Page 165 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
Xan sighed, swiping a hand down his face. “The gods can’t come here, and the Fates act first, examine facts later. Achaz keeps the original seraphs under strict security, and the dragons are in hiding.”
“Scarlett could come,” Eliza said tentatively. “She’d have to ask her mother how, but she could come.”
Xan nodded as best he could around his collar, but Cienna interjected. “She cannot. There is a reason she sent you two and did not return herself.”
“What other option is there, then?” Eliza asked. “Because from what I can tell, we’re fucked.”
“There is another,” Cienna said, locking eyes with Xan.
“That would be disastrous,” he said, shaking his head this time. “That would be?—”
“Our only option,” Theon cut in.
“We don’t even know if Dagian’s power will be enough. He said himself it likely wouldn't be,” the dragon argued. “Doing this without certainty of the outcome is foolish.”
“Let me worry about that. Let me figure out how to make this foolproof, but if I can, what are we bringing here and how?”
“The how we can figure out, but the what…” He trailed off, swiping his hand down his face again. “The what is Fury.” Slowly, he slid his sapphire eyes to Tessa. “The what is your mother.”
31
EVIANA
“Are there wards?” Lange asked in a low voice from her right.
“These woods are the wards,” Eviana replied, scanning the younglings running around the courtyard. “We are taught of the horrors of these woods before we learn to walk.”
“And yet you willingly dragged us into them,” Lange muttered, and she felt his shudder. He’d had a particularly brutal run-in with another Dread-Nymph last night. If it hadn’t been for Corbin shifting and tracking it, she wasn’t sure they’d have ever found it to kill it.
“You grew up on the Serafina Estate?” Corbin asked from Lange’s other side.
Eviana nodded, her eyes still on the children. Would she even recognize her if she saw her? Or would she look like all the other young females?
“What is the plan now,bellana?” Lange asked, sitting back on his heels. A small breeze rustled the trees, and he paused, tilting his head.
“What did they tell you?” Eviana asked, watching a young boy kick a ball to another. There was a group of females playingsome kind of clapping game. A few stragglers and loners. None that she felt drawn to, but it was stupid to think she would be.
“Nothing noteworthy,” Lange said.
“Everything the winds say could be noteworthy,” she argued.
“Or it could be nothing,” he sighed. “They are confusing and unrelenting.”
“Maybe it doesn’t seem important to you, but they could be telling you something vital,” she retorted. “What did they just whisper to you?”
He sighed. “It was nothing, Eviana. Something about flowers growing in a flood and whispered nothings when shadows die and new beginnings arise. It doesn’t even make sense.”
“Right,” she murmured. No one spoke for another few minutes before she said, “I’m going to check another angle. Stay here.”
“I don’t think we should be splitting up,” Corbin argued, feline eyes flashing to her.
“You two aren’t. I need you to stay here and alert me if someone is coming. Or if you spot her.”
“We have no idea what she looks like,” Lange said dryly.
“Just tell me if someone ventures too close.”
After reluctant agreement, she crept back the way they’d come and then she headed to the east. If she circled around a cluster of trees, she would be able to see the Chaosphere field. Maybe she was over there.
