal’s confusion. She pushed an image of it, then not just the image but the taste.
Mina considered but rejected it.
There went fruit, fish, cookies, roast duck, and almost anything else Thea was reasonably confident she could get her hands on.
What they settled on? Steak.
It was almost time to leave the village when the negotiation ceased. Thea prayed desperately that the connection wouldn’t have a tight range that would snap with distance.
I need you to find this place for me.She pushed the image from her head.Do this, and meet me here—she sent another image of Ioni, specifically her room with its balcony—and there’ll be steak waiting for you.
Once in accord, the owl took to the skies again. Thea watched with double vision, half her mind on the owl’s path and half on the steps in front of her. And Thea prayed once more to Eka that this plan would work.
Chapter Forty-One
Samara
Boom!
Crack, boom!
Lights exploded in the sky. I pulled back, covering my ears as the sky turned yellow, green, blue with light. Whatever quiet moment we’d had dissipated as the lights burst through the air.
A slight whistle sounded, the barest specks of darkness flying into the sky. Then they erupted again, this time a show of various pinks, purples, and reds in radiant circles.
“What is this? Magic?” I asked, awed. The sound had startled me the first time, but the second wasn’t as bad. The sky lit almost as bright as day with a flurry of more sparks. Beautiful.
“A mix of magic and chemistry. They do this every year. Limanos is famous for their fireworks, though they were actually invented on another continent. They spend months preparing for this every year. It’s half the reason people travel from all over the continent for Skyflame.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this. I can see why you brought us out here.” We were several miles away from the detonation.
“Can you?” was his soft reply.
Our hands were still touching, where I’d pulled his into mine, still warm against the cool night. Whatever courage I’d had a moment ago, however, had faded with the shimmering lights.
I can’t have him. This moment, this night, it would have to be enough.
If I wasn’t a witch… if I wasn’t this witch… if any number of strings of fate had been threaded differently, there could have been a future for us. In Greymere, I’d dreamed of nothing but seeing the sky again, the three moons. I’d dreamed of survival.
Raphael had shown me not just the sky, but that the sky could be more alive than I could’ve conceived. That I could be in a kingdom where humans and vampires and all manner of creatures coexisted. No, not coexisted—celebrated together.
The display grew more complicated. The initial explosions were no more than a brief prelude announcing the beginning of the show. It started with circles, then stars, then the moons themselves, matching the exact phases of the night—a testament to the skill of the chemists and astronomers. Other shapes followed, telling entire stories through ephemeral flashes.
We sat there for over half an hour in companionable silence, while I was continuously awed.
A series of cracks shot through the sky. Jagged wings, pointed ears—a bat.
