Page 137 of Ash and Feather

My wings were gone, yet a strange heaviness and an alarming tingling persisted between my shoulder blades. I fought my way to my feet and staggered forward.

The palace didn’t seem to get any closer no matter how many steps I took.

Was I even moving at all?

I couldn’t feel my steps, my feet, yet I remained upright—somehow—until I heard someone shouting my name.

I looked toward the sound.

Streaks of fire and gold rushed in my direction, occasionally, briefly shifting into the shape of a horse-like creature and its rider. A familiar feeling of warmth overtook me as that rider drew closer, almost driving away the horrors of my escape from the mortal realm.

Almost.

But the last glimpse of my sister’s face stayed with me long after I collapsed to the ground and everything else burned away.

Chapter 33

Dravyn

“I’m notsure which is more annoying,” Valas muttered, gaze sliding between me and Mairu, “your pacing or her magic tricks.”

The Serpent Goddess stopped midway through the spell she’d been absently performing, causing the book she was controlling to tumble toward the ground. She caught it with another flex of her magic just before it hit.

With a flourish of her wrist, she lifted it back into the air, directing it to the top of the castle she’d already built from dozens of other books. As this latest tome settled into place on top of one of the ‘towers,’ her gaze narrowed on the Winter God, daring him to make another comment.

“It’s very distracting,” he told her with a shrug.

“You can leave if you’re annoyed,” she replied. “No one here is desperate for your company.”

He smirked.

She flicked the book back into her control and aimed it at his head.

He remained perfectly still, unconcerned about the threat.

Their standoff eventually gave way to harsh whispers, a hushed argument—not their first of the night, and unlikely their last.

But neither of them left.

Because just like me, they were waiting; Karys still had not woken since she’d collapsed upon her return to the middle-heavens.

I’d felt her coming back long before she appeared in this realm. I’d sensed her power fluctuating and fading, too, and I’d tried—unsuccessfully—to reach her before she fell. It seemed she’d fled too quickly, too recklessly…but fromwhatI didn’t know.

What had she endured these past days?

What had she been so desperate to escape?

Too much time had already passed since we’d last spoken, making every additional second of her unconsciousness feel that much longer. We were all on edge as a result, our combined feelings of helplessness and uncertainty bristling like a living, snarling beast between us.

I continued to pace in front of the window despite Valas’s objections. I was watching for changes in the darkness outside, for any sign of movement—my senses were on high alert, because I’d witnessed something earlier that I hadn’t in some time: Atellesk. A shadow servant of one of the Moraki, sent down from Valla, the upper-heavens, to silently spy and collect information.

They never interacted with me or anything else, but they absorbed everything they encountered—even the very thoughts and emotions of the ones they were observing. It was always unsettling, being watched by one. Its presence felt like an omen. A sign that the powers above us were growing impatient, andperhaps tired of our mistakes and missteps in the mortal realm. I was hardly surprised by this.

Everything was such a fuckingmess.

Another hour passed.

Valas and Mairu eventually struck up a new conversation, their tones still hushed but slightly more cordial now. Moth joined us, as well, leaving Karys for the first time since I’d carried her to bed.

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