Think, Paesha.
“What do you think I’ve been up here doing for three hours?”
She shot me a look. One that Elowen had perfected years ago. Elowen. Truly the only mother I’d ever known. The woman who’d never baulked at my sass, never complained about my messes. Never gave up on me. Not even when I brought a two-year old into her home and spent three months avoiding her for fear of attachment. I couldn’t be sad about being abandoned. I could only be grateful. It’d led me into the arms of my real family. Which only took me back to the ultimate question. Why?
But there was only one reason she could have come back. The same reason for everything. “Power.”
The root of evil.
“She assumed I’d die the same way the rest of the Huntresses have. She left me to that fate. But she was wrong. She was wrong and now she’s scared. That’s why she’s trying to stay close. So she can watch me. But why involve herself? Why set Archer up to become an Unmade Guardian?”
She works for Ezra now. She hopes you will die like the rest of us and there will be no more risk to her existence.
“Then she should have killed me.”
Perhaps, Levanya said, letting that word drift away on the breeze.But now she can’t.You’re surrounded by too much love.
“The irony,” I whispered, pulling my knees to my chest to stave off the wind. Love would never matter in the end.
As if sensing my thoughts, Levanya reached out, her spectral fingers hovering just above my cheek.You are stronger than you know. Stronger than any god or mortal. Aeris’s blood may flow through your veins, but it does not define you. You are Paesha, the Huntress, the dancer, the fighter. You bow to no one.
My fingers traced the swirling patterns of darkness on my arms. Had these always been clues? Markers of a heritage I’dnever known to look for? How could being the daughter of the Goddess of Renewal and the soul descendant of the Gods of Lost and Broken Things matter? The question sent my thoughts spinning toward Thorne, and the knot in my stomach tightened.
‘Ask Reverius why Ezra had no memories when you met.’
Aeris’s voice echoed in my mind, insidious as poison. I could work that part out myself. But what had she meant about a final bargain?
As if I’d summoned him, I heard the soft scrape of boots against the roof. He moved with deliberate noise, announcing his presence rather than startling me. It was one of a thousand little considerations I’d grown to lo—to appreciate.
“May I join you?” He asked, his voice carefully neutral.
I kept my eyes on the stars but said nothing.
He settled beside me, close enough that I could feel his warmth but not touching. Giving me space. So careful with me now. I wondered if he could feel Levanya standing there. If any of him felt any of her when they were so close.
“Tuck says your father is staying in the Underground. He saw you there and ambushed Thea right before she left. He’s safe. Fed. And… better.”
“Good for him,” I said flatly.
Silence stretched between us, not uncomfortable but heavy with all the things unsaid. The Remnants curled around my ankles like restless cats.
“I don’t know what to do with any of this,” I admitted finally, still not looking at him. “Aeris. My father. What that means about me.” I swallowed hard. “What it means about us.”
“It doesn’t affectusat all. It doesn’t change who you are, Paesha.”
I laughed, the sound brittle. “Doesn’t it?”
“Your blood doesn’t define you.”
“Said the god.”
He didn’t rise to the bait, just continued watching me with those patient eyes that saw too much.
“She said—” I paused, unsure I wanted to voice the doubts that had been festering since Aeris’s parting words. “She told me to ask you about Ezra. About why he had no memories when we met and some final bargain.”
Thorne went still beside me, his profile sharpening in the moonlight. When he spoke, his voice was carefully measured. “She’s trying to drive a wedge between us.”
“Is it working?”
