Page 67 of Flight of Fate

“He can wait for me to play his games until he rots.”The darkness in Myron’s voice doesn’t scare me. Neither do the shadows creeping from his fingertips.

Shaelak’s power, that darkness running through his veins. Maybe, as Shaelak’s descendant, I might harbor the sameshadows within me. Maybe, one day, I’ll bathe the world in inky black for what it’s done to me and mine.

“Well, Myron?” Ephegos slinks a step closer, his Flame guards tightening their ranks so they form a line behind him and shift closer to his sides. I wish there was a gap somewhere for us to bolt through, but they thoroughly encircled us, locking us in. And now, we’re facing a building wall of fire.

At the sight of flaring flame, my own shield wavers, forcing me to throw more of my strength into keeping the shimmering protection up.

Herinor and Silas are still somewhere out there—if Ephegos didn’t find them first. They’ll come for us. The likelihood that they’re already dead is just as high. Stomach clenching, I hold on to my daggers like they can give me the support needed to keep upright.

And Ephegos smirks… He knows we’re afraid. Knows we’re aware of how hopeless our situation is turning with every Flame revealing their power. “I’d been hoping you’d come to your senses, you know, realize that giving up is the only way to save our people. And to save Eherea.” He flicks an invisible fleck of dust from his shoulder, scarred fingers as elegant as I remember. “And then I’d thought you’d been smarter. After managing to break the curse, after escaping from the palace in Meer… After figuring out that the only temple of Shaelak is located in Aceleau and that the God of Darkness might be the only one to help your little bird mate, I thought, you’d be smart enough to realize I infiltrated the Fairy King’s circle of trust.”

“Tata,” Clio grinds out the name like she’s imagining chewing the female’s head off.

“The very one.” Ephegos’s grin spreads wide and warm, making me want to tear it away with my bird claws. The heavy darkness inside my chest spreads, a calling to let it grow into inky feathers and sharp talons, but I can’t shift. I can’t allowmyself to give in to this instinct and risk getting stuck all over again. So I remain locked in place, shoulder to shoulder with Myron, Kaira on my other side, her back half turned to the traitor as she monitors the Flames behind us. Clio’s fingertips crack with ice. I know even without looking since a flurry of snowflakes dances along my shield. She’s leashing her anger well, but not well enough to hide it, and that’s all Ephegos is waiting for.

“You wonder why Jeseida didn’t kill her like the rest of the fairies, don’t you?” With painful slowness, Ephegos adjusts a buckle on his forearm. “You wonder how we got her to turn on you.”

He’s right. We all wonder, even if we can’t put the betrayal into words.

“Let me clear things up for you so we can move on with this … situation.” Casually, he reaches for the slender silver blade on his hip—a Flame sword. “Even the strongest of minds breaks under torture. And Tata was an easy case. She resigned herself to death so quickly she stirred our attention.”

Hadn’t the female mentioned she had never intended to survive the war when she joined Rogue’s army? The thought makes me want to scream.

“It would have been an easy kill,” Ephegos muses. “But she’s more valuable alive, you know? Inyourcourt”—and he’s directly addressing Clio now—“she had a place by your king’s graces. She had a role but a limited one. No prospect of a future. But we gave her something better.” A dramatic pause. “We gave her afamily.”

My stomach turns, and I need to swallow the bile in my throat as memories of Tata in our midst race through my mind. Tata, who we rescued from Jeseida’s estate. The sole survivor of the fairies captured by the enemy. Not because she was lucky but because she made a deal.

“She had a family in Recienne’s court,” Clio snarls, and I believe she’ll throw that ice magic right at Ephegos—I want her to—but the ice flickers into a layer of frosty air in front of us, another wall of protection should Ephegos order the Flames to strike.

“A family who saw her as nothing more than a soldier.” The grumble in Ephegos’s tone tells me he’s smart enough to see through whatever objections we come up with because, when I look back at the past months since meeting Tata, she was there for all meetings. She was there for even some of the meals. Recienne sat at her bed when she was recovering from her injuries in Flame captivity. She even trained with us. Strategized with us. But had I ever asked her where she came from and why she hadn’t cared to live? Had I truly given her a kind word over all those weeks of her help? And did it matter? She’d made her pact with Ephegos before we ever met.

“So what place is she getting inyourfamily?” Myron prompts, ice lacing his tone, even when Tata wasn’t part of his court—ofourcourt. I don’t know how many hits this male can take before he’ll never trust anyone again.

Ephegos’s grin fades. “The Flames took me in like a brother, and so I’ll take her in like a sister. Sister to the king of oh-so-many realms.”

It’s the first time he phrases it like that, and I don’t even need to reach into the mind link to know all of us understand the implications. Tavras. Askarea. Cezux. He doesn’t need to say it.

If we don’t manage to warn the Fairy King of the traitor in his court, we might not be the only ones to lose everything. Ephegos has set his eyes on all of Eherea. And perhaps all of Neredyn if he gets bored with his conquests on this continent.

“Go, Clio,”I all but beg.“Grab Andraya and Pouly, and go. Rogue needs to know about Tata.”

If Tata hasn’t already returned to Aceleau to slit Rogue’s and Sanja’s throats.

“Don’t even think about it,”Kaira warns through the mind link, the cold in her voice so different from her usual fire.“If the female lays a finger on the pregnant queen, I’ll personally gut her.”

It goes without saying that all of us are ready to skin Tata alive merely for what she’s done, but if she touches the Queen of Askarea and her unborn child, skinning won’t be enough.

“Please, Clio.”I’m not too proud to let my desperation leak through the mind link. We’re all drenched in the stench of it anyway.

“That will leave you three against twenty.”

Clio is right, but I don’t care.“The kingdom won’t fall if it loses two Crows and a part-Flame.”I ignore Myron’s rumble of protest as I basically offer the three of us for slaughter.“All of us will die if you don’t go. And then no one will be able to warn Rogue. His army is what can stop this madness, and if we’re all dead, he’ll be easy prey.”

“Go,”Kaira seconds, grief lacing her tone.“We’ll be fine.”

No one listens to Andraya’s and Pouly’s protests as Clio spins toward them, grabbing their wrists and spiriting them away, leaving Myron, Kaira, and me to our fate.

Whether Silas and Herinor are still alive and on their way to us is up to the gods. Clio is the only one who can buy Eherea a chance at freedom now.

---