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When Aster didn’t answer, I swept around on my stool and stood. “What else aren’t you telling me? No listening runes here, remember… So?” I took a step towards him, and he straightened, his gaze lingering on my wrists, my neck, my hair. Taking me all in as if he were trying to make a permanent record.

“I’m not sure Lex has that long.”

A hard lump built in my throat. Knowing Lex was alive had kept me going—somewhere, he lived. I had stayed with my cousins until we could all escape, but it had always been only a matter of time before I rescued him. But if he were asleep? If he couldn’t be moved? If he were… Aster was telling me that it had to be this Yule. It was what Morlan had said, too.

The air around me felt thick.

“There are many reasons to break the curse on the phoenix’s rebirth, on the Yule madness, for the Lost, but for me it’s always been for Lex,” I said.

Aster crossed his arms over his chest as I approached.

There were so few people I could talk about Lex with, and I couldn’t help but lean into the warmth of our shared history. “I remember all of us together. Out riding with the hawks.” Back when they both believed they would be chosen as Riders. “I don’t remember everything now.” My throat tightened. “I don’t remember how he smelt. The sound of his laughter is like a distant whisper when it used to fill the room, and when I reach for all those times…” I swallowed, trying to contain the loss crashing over me. “Haven’t you convinced them to let him out, now you’re all so friendly again?” I cocked my head, waiting.

“There are things that they won’t discuss with me, and the Lost is one of them. I’m not sure they’re even held in the prison.”

I gave him a sharp nod. “So where, then?”

He shrugged and didn’t meet my eye. “Listen… there’s an underground settlement near the ruined Sky Tower in the Wilds; it’s where I’ve made sure people have gone.” The Annatalian who went to the Ruckus, the ones Thorn wanted me to find. “If anyone knows about Lex or Ember, it’ll be them.”

I held out my arms. “What are we doing here if Lex has so little time left? Get Griffin and let’s go. Those Riders can’t see us on your Warhorse.”

“It would take too long. There are other ways to travel quickly. I know you’ve read about them.” He lifted my amulet and turned it over in his palm. Was he talking about the FootPaths? “The General needs to be stopped, and we need our Riders back,” he whispered. “When the time comes, we need an army that can rival theirs. We need Lex in the sky fighting back!”

Then he dropped the amulet and straightened as boots beat on the stone stairway behind me. Kit walked past me and rested against the workshop table, kicking out his legs and crossing them.

“He’s right,” Kit said. “Seven of the Settlecent phoenixes have gone, and their Riders are…” Lost. “If it keeps going, none of them will last until next year. And the Lost will…”

That halted my steps for a split second, but I continued my charge towards Kit, thrusting a finger into his chest. The leather was deathly warm under my touch, telling me of the dangerous skin beneath.

“So, now you’re forcing me to help you.”

“You used to worship us, princess. Do you remember all that time in the temple on your knees, praying to the Skyworld for sun or rain?” His dark, floppy hair had fallen over one of his eyes, and he pushed it away.

“I was a stupid child who did a lot of stupid things because I believed what the priests and my uncle told me about the Riders. I… That was long ago.”

“I told you to leave,” Aster said to Kit. “I’ve got this.”

“That’s the thing, though. I don’t take orders from you.” Kit’s deep, dark eyes met mine and shone with multicoloured mayhem. Yule madness was fluttering around him. I dropped my finger, but I was still trapped between the two of them, and the air was stiflingly hot.

Aster stiffened behind me, and then he bit out, “Please leave.”

“Stop being so possessive, Az.” Kit winked at me. “I spend too much time with Tor, and there’s never any reaction from him. And, anyway, I brought food and drink so that…” His gaze lifted over my shoulder, and he paused.

I sidestepped out of Aster’s hold and turned to see Torran in the doorway.

“I swore an oath to Bronwen, and I’ll fix the codex if it wants to be mended. But so long as you’re all here, I don’t think the codex will talk, so you’ll need to leave…”

“And once the codex is fixed… then you’ll run?” asked Torran, still standing on the threshold.

I distanced myself from them all and reclaimed my stool. “Then I’m none of your business.”

Kit coughed out a laugh, then punched Aster on his way out of the room. “This might be the most fun I’ve had in years. But… you know we need them both alive…” His fire-touched finger darted between Torran and me. “So, I’ll get him out of here before she stabs him again.”

“Going to tell me where my brother is?” I called after Kit and Torran as they walked away.

Kit paused by the door with his back to me.

“And Ember?” I barked.