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Surely there was a better use of our time. We couldn't just let it all go. We’d dealt with raiders and bandits, starvation and drought. We could fight this.

This felt fearful and against the Goddess’ teachings. It was cowardly to gather in a safe place while others fled. My stomach turned over in realization—Luka was still out there!

I tried to tell Mother so we could search for him, and that was when I recognized the barrels and sacks of dried herbs stored down here. They were already making it harder to breathe. I stumbled back, only to be caught by the back of my neck.

“We are safe here, Azariah,” my mother scolded.

“But my intolerance.” I ripped out of her grasp. They would all be fine, the herbs had no ill effect on them, but it wasn’t safe for me. My breath caught in my throat while my lungs tightened. My throat swelled and burned, and my eyes watered. I could barely choke out words. “I can’t stay down here.”

I yanked out of my mother’s grasp and ran out of the cellar, ignoring my parents’ cries. I darted past more fae hauling our sacred herbs toward the cellar and pulled my scarf from my pocket to tie it around my face, heading toward the gathering hall. I had to find the elders. They would do something, or I could try to convince them not to give up. Luka would head to the gathering hall to help. I would find him there.

The wind shifted, blasting the full force of the fire’s heat in my face, and sending thick smoke in my direction. It was too late to change my course, and smoke consumed me, cutting off my oxygen while blasting lungfuls of herbs down my throat. The handkerchief barely helped, and my eyes watered while my chest burned. I fell to my knees, doubled over with pain. The burn choked off my throat until I could hardly move. I crawled, forcing my limbs into motion, but I grew weaker by the second. Every breath brought more agony. Blinding torture.

The world spun, and my vision darkened. The chaos engulfed my senses—screams, cries, roaring, and destruction. It was almost peaceful, in a twisted sense.

My limbs gave out, refusing to carry me any farther, and I sank onto the scorched earth. I prayed for the fires to consume me. A quicker death than the herbs would bring.

Before the Goddess took me, a deep, terrifying roar rattled my bones.

TWO

NYX

“Are you in a place you can talk?” My brother spoke directly into my mind, pulling me from the report I should have been reading but couldn't focus on.

“I’m in the Regent’s Library.” I glanced around for any wandering eyes, but the other advisers who lingered after council meetings tended toward the serious type, not gossipers. “But I’m not busy.” Sharing a mind connection wasn’t a normal occurrence except between flyers and their ryders, or bonded mates. Occasionally, twins possessed the ability, but it was not a certainty, so we kept the ability and strength of our twin bond to ourselves.

“It’s better if you’re alone.” There was a hitch to his mental inflection I couldn't place. It gave me pause. I knew his mind as well as I knew my own, considering we’d shared a womb.

“Give me a few minutes.” I slipped out of the Regent’s library, where I spent a good deal of my time. “How alone are we talking?”

“I know how well you hide your expressions, brother. I wouldn’t want to put you in a tight spot.” There was humor in his words, which tempered my anxiety. “But this is time sensitive.”

“I’m on my way to my chambers. Give me a moment.”

“Okay.” Impatience bled into his words.

“Kol, if it’s that urgent, just tell me.”

“We found something on the south coast. Way out in the Fifth Kingdom.”Kol’s mind voice seemed cagey. He spoke of a barren place few lived. The kingdom was largely arid dessert. As unforgiving as the fae who lived there.

“I’m alone, out with it,” I demanded, growing impatient with his games. I closed the door to my suite of rooms.

“We found a village.”

“And?” Settlements sprung up all over the place. The barons of the outer kingdoms gave away large swaths of hostile land if fae were willing to inhabit it.

He knew all this. The Twelve Kingdoms were vast, and my brother wasn’t new to patrol.“No, we were told to check out a possible band of rebels but found a village there instead.”

“Great, case closed. I’d inform the Regent myself, but I think it would give us away.” Why was he wasting my time with this?

“Will you shut up and listen?”

I gave a mental wave for him to continue, crossing my arms over my chest.

“They are Sisters of the Sands.”

“I don’t know what that is.”