Page 56 of Flight of Fate

The wisdom in her words shouldn’t surprise me, but her usual swagger and snark make it easy to forget the hardship this female has gone through—and the lessons she must have learned from it. Wiser than both of us. More experienced in fighting and in strategizing. A princess in her own right and a friend I don’t think I could live without.

Kaira must feel the same because she squeezes Clio in a tight hug before swatting her shoulder. “That’s because you’re a stubborn pain in the ass. And I love you.”

Clio makes a sound of dismissal before extending her arm around my shoulders, pulling me in tighter. “I love you, too. Both of you.”

For long, shaky breaths, we stand huddled in the freezing air, not ready to let go, for the moment we do, reality will come creeping back at us, and I don’t think any of us are ready. Only when Tori site-hops into the arena, announcing that Tata is back from her visit at the Tavrasian rebels’ farm at the Askarean border, do we pull apart.

“What news does she bring?” I lay my hand into Clio’s open one, waiting for Kaira to do the same on the other side as we ready to site-hop back into the palace.

A grim line forms on Tori’s face as he glances between the three of us, stopping when his auburn eyes meet mine. “No good news, that’s for sure.” Jerking his chin in a gesture to follow him, he disappears into thin air, and Clio pulls us through time and space, right into Rogue’s throne room where the others are already waiting.

With a smile on his lips, Myron holds out an arm, waiting for me to join him by the long table Rogue, Royad, and Silas are poring over, their hands braced on the edges of a map as big as the wooden surface. Rushing toward him, I fold my arms around his waist, meeting him in the sort of toe-curling kiss he always gives me these days before we part or when we are reunited. A reminder that we’re both immortal and that this thing between us will last for all eternity. He won’t accept any other option either.

“Ah, good, you’re here,” Tata says by way of greeting, looking up from the stack of letters in her hands and pushing away from the side of the table where I can read the nameDunai,the capital of the Southern Continent,on the map. “Andraya asked me to give you these.”

Crossing the length of the room in a few quick strides, she comes to stand before Myron and me like she’s reporting to her commanders. Her armor is dusty, and a few splashes of liquid soak the leather vambrace on her forearm. Instinctively, I inhale a deep breath, trying to scent what it is and find my stomach balled into a knot when the rusty smell of blood hits me.

“Yours or someone else’s?” Not taking my eyes off the bloody pieces, I pick the letters from her outstretched hands.

Silas’s head swivels toward us, nostrils flaring as if he’s noticing the blood only now, and his black eyes snap to where Tata is holding up her forearm between us.

“An unlucky Tavrasian soldier happened to be snooping around the farm when I arrived and cleared the perimeter to make sure we wouldn’t be overheard.” She shrugs as if being covered in someone else’s blood is her normal state. I can’t help noticing the glimmer of relief in the sag of Silas’s tense shoulders.

“Unlucky indeed,” Tori purrs under his breath from where he’s joined the males by the map, earning a sideways glance from Silas, who looks, for all that it’s worth, like he believes dying at the end of Tata’s sword might be a pleasant way to go.

Of course, Myron is already one step ahead in his thoughts. “Does that mean the rebels’ secrecy has been compromised? Have they been discovered?”

Inclining her head at me an inch, Tata steps back. “Pouly said it’s not the first of Erina’s men sneaking around the area. It’s unclear whether any of them made it back unnoticed before the rebels could take care of them.”

“You mean Erina is actively sending out soldiers to find the rebels? Does he know they exist?” The fear is real as multiple scenarios of Andraya and Pouly paying for aiding me in my escape pop up in my mind. If he knows…

“It’s hard to tell.” Tata’s tone remains that of a soldier giving a report, no emotion attached to her words, even when I can read from her eyes that she dreads what being discovered by Erina—or worse, Ephegos—would mean. “He is searching the lands forsomething. Whether that’s Myron, you, or a band of traitors, I honestly don’t know.”

“He knows we’re in Askarea, though,” Silas enters the conversation, propping a hip against the edge of the table.

Clio has joined Tori’s side, tracing a line with her finger across the map until it lands on the smallXmarking the hidden farm’s location, and the rest of us follow until we surround the table.

“Does he, though?” Rogue looks up, tired darkness swirling in his eyes, which stop at the letters in my hand. “Perhaps Ephegos keeps secrets from his ally.”

“Meaning Erina doesn’t know where we are? He did send those messengers with the demand for you to give up Askarea.” Royad prompts Rogue, turning away from the map to glance over at Herinor sitting in a chair a few feet away by the wall, staring at Kaira like a helpless fool—Kaira, who hasn’t spoken a word. “What do you think?”

Light green eyes narrowing, Herinor weighs the idea. “It’s possible. The message was for the King of Askarea after all. Not for Myron or Ayna. And none of the messengers ever made it back to Meer to spill the secret. Ephegos never shares his full plans until shortly before their execution. Even when he was about to set the Crow Palace on fire.”

Nobody gasps in shock at his words. Over the past two weeks since Kaira revealed all those dark corners of his mind to us, only to show us how much regret has been plaguing the male, we’ve come to accept his good intentions. I still stand by my words of forgiveness, even when Myron holds him under scrutiny, only if for the sole reason that, should it come to it, Herinor will neverdirectly help me—which makes him an unreliable ally. At least in that regard.

Royad and Herinor had it out in the arena the same day we released him from the cell, and Silas has yet to make a statement about where he stands with the male.

The fairies are all happy to accept him as part of the team as long as he promises not to work against us, which he did, nose bleeding and lip split from his fight with Royad. I could swear we all have been sleeping better since.

It doesn’t change the fact that Herinor’s usefulness in this war is limited when his loyalty in parts is still bound to Ephegos. It also doesn’t change that he knows the traitor and his operations best.

“So you think he’s keeping our whereabouts from Erina?” I cut him a glance over the intricate map, not failing to notice Kaira’s gone still as a statue.

“I wouldn’t put it past him to be playing Erina,” Herinor confirms, bringing back Erina’s words when I confronted him with Ephegos’s traitorous nature.

Don’t think I don’t have an ace or two up my sleeve.

“Erina expects Ephegos to betray him.” I quickly tell them of the conversation I once shared with the King of Tavras.

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