“That Ophelia won’t hide in this inn for long,” Jez explained. Even Cypherion smirked, agreeing.
I lifted my chin. “I’ll wait out the storm. I won’t leave until Sapphire can travel comfortably.” Angels be damned, those eternal bastards could practice patience for once. I was sotiredof following their schemes.
“And where are we going when we leave?” Jezebel asked.
For a moment, my heart inflated. At the steadfast assurance in the way she saidwe, in the assumption that no matter what or where, we’d all go together.
It extended beyond this room, too. Upstairs, where Malakai was still sleeping soundly under Mila’s care. To Rina andCelissia, who were tending to the fae. To the Engrossian Prince and his consort, our unlikely friends, who had disappeared after breakfast to write to their council.
“That’s what we need to figure out.” I blew out a deep breath, spinning so my feet were firmly on the floor and setting my cup on a nearby table. “Last night, Damien visited me in a dream.”
“You dream of your Angel?” Erista asked, head tilting, gold band glinting in the firelight.
“I don’t think it was a dream. I think it was actually Damien. With a message.”
“He hasn’t visited in months,” Cypherion said.
“I know, and I tried to ask him where he’s been but something cut him off. As something always does.” I sighed. That damn block on whatever the Prime Mystique wanted to tell me.
That warning bell rang in the back of my mind, shrill with temptation to walk in Annellius’s footsteps because I deserved to be more than a toy to the Angels.
Lyria, propped atop the bar now, asked, “What did he have to say?”
I recounted how Damien’s words felt like a warning. How he told me to become the master of my magic before it ate away at me, but to not allow it to fool me. Even here, away from wherever we were in that dream realm, my skin chilled at the memory.
“He’s right,” Erista said. “Power can become enthralling if unchecked. I’ve seen it happen with Soulguiders.”
“I’ve seen it happen on a battlefield,” Lyria added, shadows behind her eyes, “with a very different sort of power. When one is unprepared for the high, they often hit the lowest lows afterward.”
Jezebel countered, “Ophelia is prepared, though. We both are. We may not know what our abilities do, but we’re being careful.”
In my mind, Angellight whipped around her throat again. She struggled and struggled.
My stomach turned over. I pulled and pulled andpulled, but?—
Tolek’s arm wrapped around my waist, tucking me closer to his side as he said, “We’re being careful, but we need to stop waiting for answers to find us. At the very least, Damien’s warning made it clear that Ophelia has to figure out what this power does.” With a pointed stare at my sister, he added, “And I’d wager that extends to you, too, baby Alabath.”
“There was more,” I said when the room fell silent. My eyes met Vale’s, color slowly returning to her cheeks. “Valyrie was there, too.”
“What?” she and Cyren both gasped.
I nodded. “She was present and ethereal as you’d imagine, but not quite as vibrant as Damien.”
Vale leaned her elbows on the table. “What did she say?”
“She went on about listening to the stars, but to not dig too deeply into their whims because we may find things warriors are not meant to know.”
These balances the Angels presented seemed so delicate, so precarious. And truthfully, so terribly frustrating.
Find the emblems, but do not ask questions. Listen to the stars, but do not try to see too much. Risk your life, but do not fail. A series of contradictions that dug beneath my skin and pried at the slippery foundations of my own beliefs.
“Did Valyrie mention me?” Vale asked.
I shook my head, and—was that a flash of disappointment in her eyes?
“How did you come by her emblem?” I asked softly.
Rain beat against the window, filling the silence as Vale toyed with the ends of her hair. “When Titus said he could help fix my readings, he wasn’t lying.”
