Claudia nodded. “According to the logs, yes. This was the beginning of the end for the Zuten.”
A final set of images faded in. Something massive descended through the smoke. I felt myself squinting to see the image better before I recognizedhim.
Even pixelated, the shape of the dragon was unmistakable.
“Grandyr,” I said.
“He wasn’t alone,” Claudia said. “There were others. Dragons, plural. They came. They scorched the land, burned what was left of the cities to ash. Nothing was left but rubble and smoke.”
We watched as the sky turned to fire.
“In time, the rubble became the Pyme mountains. The surviving Zutens swore never to touch such technology again. They believed it had cursed them. They renamed themselves. Rebuilt. The Leanders were born from that vow.”
She stepped back from the screen. Silence enveloped all four of us. Claudia seemed as mystified and overcome as we were. From what I’d heard about human history, theirs was as full of war as ours.
After a long pause, Myccael turned to me. Then to Darryck.
“We could send teams,” he said. “Try to find more. Trace where they came from. Whether they were from Oceanus, or?—”
“Ney,” I said immediately.
Darryck nodded. “Twice we’ve touched Zuten legacy. And twice it nearly destroyed us.”
“Some secrets,” I said, “are buried for a reason.”
Myccael looked down at the screen one last time. The image of Grandyr still hovered, his wings spread wide over the burning valley.
“Then let’s finish what he started. Let it burn,” he said, turning the screen off. "I want it all destroyed. Any weapons, any books, anything that talks about the Zutens. I want legions out in the wastelands to hunt down every last Renegade. Every last Eulach." He turned to Darryck.
"As you wish, Susserayn, it will be my honor to take command of this." And then, with a wink, he grinned and added, "As long as you take Thalia's wrath, brother."
My dreams were becoming more lucid. They weren't just feelings anymore. Not just flashes of emotions, but images that began to linger long after waking. They were fuzzy but vivid, like sunlight filtered through water.
In this last dream, I was pregnant, and as my hands cradled the gentle swell of my belly, I knew without being told thatshewas inside me. My daughter. My Thalia. Only… I hadn’t called her that. Not yet. I’d whispered another name to the bump beneath my fingers—Sarielle. A name filled with light and promise and something ancient I didn’t understand. I had felt her moving under my skin and laughed, pressing her name to her through my palms as if it were a blessing. A spell.
Sarielle became Thalia. Somehow.
And in the dream, I had raised her. Raised herwithMyccael. Not one after the other. Not one born and the other lost. But both. Together. My children. My joy. My redemption.
Thalia had grown up wild and radiant, with Darryck always two steps behind her, trying to match her fire with storm. They had loved each other even then, though they didn’t have the words for it. I’d watched them run barefoot through the palace halls. Arguing. Teasing. Tangled together like the sun and the sky.
And Myccael…
He had been her protector. Her brother. The steady rock in their shared orbit. The three of them had been inseparable. Laughter and skinned knees and childhood that wasn’t stolen.
In the dream, Darryck and Myccael were like brothers. Like it was meant to be.
Only it could have never been. Had I held on to my Thalia, Myccael would have never been with us. He would have been raised by Kennenryn or someone equally despicable. His fate would have been completely different. On that path, Darryck and Myccael might have been enemies.
It was moot to try and think about it, wishing the dream was real, when in that reality, Myccael wouldn't have been Myccael.
That truth still knotted something inside me. But the ache wasn’t as sharp as it once was. Because I loved him completely, as fiercely as I loved my Thalia. Whatever the gods had planned, whatever had been done, was done. It was a cruel tangle of fate that had brought him to me and taken Thalia away. But I was thankful in a way that the past was past, because the gods help me, I had no idea which path I would choose if I could undo it. Because I couldn’t have had one without losing the other.
And somehow… impossibly… I had both of them now.
A fact I fully enjoyed as I walked through the palace gardens with Thalia. The sun was warm on my face when we stepped into the upper gardens. The scent of morning dew still clung to the stone pathways and lavender bushes. I shifted the soft weight in my arms and glanced down at Zara, still sleeping against my chest.
Thalia walked beside me, humming a quiet melody under her breath, fingers grazing the tops of blooming valeris flowers.
