Page 53 of A Legacy of Storms and Starlight

A curl of leather wound through her fingers; the bracelet, for Asha.

A heaviness settled over Zylah, but she sat tall beside the faerie. She slowly uncurled Mala’s fingers, carefully peeled the bracelet away and closed the faerie’s eyes. “I couldn’t heal her,” she murmured.

“It wasn’t your fault, Liss,” Raif said quietly. She hated that he didn’t know her real name. Hated that she was lying to him. That Mala was dead because she couldn’t heal her. But she said nothing, just held Mala’s hand. She didn’t know Mala. But the faerie had stood up for the humans. That told Zylah enough about the faerie’s character. About her heart.

Zylah tucked the bracelet into her cloak and brushed a strand of hair from Mala’s eyes. She was as beautiful as the faeries in the tapestries back at the safe house.

Raif cleared his throat. “Step back.”

“Why? What are you doing?”

He reached a hand to the faerie, but Zylah caught his wrist.

“We can’t leave her body, Liss. There could be more of those things.”

The heaviness pressed tighter, wrapped around her at Raif’s words. “You’re right. We can’t leave her. But how she is sent into the next life is not our decision to make.” Zylah didn’t wait for him to argue. She reached her free hand around Mala’s and evanesced the three of them to the safe house.

She felt the wards again the moment they passed through them but didn’t need to look up to know which room she’d brought them to. The reception area. Away from the business of the hall.

The ache in her back was sharp as she looked at the dead faerie beside her, so acute it pressed right through to her heart. She’d left Kopi behind, but she knew he’d likely go back to the tavern. She didn’t have space left for any more guilt.

“Mala!”

It was Asha. He pushed Raif aside and pulled the dead faerie into his arms. “Mala,” he whispered.

Zylah didn’t speak as she took the bracelet from her cloak and pressed it into his fingers. He didn’t look away from Mala, just lifted the faerie’s hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles, murmuring something in a language Zylah couldn’t understand.

She forced herself to stand, to back away and give Asha his privacy. It wasn’t fair. Mala had died for nothing. Had been hunted, like she was nothing more than an animal.

Rose and Saphi pushed through the door from the hall, but Zylah’s gaze was fixed on the dead faerie. She was vaguely aware of Saphi’s intake of breath, of her resting a hand on Asha’s shoulder.

“It was Arnir’s men. An elite unit. Holt’s still out there,” Rose said quietly to her brother.

Zylah didn’t look up as Raif spoke. “They had Asters with them.”

“That’s impossible,” Rose said.

Asha was still murmuring, rocking Mala’s body against his. The faerie could have been sleeping. Her expression was peaceful, her perfect face tilted up to Asha’s.

Except her flawless blue skin was covered in blood. And where there should have been wings, there was nothing but the two hideous stumps Zylah had tried to heal back in the forest.

And failed.

She pressed her hands to her knees, willing herself not to be sick all over the floor.

Malacouldhave been sleeping. But she wasn’t.

She was dead.

Chapter Twenty-One

“Here, drink this.” Saphi handed over a steaming mug. She’d taken Zylah through the curtains behind the counter, away from Mala and the others. The room was small, dark. Only a candle lit the space, softly illuminating the floor to ceiling shelves opposite the lounger Zylah sat on.

She sniffed at the dark liquid.Besa leaves. To calm her. She took a sip and focused on the ache in her back. The pain had become so frequent it was familiar. Comforting, in its own way. Something to concentrate on.

Saphi sat on the floor beside her, a bowl of warm water and a flannel in her lap. “I know you said you weren’t injured. But I still need to check. Clean some of this blood up. Okay?”

“Why?” Zylah whispered. “Why does Arnir hate the Fae? Why is he doing this?”

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