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“Landers requested I meet him there this morning, so, like the good little prisoner I am, I’m following orders,” Dukovich said as he continued walking down the hill toward her home.

I clenched my teeth, trapping the scream I wanted to let rip through the frigid air.

All I wanted was a nice fucking walk all on my own to clear my head. To have one moment of silence before this day began. Was that too much to ask for?

“In that case, the sooner this meeting is over, the better,” I hissed at his back then tethered from the hillside.

I landed in the trees surrounding the clearing where Pri’s cottage sat and let out a deep sigh, trying to ground myself. Trying to push away the anger that had already begun to rise inside of me before I let it seep out onto anyone who didn’t deserve it. Landers, however,diddeserve it for not telling me about whatever plans he had for this meeting. It was supposed tobe just me and Pri like it always had been. It wasmytime with her.

“Hey,” Wren said, materializing beside me as I jolted from my thoughts.

A string of curses fell from my mouth as I jumped, taking a step away from him and grabbing a tree branch to keep my balance.

“What is with you people today, showing up out of nowhere,” I snapped as he grinned and took a step toward me, throwing an arm around my neck. His grip tightened as I tried to shrug out of his hold.

“You know, little sister,” he started, dragging me out of the tree line, “no matter how hard you try to push us away, no matter how much you aggravate us, which frankly, seems to be every day”—he smiled to himself—“we will still love you.” His voice softened as he said the last words and looked down at me. “You’re my family, Ata.”

I let the words linger between us for a long moment, trying to let go of whatever anger clamped around my heart every time I was reminded that I was loved.

I finally looked up at him and smiled softly before slipping out of his grasp.

“So, was it Cin or Pri?” I asked with a knowing smile and he grinned back at me.

“Pri may have brought to my attention that I have been a bit of an ass.” I chuckled as we took our final steps to the door of their cottage. “I mean it though, Ata,” Wren said, placing a hand on my shoulder, stopping me before I pushed open the door. “I may not understand what it is you are feeling, but I am here for you, should you ever need me.”

I met his eyes, and saw the sincerity of his words flicker in the blue swirling behind them. I nodded, wrapping my fingers around his forearm and squeezing.

“I know you are.”

Chapter eleven

HYACINTH

Isuckedasharpbreath through my nose and opened my eyes, rubbing my hands together as I brought them up to the hot air flowing from my lips.

Nithra watched us from the far corner of the field that was covered in a thin layer of frost. Winter had come in the night, turning the world to glass. The ice coating every surface shimmered in the early morning sunlight that was now void of any warmth.

The once mossy hills were now dead and decaying for miles in every direction from where we stood—a symptom of the Death Magic Andrues had been training me to wield. My control of it had gotten better as it was no longer tied to my emotions, and that was a start.

I watched as Andrues laid a dead calf yards away from me. It had been split from its herd and cornered by the wolves that roamed these hills.

It did not survive the ambush.

Andrues refused to take life from any animal in order to teach me how to wield. He’d told me it was a waste of an innocent life for our own selfish needs. So every morning he scoured the hills for the carcasses of animals whose souls had already been sent back to the Gods.

I had never met anyone that cared so deeply for animals and creatures until him. We had spent so much time together these last few months, not only in training, but in Nithra’s stables, away from the noise of the world moving around us.

Her stables had quickly become one of my favorite spots to hide since coming to Locdragoon. The quiet of them helped calm the relentless static in my head. I had slipped into the stables one morning after a particularly restless night to find Andrues tucked into the canvas of Nithra’s wing, reading while she slept.

Since then, we had been sitting together in silence a few times a week to clear our minds before returning to the responsibilities our positions demanded of us.

Andrues knelt down beside the calf, pressing his palm to its forehead and whispered the dead language into the crisp morning air. The decaying limbs began to twitch to life. I could see bone where the flesh had been ripped from its body as a green and black aura began to glow around it.

I stared at it in awe.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing you do that,” I said, my voice flowing across the field to Andrues.

The corners of his lips turned upward.