Page 111 of Ash and Feather

He cocked his head, eyes dancing between darkness and amusement. “Your time among the gods really has made you delusional, hasn’t it?”

I flexed my fingers as claws extended.

“You don’t belong among them,” he said. “You don’t belong withhim. And the sooner you admit that to yourself and come back to your true home, the happier you’ll be. You were happy before, weren’t you? Before he stole you away from us.”

“You think he stole me from you? Is that why you and my sister attacked his kingdom?”

He laughed the idea off, but there was violence in the sound, which made me think I’d struck somewhere close to a truth he was trying to keep buried.

“I wasn’t taken from you,” I said, turning to face him more fully. “I was never yours.”

I held my ground even as he closed the space between us, tilted his face uncomfortably close to mine, and said, “I must be misremembering all the times you and I laid together, then. And all the times you swore your loyalty to me, among other promises.”

My claws twitched. I wanted to rake them across his mouth to shut him up. I hated his words. I hated myself for not being able to deny them. I wanted to set fire to us both—turn it all to ashes that I could rise up from, reborn into something entirely new. Something he had never touched.

He stepped past me before I could do any of these things, however, moving to study something in the distance. His boots crushed a few stray flowers along the garden’s edge as he went. He paid them no mind.

“But to answer your question,” he continued, matter-of-factly, “No. I’m not orchestrating a war merely because I’m some pathetic jilted lover. Galizur is a strategic target for us, and one that had it coming long before you ran off and started fraternizing with the gods.

“And they’re only the start of our plans—we have other kingdoms on our list, of course. Other operations that have already started elsewhere. The fact that targeting Galizuralsogets under the God of Fire’s skin is really just a lovely coincidence. You should have seen his face when he realized his brother was our true target in Mindoth.”

“…Your true target?”

Had they succeeded in killing the king?

Fresh horror and rage tore through me as I pictured Dravyn losing the only family he had left, and that rage carried me forward before I could stop myself.

I swiped my claws toward Andrel’s neck. My first strike grazed skin. He spun around and quickly blocked the second, catching me by the elbow and twisting my arm painfully away from his body, his beastly, inhuman strength surging to meet my own divine vigor.

“Looking rather weak for thegoddesshe claimed you were,” he sneered.

I jerked free of his hold. Embers flew out from my body. Suppressed, but still there, bristling beneath the surface. Maybe I could still summon more if I tried harder…

Or maybe trying to force it while within this oppressive space would result in me passing out—or worse.

The debate distracted me. My magic dimmed.

Overthinking it, again, I silently chastised myself.

“Your new divine skills aren’t worth much in this place, are they?” Andrel mused.

I swept a cold, calculating look around the yard’s perimeter, studying the way the air around it wavered and occasionally shimmered. “The ward around this yard is stronger than what I encountered around Ederis.”

“Yes.” He looked entirely too pleased with himself. “We actually have your visit to Ederis to thank for that; it helped us realize some of the weaknesses in our previous designs. Your sister thought this location would be a nice, confined place to visit with youandtest out new spells.”

“A nice, confined place to imprison me, you mean.”

He shrugged. “Or keep you safe. It depends on your perspective.”

I took a step closer to the boundary, even though drawing nearer made my skin tingle with warning.

I couldn’t be trapped here.

Iwouldn’tbe trapped here.

Another rush of anger overcame me and sent me charging forward once more—this time, toward escape.

Andrel didn’t attempt to stop me.

---