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I will not live much longer. My hand shakes now as I write, and my eyes can no longer decipher the faded script from my earlier papers. I am soon to choose my successor, the next priestess who will record the teachings of the goddess.

It seems that I will not live to see the goddess’s end, the one she foretold so many years ago. I am glad of it. My heart would break to witness such light extinguished from this world.

from the unpublished papers of Rahvekyan High Priestess Omira

Aleksi rather liked the bed in the captain’s cabin. It wasn’t large, but he supposed that made sense. When Einar was on his ship, he slept alone. There was just enough room for the three of them, but only if they tangled together in their sleep.

Aleksi rather liked that, too.

Then the window above the bed blew open. A rage-filled wind burst through it, raising the fine hair on the back of Aleksi’s neck.

Naia gasped in a breath and sat straight up. “What—what’s happening?”

Beside her, Einar struggled to peer through the darkness. “Is it a storm?”

“No.” The wind howled around them, and Aleksi heard the faint echoes of Dianthe in it. “I think it’s—”

It was all he managed before he was sucked into the Dream.

Naia and Einar stood beside him, blessedly clothed but looking confused. Aleksi couldn’t help them with that. This was not a place he’d seen before, the Heart of the Dream or one of Sachi’s adorable, cozy little sitting rooms. This was a bare hall of sepulchral marble, huge and cavernous, enclosed only by massive pillars and otherwise open to the dark woods beyond. Dead leaves sighed through the pillars and across the floor.

This was a place of loss and guilt. The manifestation of something terrible.

Aleksi shivered.

A large table sat in the center of the hall. Around it stood the rest of the High Court, looking grave. All except for Dianthe, who literally seethed with rage. It undulated around her like turbulent water, stirring her hair and her clothes.

“Sachi! Zanya!” Naia rushed forward to embrace her friends. “You received our messages!”

Zanya merely frowned, but Sachi pulled back with a questioning look. “Messages? I don’t understand.”

“Gwynira sent for you,” Naia explained. “After Aleksi was poisoned.”

“Poisoned,” Elevia repeated flatly.

“I’m fine now,” he offered.

“But then we were kidnapped,” Naia continued.

This time, it was Ash who echoed the word in disbelief. “ Kidnapped? ”

“Also fine now,” Aleksi assured him.

Naia frowned. “Wait ... you mean you haven’t heard from Gwynira?”

“No.” Sachi cast a troubled glance at Ash. “And we’ve been in easy reach.”

Aleksi quelled another shiver. If that was true, it meant that Gwynira had sent no messages, even though she’d sworn to Einar and Naia that she would.

Einar growled, having obviously come to the same conclusion.

Then another, darker thought flickered to life in Aleksi’s mind. “If you didn’t know about the poisoning and the kidnapping, why are we here ?”

Dianthe made an angry, incoherent sound, and Inga rubbed her back to soothe her.

Fear coalesced in Aleksi’s middle, a hard knot that only grew when Elevia sighed heavily. “Sorin has escaped from custody. He destroyed his cell at Seahold and wounded several of Dianthe’s people.”

“Will they ...?” He couldn’t bring himself to finish the question.

“They’ll live,” Ulric rasped.

Of course. If Sorin had killed any of her followers, Dianthe’s rage would have boiled the seas. “Where is he now?” Aleksi asked.

Inga’s eyes burned a vivid, angry pink. “We don’t know.”

Sachi choked on a sob. “I’m so sorry. I should have killed him when I had the chance.”

“Sachi, no ,” Zanya said firmly. “This is not your fault. You couldn’t have known this would happen.”

“ You did. You said he would—”

“Sachielle.” Aleksi stepped forward, circled the table, and grasped her shoulders. “Look at me.”

When she did, the remorse and shame that filled her blue eyes tore at him. If they didn’t stop her, she would drown in blame and contrition, and the next time she had to make such a difficult decision, she would do it with less mercy, less compassion.

And they would all be lost.

“You showed him kindness, and offered him what everyone deserves, even the lowest among us. Something priceless,” Aleksi murmured. “A second chance.”

Her tears spilled over. “Do you truly believe that?”

“With all my heart.” He folded her in his arms. “You did the right thing.”

“Did Sorin have help with his escape?” Einar asked. “He must have, right? Someone from his former Empire?”

“It’s likely,” Elevia admitted. “We’ve been working on the assumption that he’s headed back there to try and reestablish a base of power.”

“Which means, Aleksi, that we can’t come help you with the situation in Akeisa.” Ash’s expression was nothing short of tortured. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Aleksi released Sachi and dried the tears from her face, then wrapped his arm around Zanya in a quick hug. “You lot go and save the world again. Naia and Einar and I will handle Akeisa.”

At some point, he’d have to tell them everything that had really happened—up to and including how he’d brought a woman, another god , back from the dead. For now, they were all too worried to press, and that bought him a reprieve.

How much of one remained to be seen. Because the Betrayer had not taken that second chance that Sachi had so generously offered him. And he was out there again, free to wreak havoc on the world and do his murderous will.

Fuck.