uthian had been adamant on sealing the oath by blood. So we did, twin scars running along our fingers—scars that would remain once the veil melted. Scars that had Luthian shaken to the bones when I'd cut my own flesh, binding that oath to myself as much as to him. He hadn't commented, but there'd been a new sort of light in his eyes.

A light that lingered as we talked, and talked, and talked, sprawled on the snow right where Carter and I had been. Minutes of conversation bled into hours, and we found ourselves talking about the past, about how I lived with Martha all those years, about the poor house, the after-school work, the lonely nights with a book as sole comfort. And he'd listened to that uninteresting life, listened and understood it. All of it—feeling like I didn't belong, like I was a bystander in a life I didn't own. Perhaps he did, because it was one not forged in a castle with glimmering golds, but in a house with fissured walls and a groaning bed.

I rested my head against the rough, frozen rock, feeling the cold seeping into my skull, bringing with it a steady clarity. As for Veidor, he was sprawled on the snow, head resting next to my plied left leg, eyes on the sky.

"How haven't you frozen to death yet?" I asked, tracing the smoke coming out of my mouth with my eyes before it vanished. Luthian shifted slightly, thin clothes silent against the snow, rested his hands over his abdomen, and made to stare at me for a passing second.

''I've always been immune in a way to the cold, since birth actually. The capability grew with time from withstanding rains and winds to plunging into frozen waters unbothered.''

His words had me turning to him, bending slightly to meet his eyes still staring up. To meet the teasing light in them."It took you long enough to notice, sister.''

It truly did, as images of our journey together came back one after one. Images of a Luthian unattained by the deadly coldness, covered in the thinnest cloak and wools, utterly unflinching when the mountain winds seemed to slaughter my lungs.

''This is a capability I have yet never heard of,'' I admitted, fingers curling in the snow as I tried straightening my position. Pain shot in my muscles, but I swallowed it, each time becoming easier.

''There had been no record prior to my birth. And limited are those who know of it now.'' He stared at my face for a lingering heartbeat, weighing his words. "But there is someone new displaying its early phases.''

My raised eyebrows were enough of a silent question.

"You.''

"And what makes you think this way?"

Veidor pushed himself up, putting one ankle over the other as his back rested on the rock, his hand falling close to mine, a movement away from brushing it.

"You didn't seem truly bothered when you found me after your fight with the centaur, body frozen from waist and below.'' My eyebrows arched even higher. ''Your face didn't dry the way the others did, your lips not too chapped and cracked, their colors still somewhat vibrant. You fared even better than the Nevorian Lord who has enough fire in him to warm cities.''

"You've been staring much at me, haven’t you?"

Luthian didn't answer, but his eyes were laughing, more than I'd ever seen. So at ease, even when he'd seen just what horrors I could create with so much as loosening a leash on some of my powers.

"Well,'' I breathed out, the thought of possessing such abilities more soothing than I would have imagined, ''killing that centaur with a half frozen body wasn't the easiest thing I've ever done.''

Veidor laughed. '' I can imagine—''

His laughing eyes faded in an instant, every echo of our words swaying away as a faraway batting of winds ran through the skies. A batting that sounded closer and closer and—

The snow-covered earth seemed to shake as he landed, massive wings of flesh and shadows stretched beyond him and into the night. Red wine eyes met mine and the world froze. Froze and tightened, as the stare we shared went tense. Far more tense than any that Aedis and I had experienced yet.

Suddenly, I couldn't remember how to breathe, how to move as his wings folded, as his spine straightened from his crouched landing. His eyes were still on mine, still on my face, on my soul, seeing deeper than skin. Seeing all the way into the edge of the mating bond needing to be claimed—the bond I'd hidden from him.

I felt my heart wavering, and the light that flared around us was a mercy.

From that light, our three remaining Windreapers stepped, and out of them all, Leyath—Rhiannon—was the one to display just how taut her muscles had gone upon seeing her brother.

"Already here.'' Her eyes had been unwavering on my mate as he turned to her, the tension finally breaking to splinters.

"I seem to have a new found delight through soaring the skies.''

Carter stepped closer, standing at my side, eyes so keen, so well-capable of seeing through his new powers. The oath we took didn't go unnoticed to him. His only reaction was the hand that fell on my shoulder, gently rubbing.

Leyath was still staring at Aedis. "So you flew here, faster than a portal.''

Silence was all that fell on both Luthian and I for the first few heartbeats, until that muteness morphed into questions ringing back in forth in the former lieutenant's thoughts.

And yet Leon had been so at ease as he eyed my third, the edge of a smile on his lips. "You seem shocked, sister.''

I realized there that it hadn't been hatred behind that tensed stare, or truly anger. It was a silent sort of pain, something so bitter, so oily and thick. I hadn't told him about it—about us, about that beautiful thing binding our souls.

Hadn't told him until he realized it back in the Sombers, on a moment where death was so close. Hurt, he was hurt in a way I wondered if I could ever fix. I should have told him, I would have, had I known. Because no matter what, I hurt him. Hurt—when I was trying to keep him safe. Hurt for weeks since our talk nigh the lake, keeping it silent, keeping it hidden from me. And I hadn't tried seeing it, because deep down I knew what I would meet, knew that I would break and give in.

''For the first time in so many, many years, I truly am, brother.''

We were all shocked, to say the least. I could estimate how far the barrack was, that it would take at least roughly seven minutes to reach us, if he was flying at his fastest. He was here before a portal, before a couple seconds' spell.

Leon said nothing more on the matter as he remained standing, so much auras fading from his hands. He'd killed so many, killed and slaughtered and went out with barely a bruise to his brow.

Sédil came next to Dier, catching that well-knowing stare I gave her, and smiled, broad and bright, before she went back into serious matters. "You look better than when we left you.''

''It would be a shame, not using all the healing you poured into me.''

She found her seat on my right, and I rested my head on her shoulder the way she'd done back at the White Realm. The way we'd done so many times. Her voice, despite the pitch Sorcha had given her, was soft as she said, "We barely did anything.'' Mayra waited for no one's confirmation before she added, "What do we do now?''

Rimel's eyes came to my mind along with that lulling strength, that calling place. I could almost hear it as though it was coming out of my very own mouth, as though it was thrumming in my voice.

Find this place. Perhaps it was time.

"You leave for Eziara, settle there, learn it the best you can. And irk the queen and her son until burning point while you still can.''

It was Leyath who'd taken a step closer to where I was, hands in her cloak's inner pockets, face clean of any trace of lingering surprise. "Us?"

I hadn't lifted my head from Mayra's shoulder yet. "I'm not coming with you.''

It was Luthian this time who spoke, "And why that?"

I met Leon's stares once again, met the hint of understanding in them, as though he'd seen through my mind, through my spinning plans.

"The trial is followed by two days from the time it ends to be spent away in healing and hunting and all that is necessary to come back strong. My absence will not be questioned.''

"And you are planning on staying here?''

I lifted my head, gazes falling on Sédil's pale face. "There is a place I must find before going back, a place I've been summoned to.''

Dier blinked, mind slowly reaching mine, querying. 'The Gods?' I barely blinked back my confirmation.

I needed the heavy inhale I took before standing up, agony flaring in my middle, almost forcing me back to the ground. Almost. But I pushed it down, and kept my face blank, not disclosing this weakness, not acknowledging it.

Mayra and Luthian rose with me.

"Do all that you need to, all that you were tasked to. Make them fear your names, make them remember who you are—all of them. Rulers and peasants. Show them that when our disguise falls we are not only heirs to thrones and crowns and lands.''

Mayra's face had been hard, but her grin, it was gleaming with a wickedness that could severe worlds. And that wickedness, that unbreakable vow to destroy them, was what made me tell her, "There will be no Cohar and no Kyel for the days to come, that if the two days are fully consumed. And until we come back, lead and wreck all you want. Be my huntress.'' Our eyes locked. ''Be my hands and voice.''

Rhia turned to her brother, to Leon who had looked not a bit surprised to know he was staying. I had no doubt he wasn't waiting for my confirmation for him to stay. He draped one arm over her shoulders, tucking her close, whispering into her ear, and I pulled my powers back, prevented them from carrying his words. My third merely nodded once.

'Be careful, no matter who or what you meet.'

'I will.'

Dier hadn't allowed my words to echo for long within him before he leaned and kissed my temple, our magic interlacing one last time before they went back. Then it was Luthian, and Mayra, and Rhiannon, my spy who I'd known for so little, yet had engraved herself in my life so rapidly.

Half a thought whispered into their minds had them standing all together, Leon taking a couple steps back. Black, smoke-like magic seeped from me, fingers-shaped powers caressing their minds, slipping in them, protecting them.

"To protect your minds from Dearcious's magic, should my magic be thinned out by the distance.''

The blackness was darker than the night around us, forged from a different source of powers. A source I only possessed.

''The Heirs of Death have come,

And the foretellers of war now hum.

Steel and blood and claws will rain down,

In our hands lay the power and the might of a crown.

We are the warriors who do not bend,

The Reapers whose legends through time transcend.

Beware us, fear our names,

Us who can bring the world down in flames.''

I eyed them all one last time, observed them as they memorized my words, as they sensed the spell woven within it, the truths and the lies.

"Let them know this, let them hear those words even in their sleep. And then, let them rot in their fear once they know who truly had been in their lands.''

The darkness danced and swayed, and then it was in Dier's hands, bowing to the magic that had been wrapped to mine, to the powers that let go string by string until there had been none anymore.

Until the magic consumed them whole. And they vanished in mist and dust.

Only Leon and I remained, alone.

I wanted to say something, wanted to tell him that I did it to protect him. That I loved him beyond measure. That I was scared, and that he'd always been my shelter. Yet I found no words. Not even my spirit seemed to know how to reach him, how to tell him just how much he meant to me. Everything felt so little, every word, every action.

I didn't know if it was a mercy or not that he asked, "To where we leave?"

I couldn't look him in the eyes as I answered, "Rimel wants me to reach a cave of some sort.''

"Do you know where it is?"

"When her powers reached me, they showed a glimpse of the Lands of the Old before I was at the entrance of the cave. I made sure to memorize it enough to find it through my Ealas.''

He eyed me whole, attention running over every bit of me, every scar and wound, every smear of black blood. And then they stopped on my face. On my healed eye. The fading scars on my cheeks.

I saw his fingers twitch, as though forcing himself to keep his hand to his side, to prevent it from running over the redness lining my face.

"You'll body won't fare well if you drain it anymore. You saw the Lands, and Rimel, perhaps we should seek the portals there, or the one Luthian had opened.''

It made sense, it was rational, it was what we should—would have done in a different situation. But…

"The voice hasn't steered me there yet, hasn't made me feel like we should fine the Lands first even when I'd seen in it prior to the cave.'' I made myself look at his eyes, and for the first time, I was relieved it wasn't the ocean in them staring back. That ocean that could drown me so easily.

My voice was thin as I added, "It will take me strength to revive those portals, and if none of them leads to the cave, I will have no powers left to reach through Ealas.'' I fiddled with my fingers. "You might as well pick me unconscious off the snow before I can open the third one.''

Leon said nothing for a lingering heartbeat, and I felt so cold without his touch. So cold and so frail.

"Then see, Celestia."

I did, with no second thoughts. I exploded in a wave of shadows that swirled through earth and skies, that flew over lands, that snaked below grounds. I reached cities and forgotten roads with my mind, eyes running through sceneries, powers invisible and quiet as they searched and roamed.

The tether found me before long, cold-kissed yet warm fingers reaching me. I didn't know what it felt like, that touch, but something within me stirred. Stirred, as though coming out of a deep, deep slumber.

The winds whispered and chanted, hypnotizing voices guiding me, carrying me. I pulled myself back, returning all at once to my body.

I poured magic into my legs and core, forcing them not to give way, not to succumb just yet. So much powers, and so little could my flesh withstand.

Leon's eyes had still been on my face.

"I found the way.''

He didn't fight the breath of relief that came out of him in curled mist. "Show me where it is, and I will carry us there.''

My thoughts merged with his, the voices still in my head now whispering in his ears, dancing in his head, whispering the way. Magic came out of him, out of his hands, his shoulder blades, swaying around us, dark from the exterior, yet thrumming familiarly in core. His shadows caressed my skin, warm and gentle, like they'd always been.

I brought my hand to the one still to his side, tentatively brushing it. He didn't push it away and his aura didn't flare in the way I feared. Slowly, I interlaced my fingers through his, and I wondered if he could feel how thunderous my heart was. If he could feel the blood rushing through my being.

His fingers closed around mines.

I breathed then, breathed and held his hand tight. So tight it hurt my own muscles. But I didn't want to let go, didn't want to feel the cold loneliness of his absence.

His hand tightened, too.

I would have cried from happiness, from relief, at that moment.

I knew he could sense it all, knew it because he pulled me closer to him so our shoulders touched as the magic reached its peak.

And then we were gone, bodies vanishing to where the winds led us.