Page 109 of Crown of Wings and Whispers

In the blink of an eye,I arrived at the meadow—or at least, what had been the meadow. Every flower and blade of grass had been chopped and now lay on their sides, as if a monster-sized scythe had taken it all out in one swipe. No little faces looked up to greet me. The blue blossoms that usually ran underfoot were just flashes of color under the pile.

I sighed. “Well, this isn’t a good sign.”

“You are late.”

Orion stood on the edge of the massacre. His golden robes were brighter and more stunning than anything I’d seen him wear. A large swath of grass was now a wet mat, suggesting he might have been pacing for a long time.

“I thoughtTimedidn’t mean much here.”

“It does when the king is left waiting.” He noticed the pink jar under my arm and his mouth fell slack.

I shifted it to my other arm. “I guess I shouldn’t have brought this along until I knew your answer.”

His eyes lightened and he continued to stare. I kept expecting him to drool. Eventually, he blinked and drew his gaze up to my face. “Yes. Yes, I agree.” He held out his hands, expecting me to hand the jar over.

I laughed. “Oh, no. The deal is that you can have this only after we arrive in Hestia, after you promise you will leave this world alone.”

He stared at it for a long time like he was trying to see what was inside. Then he inhaled deeply and smiled. “Which…” He gulped. “Which power is it?”

“Hope and Despair. You can’t have Light.”

His eyes shuffled back to black, but he smiled. He didn’t seem to like being told what he could not have. And he probably thought that he would still get it, that he would still be a god. I had to let him believe that.

“I am surprised you didn’t take this power yourself, just for a taste.”

“Oh, no. I’m not interested in power. I just don’t want anyone to have power over me.”

He laughed. “Typical American.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment. You ready to go? Don’t need a suitcase or anything?”

He laughed and shook his head.

“Fine. But I’m not going anywhere until our deal is official.” I pulled out the contract I’d prepared. “I kept it simple. Just what we discussed last night.” I pulled a pen from my pocket and signed it, then let him do the same. He’d only glanced at the wording, unable to take his eyes off the jar for very long.

“It says you’ll leave this world alone and not come back.”

“Yes, yes.”

“And we need blood to bind it.”

His eyes shot to mine. He hadn’t expected that.

“I never said I was clever, but I’m not stupid.”

Instead of giving an opinion, he snorted and lifted his arm. With his fingernail, he made an inch long cut in the side, just below the wrist. His blood shifted as it fell, like a wind had caught it, to draw it out into a thin line. Then it settled on the paper, on top of his signature, turning the letters purple.

He reached for my arm, but I recoiled. “I’ll use my clean blade, thank you.” I pulled my little dagger from my boot and cut my arm the same way he’d cut his. My blood did just what his had done and turned my signature purple as well. A minute later, we’d both healed.

I rolled up the contract and tucked it into my jacket, then called Kivi. Once we were mounted, the gold from my saddle created a cradle for the jar, along Kivi’s neck and well out of Orion’s reach. I laid it into place, more gold stretched over to secure it.

I turned my shoulders to give Orion final instructions. “Listen. You need to hold tight to the saddle. No matter what happens. There will be a protective bubble as we leave the atmosphere. There are bridges. There will be flashes. It gets a little crazy. After that, there’s a leap of faith required, and we’re there. Oh, and once we are inside their atmosphere, watch for dark dragons. They’re sentries. We won’t want to make any sudden moves. Other than that, we’ll have to wing it.”

“Leap of faith. Wing it.” He nodded. “And the jar and the contents are mine once we’re there?”

“Yep. Hold onto your butt.”

All right, baby. Time to fly!

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