Page 116 of Ash and Feather

What the hellwasI doing here?

The Winter God cleared his throat.

“We have work to do,” I finally replied, gripping the shelf in front of me. “I need you to tell me every place you searched. We need to be methodical about this—”

“She’s still in the mortal realm.”

The certainty in his tone made me pause.

“I didn’t findher,” he said, “but I did find witnesses…people who saw someone attack her. An assailant who apparently looked very similar to Karys herself.”

I clenched the shelf’s edge hard enough that I lost the feeling in my fingers. “Her sister?”

“That would be my guess. Where she took Karys to, no one could say. Orwouldsay. But there may be more answers in your old kingdom. In the palace you once called home, to be specific.”

I tensed, crumpling the paper in my hand before I realized what I was doing. “Why there?”

“Because apparently several members of the elven army were taken captive in the aftermath of the attack on Mindoth’s Keep. Cillian was among them. If they haven’t executed him yet, thenhe could prove helpful to us.” He frowned, looking suddenly doubtful as he added, “Although he wasn’t particularly helpful to Karys before, was he?”

“No. But I can be more persuasive than she was.” I hastily placed the diagram she’d made back on the shelf just as fire ignited in my palm once more. The flames snaked all the way up my forearm before I settled them and turned them to smoke.

I didn’t have the same desire to dismember him as I did Andrel, maybe—but if Cillian was not willing to cooperate with me, I would do much worse.

Valas stretched his legs out in front of him and tilted his head back, staring up at the ceiling in thought. “The question, then, is how willing your brother will be to let you interview his prisoners.”

“I’d keep my expectations low.”

“You did pull him out of that collapsing building, didn’t you? I’d say he owes you.”

“He isn’t really the type to return favors, unfortunately.”

“Still worth a try.” He fixed his stare on me.

For once, he wasn’t goading.

Concerned, more like—which was a strange expression on his face.

He and Mairu didn’t know all the details of my past life, but they knew better than to push me about matters concerning my brother. And it was clear Valas expected me to disagree with his plan.

I didn’t.

Despite the dread that filled me at the thought of paying Fallon a face-to-face visit, there was no real question in the end. He could bring me a step closer to Karys.

And for her, I would have faced every demon of my past, and then some.

“It’s the only real lead we have,” Valas said, almost apologetically.

I reached for Karys’s drawing again, smoothing it out before stacking it once more with the other notes. I made sure to put it back precisely as I’d found it, knowing she’d give me hell if I didn’t.

“Then it’s the lead I will follow,” I said.

I tookthe path through Eligas, making my way into the mortal river that bordered the royal city of Altis, just as before. Because it was the less taxing method of travel, and because I’d already taken this path such a short time ago—so I could follow it unconsciously and not truly think about what I was doing.

I’d tried to come up with a different plan to get to Cillian and the other prisoners who might prove useful, concocting increasingly elaborate—and admittedly foolish—plots that would have potentially gotten me in and out of the palace dungeon without having to speak with Fallon.

But facing my brother—truly talking to him—would be the quickest option. The quietest. And, relatively speaking, the easiest.

I would just have to ignore the weight in my chest growing heavier with every step I took toward my old home.

---