The blistering winds in the open skies above the House of Peace were colder than Cassi remembered. She shivered, fighting the chill as she and Elias made their way across the icy tundra. The rolling hills of snow were painted in shades of pink, and a few eager stars already twinkled overhead.
“I see it!” he shouted, his excitement palpable. “There. Cassi, do you see it?”
A brilliant gold spot gleamed in the distance—the reflection of the dying sun on smooth crystal. A sense of dread panged in her chest. They’d reached the sky bridge.
“I see it,” she called back.
“We’re almost home!”
He sped ahead. Cassi let him, taking the opening to reach inside her jacket pocket and retrieve the vial given to her that morning by one of Malek’s agro’kines. She unwrapped the cloth and emptied the elixir into its folds, careful not to breathe in the scent. Elias flapped his wings, his tan feathers glimmering as they caught the sun, and came to a stop at the base of the sky bridge. Heart in her throat, Cassi arched her wings back, an owl on the hunt.
“Cas—”
She slammed into him from behind, wrapping her arms and legs around him like talons, holding his limbs firmly to his torso. Elias stumbled forward in surprise. Before he could react, she pressed the cloth to his nose and mouth. Muffled protests spewed from his lips. Ever the warrior, he thrashed, trying to toss her off. Cassi clung to him, keeping her palm against his face as he jerked his head from side to side.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured as his fight began to give. “I’m so sorry.”
He’d been her protector all those weeks her body had been left to rot in Malek’s dungeon. He’d tried to save her, and she’d tried to save him—which was exactly what she was doing now, she reminded herself. She was saving him from himself.
Unsteady on his feet, Elias stumbled left, and then right, teetering at the precipice of the cliffs. Cassi unlatched her legs from his waist and set them down as his body went slack. Keeping the cloth to his mouth, she slowly eased him to the ground until he lay still on the snow. Then she collapsed by his side and buried her face between her knees.
I’m sorry, she thought again. Elias, I’m sorry.
She thought she’d left her days of deception behind her. But this time, at least, it was a plan sanctioned by her queen.
“Cassi.”
A breeze stirred her hair and two boots crunched on the ice, their owner casting a shadow across her lap. She didn’t need to look up to know who it was. Luka’s hand appeared in her field of vision, offering aid.
“I wasn’t sure you’d come,” she murmured as he pulled her to her feet. “I wasn’t sure you’d remember.”
People without magic didn’t always remember her dream visits. It was one of the reasons she was desperately trying to forget her night with Xander a few days before, along with the hope she’d felt at the possibility of his forgiveness. Drunken minds were even more apt to forget. But Luka had been stone-cold sober when she’d paid him a visit yesterday evening, and thanks to Lyana, he now knew exactly who she was—no longer his first love, but a traitor. His illusions had been shattered weeks before, and Cassi had been avoiding him ever since.
“Well, I’m here,” he muttered.
“Did you bring the supplies?”
“Let’s get this over with.”
His dark eyes were inscrutable as he slid the pack from his shoulders and wordlessly handed her a folded bundle of cloth. They unraveled it together, taking steps back, until the sling was stretched to its full length. Then they set it down and carefully rolled Elias into the center, careful not to crunch his wings. Once that was done, Luka handed her a warmer jacket—something she hadn’t asked for but wasn’t surprised he’d remembered to bring. The furs were smooth against her skin as she tied the openings shut, instantly feeling the chill in her bones lessen. Even though dark was quickly descending, she pulled the hood over her head, and he did the same with his. There was no way to hide her wings, but beneath the stars and at a quick glance, her coloring could be mistaken for a dove’s.
“Did you find a safe place to hide him?” she asked cautiously. Luka had barely glanced at her, his focus on the immobile body of his best friend. A sad slant flattened his normally plush lips.
“Yes, an empty house near the edge of the city. Just follow me.”
He took the front of the sling and buckled the straps around his shoulders. She did the same at the back. As one, they rose into the sky with Elias suspended between them. The sun had disappeared by the time they reached Sphaira, just as she’d planned, providing cover as they slinked into the city. Most of the population would be inside and out of the cold, and they’d never been a particularly vigilant house anyway, a fact Cassi had taken advantage of many times before. No one shouted an alarm as they stopped before a vacant crystal home and crept inside.
After they settled Elias on a bed, Cassi quickly closed the curtains. Luka emptied his bag, removing food, water, and finally a long length of chain. They both winced as the metal clinked shut around Elias’s ankle, securing him to the heavy wooden frame.
Luka finally broke the silence. “What did you tell him?”
“Weeks ago, back before the raven isle fell, Lyana tried to explain the truth to him, about magic and the prophecy and the world beneath the mist, but he didn’t believe her. He thought she was an agent of Vesevios. He wouldn’t listen.”
Luka nodded, unsurprised.
“So, this time around, we thought it best if we left the explanations to you. He thinks we escaped. I made sure the fight was convincing, but after what happened on the sky bridge, he’ll be confused. You need to tell him what’s going on. You need to make sure he believes you. Promise me, Luka, you won’t let him go until you’re sure he won’t tell anyone what he saw beneath the mist. It could ruin everything.”
“I promise,” the prince murmured, his voice heavy. Not looking at her, he reached out and squeezed Elias’s shoulder. His back shuddered as he drew a shaky breath. “Thank you, Cassi, for bringing him home.”
“I couldn’t leave him,” she whispered as she took a spot on the opposite side of the bed. Maybe it would have been better for the world if he’d remained locked in Malek’s dungeons, but after everything they’d been through, she couldn’t abandon him. Cassi brushed her fingers across Elias’s brow, smoothing out the wrinkles in his dark skin. “I wish I could stay.”
“But duty calls?”
“Something like that.”
“I’ll stay, don’t worry. I won’t let him wake up alone.”
“I know.”
The thing she’d always loved most about Luka was his caring heart, maybe because it was the one thing Malek had never displayed in all their many years spent dreaming together. The dove prince, however, wore it proudly on his sleeve like a badge, a fact her own guarded heart admired.
“Are you headed to the raven quarters on the outer isle?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” He sighed and leaned back, letting go of his friend as he turned toward her, his expression all business. “We received word from the House of Song and the House of Prey. Both are expected to begin evacuations soon and asked for their guest quarters to be stocked with food. I imagine the ravens stationed on the House of Song will begin moving soon, too, so whatever army my sister is building out there, they need to move.”
“So soon?” Cassi bit back a curse. “Have they experienced earthquakes?”
“Not yet, but word arrived from the House of Flight. The situation there is escalating quickly, so we asked the remaining royal families to begin evacuations and gather in Sphaira for us to discuss a course of action together. The Houses of Song and Prey agreed. The owls remain notably stubborn, as I’m sure is no surprise to you. They refuse to abandon the library.”
No, she wasn’t surprised, at his words or the slight jab. It was the least of her problems. “And where else should Lyana’s mages go?”
“Back where they came from,” he muttered.
Cassi frowned, staring at him hard.
“I know, I know. Don’t even say it,” he responded to her silent accusation. “Their magic is no different from Lyana’s magic. I only meant they floated up from the Sea of Mist, so why don’t they float right back down?”
They could, Cassi supposed, but Lyana had asked her to keep recruiting mages from the remaining houses. Visiting their dreams and convincing them to abandon their lives to join the ranks would be difficult enough, but asking them to travel beneath the mist? Impossible. No, Lyana’s mages needed to stay close, no matter how much grief her mother’s crew would give her.
“What about Sphaira?” she asked.
“What about it?”
“Could you find a few more empty houses, like this one?”
He sighed heavily, but a lifetime of dealing with her and Lyana made him perfectly aware it was futile to say no. “I could try.”
“Thank you, Luka.” She reached across the bed. He flinched at her touch, and she dropped his hand, retreating immediately. “It’s late. I should go.”
The mattress creaked as she shifted her weight, turning toward the door. Just as she eased to her feet, his voice stopped her.
“Was any of it real?”
A knot formed in her throat. She glanced over her shoulder, but he stared at the wall, refusing to meet her gaze, the tendons in his neck bulging.
“No one ever ordered me to be with you,” she explained softly, forcing her voice to remain steady. “Everything I said, everything I did, I did because I wanted to. So yes, Luka. It might not have been fully honest, but it was real.”
By the time she walked outside, the tear she’d been fighting finally fell, freezing upon her cheek in the cold night air. Cassi scrubbed it hastily away. She had no right to cry, and he had every right to question her. But she was tired, so tired, of facing the consequences of her actions. Had she done wrong? Yes. But it had come from a good place, as brutal and misguided as that was. She thought she’d been saving the world. Maybe she had been saving the world. Didn’t that count for something?
There was only one person who’d never regarded her as a stranger, who knew all her secrets and never asked why, who never needed explanations and never demanded things she didn’t want to give, and for the first time in fifteen years, that person was within reach.
Cassi kicked off the snow and raced into the sky. Time passed in a blur, the moonlit landscape shifting beneath her as she kept her focus on the horizon. Everyone was asleep by the time she reached the compound, but that didn’t stop her. Cassi slipped inside one of the houses and sped down the shadowed halls until she reached the final door. Wood groaned loudly in the silence, and the woman on the bed jolted awake. Captain Rokaro sprang to a seated position, the colorful fabrics in her hair shifting around her shoulders as she turned toward the sound and froze.
Cassi swallowed nervously.
Her mother stood.
In all their years dreaming together, they’d never been particularly sentimental, both of them hardened by the difficult turns of their lives. But as the captain took a cautious step forward, her daughter did the same, and then they were running, until they crashed into each other’s arms.
Xander could wait.
The diary could wait.
Lyana’s army could wait.
But Cassi had waited long enough. As she buried her face into her mother’s neck and breathed in the salty scent of her hair, the world and all its problems faded. At long last, she was home, and no one could take that away.