“What else?” Tolek asked, brushing his thumb across the back of my hand.
I watched the place our fingers locked. “I’m really fucking angry that everyone is either giving me cryptic commands or trying to harm us.”
Tolek smirked and gripped the back of my neck, kissing my forehead. “There she is.”
“What?” I tilted my head to peer up at him.
Tol retreated an inch but kept his grip firm. “Be fucking furious, Alabath.” His gaze cut sideways to Brystin. “Spirits know I am. Let that rage take wings and soar all the way to damn the Angels.”
I grinned up at him. “You’re not telling me to be smart?”
He shook his head, thumb stroking my neck. “You’re making as wise of choices as any leader could when they don’t have all the answers. We’ve been smart. We’ve been careful. Now, let’s fight.”
“Spirits,” I breathed with a laugh.
“What?”
“I just…really fucking love you, Vincienzo.”
“Infinitely.” And he sealed his lips to mine.
Then, in a move that felt as intimate as anything we’d done, Tolek pulled Starfire from her sheath at my waist. He took a step back and held her before me across his palms. Chills danced along my skin.
“Now, let’s retrieve our final token of the Angels, Revered.”
I shivered at that title on his lips and wrapped my fingers around the handle of my short sword. Her presence and familiarstrength settled into my arm. Briefly, my memory flashed back to the day I’d gotten her. A gift from my father on my tenth birthday. When her weight was too mighty for me, but I was as determined as ever to wield her.
Though I’d lost him to this war, I still had this constant.
And combined with Angelborn on my back, I truly felt I could send the world to ruin.
Erista used the crescent moon tattoos on her palms to open the gates, something only Soulguiders of a certain status were privileged enough to have, she explained. After a wrenching goodbye to my pegasus and a final glance exchanged with Cypherion, we filed inside after the Soulguider.
A long stretch of sandy path awaited us beyond the walls, but cyphers bloomed on either side, elthem flowers closed to the night. The air was rich with their floral scent, almost out of place after weeks traveling through the dry desert, and those streams babbled faintly, out of sight between the ash-white trunks.
It was as serene as a temple, but a place of worship didn’t lay within these walls.
Silently, our party walked up the path toward the stone gallery in the distance. Tolek was on one side of me, Jezebel on the other.
Voice so low it was barely distinguishable, my sister asked, “How do you know this is where the emblem is hidden?”
My heart thudded, and I considered snapping up that brave mask, but one look at Jez from the corner of my eye had my defenses dropping. We were tied to so much unknown together, she deserved to hear when I was faltering.
“I don’t.” I shook my head. “I’m going on the faintest of whims here, Jezzie. Whatever it is in my gut that tugs toward the emblems, combined with Erista’s knowledge.”
Damien and Valyrie had told me to come to the Lendelli Hills to find out the truth, to learn my magic. It all had to mean something.
If it wasn’t within these gates, we’d journey to the next city, and the one after that. All the way to the capital if needed. We were finding this emblem, though.
Jezebel tucked her hand within mine. “Let’s prove you right.”
The alabaster steps loomed ahead, leading to this house of spirits and souls, the heart of replenishment for the magic of death’s hands.
I searched my gut for any hint of that Angel instinct, finding it concernedly quiet.
Chapter Fifty-Five
Malakai
