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I nodded, conceding as I sat back down between Landers’s legs and leaned against his chest.

“I am going to take first watch,” Dukovich stated, walking toward the entrance of the cave. “Wren, walk with me. There is much I need to tell you before we meet with Malik.” Wren lifted himself from the ground and followed after him as a sigh slipped between my lips.

Landers and I sat in silence for a long moment as his arms wrapped around my shoulders, the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest at my back soothing my fraying nervous system.

“You didn’t say anything when I spoke of Saniel,” I said softly, a question layered in the statement as a twinge of guilt pricked at my skin. I could feel a smile form on his face as he kissed just above my ear then pressed his cheek where his lips had been.

“I already knew.”

My body twisted toward him in one quick motion to find amusement dancing across his features.

“You knew and you didn’t say anything? You just let me lie to you?” I asked, embarrassment seeping into my gut.

“I know you well enough to know that your conscience would not let you hold onto that secret for long if it put any of us at risk,” he said, smirking back at me. “I also knew that you would tell me when you were ready.”

“But how did you hear it when they didn’t?”

“Higher Magic may have been stripped from the blood of my lineage when it was cursed, but the blood remains nonetheless.That puts me in a kind of limbo between Greater and Higher Magic. I can sense Higher Magic, I just cannot access it.”

“There willnotbe a next time, but if for some reason there ever is, don’t just let me lie to your face,” I said, narrowing my eyes on him.

He grinned, slipping his thumb and forefinger around my jaw and pulling my face toward his.

“And miss the opportunity to watch you squirm? Never,” he said as a low playful chuckle rolled from his throat.

His breath brushed against my skin as he pulled my face closer, a small smile gracing my mouth before I closed the distance between us and let my lips crash onto his.

Wehadwokenearly,just before dawn, to ensure we would be able to wake these cursed Gods before nightfall. If they were angry, if they wanted a fight, we did not want to be caught between them and the creatures that roamed these mountains at night.

The last hour of the hike had been grueling and my bones already felt stiff—ached to their very core. Andrues had packed me a tonic that would help renew my energy, but I didn’t dare take it until right before I spilled my blood over their stones.

My daggers clanked together against my chest as we summited the last peak and I looked down at the valley below us. Our heavy breaths mingling together were the only soundsin these dead, still mountains and the silence of it sent a chill skittering across my skin.

“It is downhill from here. The passage is just around that bend,” Dukovich said, his tone somber as he pointed toward the curve of the trail at the base of the peak we stood on.

Landers’s hand slid up the back of my neck, his fingers kneading into the muscle there and I groaned against the sensation. Pain and relief mixed together as I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath.

We would be okay.

We were going to be okay—we had to be.

I forced my eyes open to the sound of Wren’s boots crunching over the gravel as he began his descent down the mountain, and for a small second, I hesitated. My throat constricted as I watched him walk away from me and my heart began to beat frantically against its cage. His brother had done this, followed me blindly into danger and I had let him.

I had let him and it cost his life.

They were alike in so many ways. So unafraid, so fearless in their pursuit of justice and truth. Neither one had ever questioned the cost of putting themselves in danger to protect the people they loved. I couldn’t lose him too, couldn’t put his life at risk.

I couldn’t be the reason another one of my friends lost the love of their life.

Not for me—not for this.

“Wait,” I shouted, taking a few steps toward Wren and Dukovich as they turned to face me. I tried to hide the fear in my voice, the pain that had clawed its way to the surface. “How far from here are the ruins where you will meet Malik?”

“Not far. They are near the realm passage—about a half-day hike out of the mountain range then a few hours north,” Dukovich responded as I gave a shallow nod.

“Wren, I think you should go now, while we finish this.”

Wren’s face twisted in confusion as he looked from me to Landers. “Why?”