Page 190
Brand spun on her. “What rituals? Where?”
Hedda and Faldir flanked Cordelia, each holding an end of the manacles around her wrists, the Sorcerit as serene through the chaos as if she was having a pleasant stroll on the seaside.
She pointed to the Elder Halls ahead. “The sacred task of readying our Blessed Keeper for their channeling of the moons’ power, even more important when it is their first—which is also the only reason you’ve not found yourself surrounded and detained for your blatant violations of acceptable inter-realm conduct by the forces Araxis commands.”
“Ach, that’s rich. This was your damned idea, Cordy,” Magnus grumbled, gesturing at her. “We’re only doing what you said.”
“I believe I have no idea what you mean, Your Highness,” she said, a picture of innocence.
Brand balled his hands into fists. “Will she be harmed before we can get to her?”
Cordelia looked him dead in the eye. “No. Your brother will make sure of that.”
“My brother is the one who took Luna in the first place and put her in this position.”
Brand wasn’t even particularly angry with Araxis. He was well aware of the intricacies of being High Ambassador, and the sometimes dodgy shite one needed to do in order to keep their people safe. It was the lack of communication that irked him. The gaping hole in Brand’s chest because Araxis was an inconsiderate prick and kept Luna away with no reassurances.
Cordelia freed a long suffering sigh. “The second Lunara lifted Illamiata from its resting place to save you, she put herself in this position. It is the single most important of her duties as Keeper, and she was ignoring it for your sake. Honestly. Sisters spare me from Demon dramatics.”
“Oy, are you joking?” Faldir scoffed, shaking his head. “We took two steps past the portal and your lot started hieing for the fucking hills, Firebane. We aren’t the ones being dramatic.”
Orange and red flames swirled in her pupils. “The first thing you did was bend down and roar at a table of young Sorcerit, Third Commander.”
“They were in our way,” Hedda grumbled.
“Everyone shut the fuck up and look,” Fern snapped.
Their gazes followed the end of her mace, pointing up towards the sky.
The cosmos danced beyond the needle-like spires of Starkeep, the moonstone monoliths reaching higher and tighter with every level until all that was left was the single peak at the city’s center. Above that highest tower, the twin moons loomed one below the other, pink and pearlescent and big enough to blot out a quarter of the night sky. The streets and buildings hummed, their inherent glow intensifying with each little pulse as those two celestial bodies drew closer to their full alignment.
That was not what Fern was pointing at though.
About two stories below the summit of the Elder Halls, Lunara stood at a window with Araxis, a heated exchange happening between them.
Brand’s first real view of her in months.
His heart rebelled, hammering against its cage of bones. It wanted out. Wanted to fly to her and never come back. And then he watched his brother grab and yank her closer, and that was the end of his fucking rope.
A rumbling growl rose up from the depths of him, his body shaking. Even without Solyrian to grace its land, the Evesong relinquished some of its magic to him, and his whorls of power flashed their fury as he bulked further, grew taller.
“The guard at the halls’ entrance will have no choice but to question you before allowing entrance, Your Highness,” Cordelia said, reading the darkest of his thoughts. “If they do, there will be yet more inside that seek to stop you interfering. Go easy on them, please.”
Not bloody likely.
“Remember the day you found out I was actually one of your brothers and not just a mangy mutt?”
A hot lance of pain went straight through Brand’s middle as he looked down at Magnus. He remembered that day a little too well now—one of the many times he tried to run away and accidentally used the stone to capture the ankles of everyone in Argoph so they couldn’t follow him, including their own parents. He refused to think of her, of the reason he was trying to escape.
“What of it?”
Mag gave Brand’s thigh a slap and grinned up at him. “I think we know exactly how to do as Cordy says and still get you up there.”
The glimmering stone of the Elder Halls fought Brand all the way, as if the tower knew he sought to use it against its own people. Which was strange, considering the land gifted him an extra boost of power mere moments ago. Fortunately, he was bloody enraged enough that it didn’t matter.
They left Hedda and Faldir on the first floor with Cordelia. At the Firebane’s own insistence, the twins were needed to escort her to a gathering of the Elders—a meeting she couldn’t miss without risking the Occurrence or some shite. Brand was supposed to find Araxis. Of course, she swept away without telling him where to find his youngest brother.
All the way up it was, towards the last place they saw him.
