Page 188 of Ash and Feather

“I’ve left a temporary mark on your sister as well,” Mairu told me. “You’ll be able to track her by its divine energy if you find yourself in a desperate situation.” She grimaced as she shook thelast threads of gold from her palm. “Well,moredesperate than our present situation.”

I tried to give her a reassuring smile. “Thank you.”

She wrapped me in a quick hug in response. Then she looked to the sky and, after an encouraging nod from me, she followed Valas and Dravyn’s examples, unleashing dragon-like wings that carried her swiftly away.

Once she had disappeared from view, my sister drew closer to me, gaze darting back and forth between my transformed appearance and the sky.

“The details of what we’re going to do to settle things after we scatter and disarm Andrel’s loyalists…couldn’t help but notice those plans were scarcely discussed,” she said, staring at the spot where Mairu’s winged body had faded from view. “Is this lack of details common with these gods and their plans?”

“Yes,” I said with a snort, thinking of all the poor communication I’d witnessed among the divine. “But this time, it’s not their fault.”

She fixed me with an expectant look.

“They don’t know the extent of what I’m planning, because I…I couldn’t tell them.”

“Doyoueven know what you’re planning?”

“I know…enough.”

“That’s terribly reassuring.”

I sighed, my hand slipping under my coat and finding the hilt of the dagger Malaphar had given me.

I couldn’t keep this secret solely to myself any longer—and the Dark God had said nothing against sharing it with amortalbeing.

My sister had always been my secret keeper…so maybe she could be that again, at least one last time.

“My plan revolves around this,” I said, slipping the dagger from its sheath and holding it out to her. “It’s a gift from one of the Creator Gods.”

She slowly took it, studying the blade’s etchings with the same cautious wonder I had.

“The magic it yields will replace the wards around Ederis,” I told her, “and render all of the anti-divine magic in the area useless. It’s meant to become a point that will establish a new age of elves.”

She stared at me. “It will undo our protections, you mean.”

“And replace them with something better.”

“So they claim.” She shoved the dagger back at me as though it had suddenly grown hot to the touch. “How can you be sure the gods aren’t playing games with you? Or just using you to finish wiping out our race?”

I snatched the weapon from her hold. As my hand closed around the grip, the etchings on the black blade pulsed with silvery light for a fraction of a moment. An incredible sense of power overtook me in the same instant.

I settled myself within that power and answered my sister in a calm, decisive voice: “Because I am too powerful to be played with, now,” I said. “And they wouldn’t needmeif they truly wanted to finish killing off the elves. What they need is a divine being who can help restore order. Someone who can navigate the various realms and races. Don’t you understand? If I don’t succeed in doing this, then they likelywillsimply swoop in and finish the job of killing you all off. It’s simpler, after all. This is my—our—last chance at restoring balance.”

She considered me and Antaeum for a long moment before carefully reaching for it again, giving it a closer look.

No matter how she twisted and turned it, the blade never reacted to her touch—only to mine.

“It’s tied to me,” I said quietly. “I’m meant to wield it. To fix things with it.” I took the dagger and sheathed it, averting my eyes, avoiding the concerned look she watched me with. “And I’m stronger than I used to be.”

“I know you are.”

“Then trust me.”

Trust me.

The same plea I’d made to Dravyn the other night. It was asking a lot of both of them, I knew.

But I would not let them down.

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