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Quinn quirks a brow at me. A small gesture with a larger question attached.

A question of whether we should leave Luthais alive or not.

Silas’s hands are glowing that cold white, itching to blast a hole in his chest if I say yes.

There’s no need for the sword with Silas there, but Quinn is a warrior and gods be damned if he lets himself be unarmed.

“Thank you,” I offer. Speaking to the guard on his knees before looking at Quinn.“Don’t let him follow.”

Before Luthais can utter a word of disapproval, Quinn lifts the sword. He brings the hilt down firmly, dealing a harsh blow to the side of Luthais’s skull and he crashes forward onto the rooted ground, his face bouncing off the hard surface. Fuck if that won’t hurt when he comes to.

“Are you sure?” Evander asks from behind me.

I nod. “We have enough blood on our hands and—” I don’t know how to express what I feel from him.

“I think he was trying to warn me about the other guard.”There’s more than that in terms of what’s going on with Luthais and I feel a twinge of guilt at not sharing it with Evander.

But this isn’t the time nor the place for that conversation. We have no time.

Nimai remains staring at him splayed out across the golden roots, moonlight making his blond hair gleam nearly silver. And the thought occurs to me then that she may feel differently than me about this. He is her captor, after all. Her abuser.

“Mai. Did he—”

“No,” she says curtly, cutting me off before I can finish the question. She’s watching his chest heaving as he lies there. “He never laid a hand on me, that was all Aamon and …”she trails off.

Evander tenses behind me at the mention of his father, and I wonder just how far Aamon had taken his torture of my sister.

But we both know he will never harm another person.

Not in this life.And her story is one she should choose to share in time with me, I will not push her. Not now and not ever.

“But he did nothing to stop it,” Quinn responds, more a statement than a question. The picturesque warrior is waiting, ready to kill Luthais if Nimai wishes.

Nimai moves to Luthais on the ground and brushes a still-glowing hand across his blood-streaked face before pulling herself up to stand. Looking at Quinn, she shakes her head and her lustrous hair shines violet in the moonlight.

“He did nothing to stop it, but he didn’t help them either.”

Quinn grunts in dismissal of her defense but gathers that Nimai is not out for blood here. Silas disappears behind a cluster of trees and comes back with the horses, pulling them over to us by the reins.

“We need to go, now. You heard the alarms. Whatever you did in there…they know.” Those icy blue eyes are flooded with pain, his face tense.

Oh gods, I can only imagine what my dying felt like for him and Nimai.

“And they will be looking for us,” Evander states in agreement.

We hurry from the ground to the horses as the alarm sounds again.

The steeds stamp as the earth quivers beneath them.

Evander never lets go of his grip on me as we mount and ride through the Gilded Forest. His arms wind tightly around me as if he thinks I may stop breathing again.

As if he doesn’t quite believe I’m really here and if he doesn’t hold on, I may just disappear from his side.

I guess I can understand that. It still doesn’t feel real.

His grip is calming, and I too fear that this is all a dream, and I’m still floating through the nebulous space between life and death, just waiting for it to crash down on me and rip my loved ones away once more.

I’ve already forgotten how slow the trek was through this forest with its golden roots tangling around every step.

But Evander and Quinn push forward, making the best progress they can.

It’s still a safer route for us than the main roads out of Easthallow.

We’re ahead of them, and if they decide to follow, we will stay ahead of them.

Silas remains behind us on his horse, unwilling to move far from my side, and I welcome the closeness, wishing I could nestle my body between his and Evander’s.

I need them both so much in this moment.

“We have to get back to the northern camp and evacuate them all,” Evander says, breaking the silence between us.

Quinn darts a glance back to us before turning his attention ahead once more and picking his way across the forest. Nimai is folded into him, silent. I imagine she might be sleeping, knowing how exhausted she must be from that display of power.

“What did you tell him?” the warrior’s voice is rough and gravely.

Evander lets loose a long sigh. “Enough. I tried to be vague, but he pushed me for an exact location.”

Quinn grunts in response. Evander revealed too much information about the camp. About our home. And Braddock and his men will be heading there soon.

“I told him it’s in another part of the Kaanos but they will find it eventually. It’s only a matter of time. My mother said they were running out of gifted people, running out of power. So they will be looking. And his commanders were there. All of them.”

Even without Aamon we cannot be free of them. They will find us. We will still be hunted. Unless...

“We need to bring them to the Forsaken Woods.”

Quinn rears his head back, his eyebrows shooting up as if I’ve said something insane.

I suppose it may have sounded that way. But I think it’s the only choice we have.

There is nowhere left that is safe in Azudora for us or for the rest of the rebels.

Our entire world is owned by the king. Except for the Woods.

“How can we do that? There are Guardians. There are protections around the area…” Quinn replies, frustration filtering through his words. “Not all of us have magic in our blood, Bria.”

Nimai speaks from in front of him, shocking me that she’s awake and listening. But her words barely carry back to us through the thick trees. “The Guardians will let us pass.”

Quinn faces forward and I’m guessing he’s giving my sister the same incredulous look he gave me as she sits in front of him. “How do you know? Can we risk the entire camp for this?”

“They are looking for me. I can feel them.” Her voice is light and breathy. I wonder what happened when she came into her magic earlier. How could she feel the Guardians? I didn’t even know they truly existed, but she’s somehow connected to them.

Evander presses a kiss to the top of my head. “Kiara had a way with animals from what I remember. It makes sense that Nimai would too. We wondered when we saw the Guardian a few days ago...we wondered if it would let us pass.”

I tip my head back, trying to look at his face. “You saw them?”

He nods. “Just one. It was magnificent.”

“So, we head to the Woods,” Quinn states, a firm direction that we all agree upon.

Everyone falls back into silence, the weight of all that just happened and all that remains ahead heavy.

Suffocating. Someone will need to go back to the camp, but none of us are ready to make that decision just yet.

We’ve had no time to process it all—the trauma behind us and the uncertainty ahead of us.

I let my body relax back against Evander, allowing him to wrap fully around me, breathing in the scent of sandalwood and remembering what I heard as I died. What he said over and over to me, whispering in my ear as I left him. I tilt my chin up to brush a kiss across his jaw.

“I love you too,” I breathe, and his arm tightens against me.

We are here. We are alive. And we are in this together now.

I may not have all the answers. In fact, it feels as if I have none. I have no idea whether my dying fulfilled the prophecy. Or if it will come for me again, taking what had slipped from its grasp by that thin, fragile tether that held me in this world. But I have a feeling who does know.

The Ancients.