Page 7 of Flight of Fate

The third male shakes his head. “Just shut up and sleep. We’ll set out to Aceleau tomorrow. If we want to get to the palace before nightfall, we’ll need to be well-rested.”

Neither of the twins objects as they all settle back and get as comfortable as the cold ground allows. The dark-skinned male reaches beneath the blanket to draw a bundle from his belt. That’s when I see it:

Intricate ornamentations on the clasp holding his cloak together. Even in the orange tint of the fire, I recognize the Tavrasian pattern I spent my childhood and the better part of the past months staring at.

He covers himself in the blanket too fast for me to spot weapons or pieces of armor, but unless he bought this clasp from a Tavrasian merchant, he has ties to Tavras. And if they are planning to visit the palace in Aceleau tomorrow?—

My head spins at the hundreds of possibilities of what mission brings them here.

Traveling too poorly for diplomats,a voice warns.Assassins,another one claims.Soldiers. Merchants. Traveling minstrels.

I shut down the cacophony in my mind and force a breath down my throat.

Whoever those people are or who sent them, I need to warn the others.

It’s no coincidence the storm has carried me in this direction, and I don’t know which deity to thank. I’ll make a trip to a temple tomorrow and leave a feather as a sacrifice anyway. But first I need to get out of here unnoticed.

Five

Herinor

Myron’s a mess,and that’s putting it kindly. Since he returned from his own nightly trips around midnight and Ayna still hadn’t settled on her pillow, he’s been pacing a trail into the carpet of the common room, right in front of the silver brocade couch Silas is occupying. The frown on his features is the least of our problems if our queen doesn’t show up any time soon.

“You sure she wasn’t following you this time?” Silas prompts. His hair is even more unruly than I’m used to, and he could have bothered with putting on a shirt. At least, he opted for pants before joining us for the commotion.

“I would have seen her.” It’s Royad who responds even when Myron could have given the exact same response.

Bad enough that Royad now spends his nights as a bodyguard for both Myron and Ayna when he’s supposed to rest and gather enough strength to kick Erina’s army the next time we run into them.

Folding my arms over my chest, I lean back in the armchair and glance out the window. “She could be out there right now.”

“Somewhere out there,” Myron agrees, a bit frantic. “Anywhere.” His head whips around, painfully blue eyes meeting mine with that punishing glare I’ve come to expectwhenever he looks my way. “She could be anywhere between here and the Southern Continent.”

“Aren’t you a bit dramatic?” Silas picks my line right from my mouth. “I thought Clio was the drama queen here.”

Wrong thing to say. Wrong moment to joke and tease.Heshould know it. He’s the one who knows what it means to be mated—and to lose her.

“I don’t give a rat’s ass what you think,” Royad snaps, stepping between Myron, whose gaze could kill, and Silas, who has the good sense to straighten and show a modicum of respect. “Ayna disappeared. And I don’t meanheaded-to-the-kitchen-for-a-midnight-snackdisappeared butdisappeared.”

“She never came back after training,” Myron adds so softly I wonder if he’s spoken at all. With a shaky hand, he fingers off his cloak, tossing it next to Silas onto the couch. “I thought she might have avoided me again and that she’d show up later, but when she wasn’t in our room when I returned…” He stops. Braces his hands on the back of my chair for a heartbeat. Continues pacing.

“You panicked?” Silas supplies. I grunt a warning at him, which he dismisses with a hiss. “Heispanicking, isn’t he?”

“Of course I’m panicking,” Myron confirms. “I missed dinner because I wanted to try something new at the temple, so I only realized she was missing when I returned a few minutes ago.” He heaves a breath. “We should be searching for her.Ishould be out there. She’s been off all week. Colder than the first days in her bird form. What if she forgot who she is.”Where she belongs, is what he doesn’t need to add.

It’s a horrible thought, but not as far-fetched as Myron might hope. It’s happened before, even to seasoned Crows, that they stayed in their bird form so long their instincts took over entirely and they forgot?—

At least, now we have Kaira and Tori to speak with her through the mind link. As long as she keeps talking with them, she won’t lose herself—at least, I hope so for Myron and all of us.

“She’s not forgotten you,” Royad says, and I want to call him out that he must be a fool to believe it not to be a lie, but I’m wise enough to hold my tongue.

“She’s been in her bird form for a few weeks. That’s long enough to submit to your instincts. You, better than anyone, should know,” Silas reminds the devastated king of the months he tried to escape the curse by turning into a bird and roaming the Seeing Forest in that form so long it took his father’s most accomplished soldiers days to hunt him down and bring him back. I never learned how they forced him to shift back, but the memory seems to bring enough pain for Myron’s mouth to twist into an agonized line.

“What if someone took her?” It’s not a better option, but at least, that would mean she didn’t choose to leave him behind, and that’s all I can hope for when I watch Myron’s expression of defeat turn into one of ire.

“Then I’ll hunt that bastard down and tear him to pieces—slowly.”

He means it. And I’ll be right there with him. Avenging my queen doesn’t count as aiding her where the oath to Ephegos is concerned, so perhaps that’s my loophole. Tucking that theory away for later, I get to my feet and stroll over to the window where the moonlit night has turned into smudges of clouds torn by heavy winds.

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