Page 145 of Ecliptic

“I wish we could have gotten here sooner,” she replied with apinch between her brows. “The rebellion lasted almost three full days. It wasn’t easy getting Aedris off the throne. He is now serving time in the sand pits.”

“Well, isn’t that poetic?”

Rayal acknowledged the bird on my lap. “She sleeps soundly,” she said, joining me to pet my feathered friend.

“How do you know it’s a she?” I asked, stroking its neck.

“See how sleek her crown and nape are, with no extra feathers or plumes? Definitely a female,” she replied.

“She is the last of her kind,” I said as a lump formed in my throat. “Wait. How do you know so much about starwings?”

“There is one in my aviary. Though I didn’t know that’s what they were called, or where they originated from.”

“Is it . . . ?” I started to ask, too afraid of the answer.

Her eyes shone like marigold. “It’s a male. I named him Ekee. It meansfirst star in the sky.”

A relieved sob escaped my lips. “How do you have him?”

“He was captured a few years ago, and someone sold him to my father. I never knew where Ekee belonged, but I knew it wasn’t the desert. I couldn’t release him into an inhospitable landscape, so I kept him safe in my sanctuary.”

“Can you bring him back? We might be able to introduce them,” I said, gesturing to the sleeping creature in my lap. “They are the last of their breed. They deserve to be reunited.”

“Of course,” the queen of Hara’dune replied. “I think it’s time he returned home.”

“Is there a word forlast star in the sky?” I asked, resting my palm on my knee, but the female nudged my hand with her beak, and I immediately returned to stroking her downy feathers with a chuckle.

Rayal thought for a moment. “I believe the closest word would be ‘Keeli’.”

“Did you hear that, Keeli? You’re not alone,” I said as shefluttered her wings in my lap. A mate awaited her. And now that their habitat was healing, the starwings could hopefully thrive once again and fill the sky with their glittering tails.

I hugged Keeli closer. She'd asked me for help all those years ago when I was just a young girl in a torn nightgown. “I’m sorry it took me so long to help you. I was drugged by my parents and forced to forget you,” I said as the bird craned her neck to stare directly at me. I could see the pain in her eyes as she conveyed how she’d watched her family and home perish. “I failed you then, but I won’t fail you now.”

Her small head cocked to the side as if she understood me. Then, she closed her eyes and rested her weary head on my arm.

We met fifteen years ago, our fates intertwined. I continued to hold the starwing that put me on the path I was destined to walk. She led me to my future, my soul flame, and the Alcreon Light thrumming through my veins. That same light spread through the ground. Indrasyl’s silver roots shot out in every direction and healed the earth that was home to us all.

49

A few days had passed since the Battle at Lirien Valley, and the village felt as if it could finally breathe again. The war was over and all our healing could truly begin.

I walked along the lush pathways, brushing my hands against the leaves. Small vines followed and reached for me, curving around my fingertips as I walked by. Keeli floated behind me, squawking and marveling at all the greenery around her.

I wore a slate-grey dress laced with shimmering threads. Two thin straps wrapped around my neck, down my sternum, and then separated into wider panels that covered my breasts. The sleeves hung low off my shoulders and pooled at my elbows. The dark silver fabric draped down my body like a twilit pond.

“Are you ready to tell Nepta?” Rowen asked, striding alongside me, one of his calloused hands holding mine. We had requested an audience with the Elven-head at the Sacred Vale.

“I am. Are you sureyou’reready?” I asked back, noting the slight tension in his fingers. “This is the third time you’ve asked me.”

“Sorry,” he said as he loosened his grip. “I guess I am nervous. I must tell the greatest leader I’ve ever known that I’m the lord of a citydom. I know next to nothing about ruling, and I’m worried she won’t think me suitable. But more so, that you won’t think me suitable.”

I stopped on the path and pulled him toward me, wrapping my arms around his waist.

“You’re the most suitable man I know,” I said with a smirk. My hands lowered down his backside where I squeezed the defined slope of his ass. He chuckled, and my ploy to ease his nerves worked. “I’m serious, though. I don’t know anyone more suitable. I don’t know anything about ruling either, but I will be right there beside you, learning with you, ruling with you. You won’t be doing it alone.”

Rowen smiled, letting me trap him within my arms. “I must have done something right in another life to deserve you. I haven’t even asked you if this is something you want to do.”

I grabbed his face in my hands, feeling the scruff of his beard against my palms. “I thought I already answered that when I agreed to be your wife,” I said as I wiggled my vine-entwined ring. “Of course I want to. That dream? The night before battle? That was our shared vision of the future, and I want more than anything to create that with you.”