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“Ophelia wrote a few days ago that they’re stationary for now, so my letters can be more frequent and contain more detail, as they’ll be less likely to arrive at the wrong location, but they’re still being vague since you and I are traveling.” He huffed a laugh. “Except Tolek. He sent me three pages describing every hand he won in cards and every tavern he wanted to show me when we join them.”

“Soon,” I promised, tracing his soft smile lightly.

“Hopefully, yeah.” He sighed.

“Do you know where they are?”

“Somewhere in the Western Outposts.” He shrugged, but held tighter to me. “They said they would send more information once we were done traveling.”

I brushed my fingers down the back of his neck. “Can you feel them through your tattoo?”

Cypherion lifted a hand, meeting mine and dragging his fingers over the thin outline of mountains. “The Bond is like a net that casts us back toward the mountains to fulfill our purpose after the Undertaking. And every Mystique that has one can feel that connection.” He dropped his hand, shaking his head. “But we’re all individual strings making up the whole. It’s hard to differentiate one from the other.”

“I understand.” I absently ghosted my hand over the tattoo on my shoulder. The one that did not hold the same magic as Mystiques but was powerful enough to release me from any oaths held to Lumin Temple.

Cypherion’s eyes narrowed for a moment, then his expression softened as his mind worked down whatever path it was set on.

“I never asked.” He paused, cheeks slightly flushing. “Do Starsearchers have a form of commitment like the Bind?”

“We exchange vows in a ceremony,” I explained. “Incense is burned, a joint reading done. Then, and only if the Fates deem it appropriate, some searchers receive commitment tattoos. Become Fatesworn. But I’ve never seen it done.”

“The Fates have to give permission?”

I nodded. “They don’t choose whom you end up with—except in rare legends—and if they don’t approve you do not have to heed their warnings for the first part of the ritual, but you can’t receive any tattoos without that recognition.”

“Different,” he said. “The Bind is all about choice, not permission.”

I shrugged. “They’re both beautiful in their own way. One about freedom, one about a promise of the stars.”

Unspoken questions weighed the air between us. Could one receive both? Could tattoos be exchanged outside of clans? What would the Fates think?

Neither of us voiced those curiosities, though. And I thought we were both okay with that. With reigniting whatever we’d had before Daminius and easing back into it.

We did not need the approval of the Fates.

I spun my oldest tarnished ring around my finger as I considered it, and Cypherion tracked the movement.

“You’ve worn that much longer than the others.” It wasn’t a question, but he opened the opportunity for me.

“It was my mother’s,” I said, staring at the opal set in the center. “She gave it to me before…” I didn’t finish the sentence, but he understood. “She gave one to me and one to my sister when we were young. We wore them on chains around our necks until they fit—or, I did. I like to imagine she did, too. That she’s out in the world somewhere with a twin ring to mine.”

I’d told him about my sister before—what I remembered of her. How fiercely protective she was.

“Have you ever considered looking for her?” he asked, gently.

I shook my head. “I didn’t want to seek them out, take them from whatever comfortable lives they may have forged for themselves after I was stolen. If their magic is anything like mine…”

“It would be used like yours, too.”

I nodded, swallowing that fear. Cold dripped through my veins like I imagined the heart of the most vengeful Fate felt.

“You don’t think they know where you are? That you became Titus’s apprentice?”

“They couldn’t,” I explained. Nerves fluttered through me. “I shortened my name when I was still living at the temple.”

“What?”

“Harlen started calling me Vale, but my true name is Adelline, my middle name Valencia.” I curled a strand of his hair around my finger. “It’s not a huge jump, but I was only ever Adelline Valencia to my parents and sister, and Titus never made my family name public knowledge—thank the Fates.”