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“The angel done snuck outta here an’ it don’t look like she’s gonna be comin’ back anytime soon.”

“Eilish left?” He stand up an’ him’s chair fall back. It crash to the floor, hurtin’ my little ears.

“That what I said!... MY NEW CROSSBOW! That what I were forgettin’!”

Noni sigh an’ pulls me off the table. She draggin’ me outta the big buildin’ an’ all the way to my room. We stops by my bed an’ she throwin’ my clothes at me. That another thing I forgot.

“Where the hell you think we goin’?”

“If Mr. Cambion is leaving, then we go with him. Get dressed, Mr. Flumph. Noni going to get the others. Mr. Kolvar and Miss Aima will want to come. Noni thinks we have to fight again. Master ain’t here to help, so we help,” the brownie say. She gots her chin up an’ her armor on in no time.

“But I don’t want to fight no more! They got lots o’ big people now! I ain’t gotta.”

“We help our friends, Mr. Flumph.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

EILISH

Delendren Glade

This is it.

This is the place from my dreams, the place that’s been calling to me since I first left. With tears in my eyes, I turn around and spot the gate I used to come through every day. But back then, there was no desert, just the ancient buildings left over by the humans. Did they turn to dust like everything else, or have they been buried deep beneath these sands?

Regardless, this is my home. The Delendren Glade was once a haven for all, a place where my mother healed warriors and fed the hungry.

To return here after so much heartache and misery... it shakes me to my core.

I can practically hear my mother calling out from the doorway as my sister and I run through the lavender fields with twigs in our hair and stains on our dresses. My head begins to spin and I feel like I’m drifting on a memory.

I walk to the place where I found them... only to see that a garden has been planted there. The garden is untouched by the snow; it’s lush and green as though spring exists only in this small patch of the glade. I fall to my knees, gently brushing the petals with my fingers.

Tears stream down my face as I remember them. And I remember me. The way I used to be.

Solya’s laughter surrounds me though I know she’s long gone, somewhere in the Veil or the afterlife. The only thing haunting me now is my own memories.

Whoever did this, whoever planted this garden here, I must thank them. When the time is right.

For now, I stand and move toward the hovel.

Old, rotting wood squeaks beneath my feet as I step into a small kitchen with a table at its center. Bottles of powders and hanging herbs are covered with dust, cluttering the cupboards and countertops. A small healing room is off to the right, where cobwebs drape from the slanted ceiling. I walk past the doorway, toward the room I shared with my sister.

Solya’s book is still open on the table between our beds.

I sit on the edge of my mattress and toy with the lace that lines my pillows. We never had much, but mother always did her best to give us what we needed. Running my hand along the edge of the nightstand, I open a secret notch. I dig a little deeper into the compartment and pull out a journal—one I recognize. It’s my old journal. The leather is thin and threadbare, and the pages are yellowed from age, but the binding is still intact.

Suddenly a stream of excitement blares through me—this is it!I think.This could help me restore the memories I’m still missing.I flip the journal open to a random page and read aloud.

“I met a stranger in the woods today. Though he has yet to tell me his name, I know he’s the Unseelie Prince. He talks in circles, like he’s afraid of me as much as I am of him. Mother tells me to stay away from him, but I find myself enchanted by the man who lurks in the shadows. He says my smile is more beautiful than the three moons of Oronrel.”

My hand flutters through the pages and stops on a page slightly smeared with bloody fingerprints. “They took Theren,” I read “His father is angry. There are whispers through the city, whispers that Theren is being held in the dungeon. Mother warned me that pain would come to us both if we didn’t set aside our foolish love. But I fear it’s too late for Theren and me, too late because we are in love and that love is pure.”

Hands trembling, I tuck the journal into my bag. The house no longer feels warm from the strength of my memories. Instead, the frigid cold claws its way through the layers of myleather armor and I hurry from the hovel I once called home. Maybe this place can be restored to what it once was, but there’s a darkness here that makes me think maybe restoring it isn’t such a great idea.

A figure appears before me. The snow doesn’t sink where he stands and I know he’s not real, but I recognize him, all the same.

“You were here to kill me that day,” I say. “You are the Cockatrice, one of Abedon’s creatures.”