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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

T he journey back to the Keep from Obsidian Cove felt longer than usual, despite the fact that I was running at full speed and my heart was thundering out a bellowing war cry. Calcifiend chirruped in encouragement from his perch on the back of my neck and for once, I really felt he was on my side.

When I reached the Heliacal Courtyard, I slowed my pace and bowed my head as I passed a group of Reapers, not wanting to draw attention.

I hesitated, warring with my decision while my pride urged me toward Ransom and my doubts urged me toward Vesper’s quarters.

Two hours wasn’t a lot of time if this all went to shit, so I made a compromise.

I’d gain the traitor’s skull now to ensure I could pay Mavus’s debt no matter what, then head after my brother.

Because I was never going to risk becoming Mavus’s work dog.

With a spurt of speed, I headed for the Vault of Sky, slipping down the passage which led to it and slowing to a stop beside a window.

There were some Skyforgers heading into their Vault and a few shot sneers my way, but there was no rule about me being in this passage.

Beyond those guarded doors? Sure. Standing right here like a parrot among pigeons was definitely suspicious though.

There were far too many people around and it was going to look obvious that I wasn’t here to admire the Aquarius statue beyond the window any second now.

Casting a ball of ice in my palm, I thickened it until it was a heavy weight, then with a quick look to check no one was watching me, I launched it in the direction of the Vault’s entrance.

My magic amplified and I made the ice ball explode, sending tiny bits of ice spraying everywhere.

Cries of anger went up, but I was already through the window by the time anyone came looking for me, stripping out of my clothes and tossing them into the Aquarius water-pourer’s urn then shifting into my Leopard form.

I scaled the wall with ease, my claws finding the cracks between the dark bricks as I made for the roof. Up there, it was impossible not to admire the view, the tundra stretching away to the north, glistening under a rare glimmer of sunlight slipping through the clouds.

The day was so clear that I could see all the way to the towers of The Pinnacle at the far end of the island, the sharp points of them pricking the sky.

The snow shifted under my paws as I raced along the rooftop and the frigid air cut into my lungs like a knife.

I’d done enough eavesdropping on the Skyforgers when I’d first arrived at Never Keep to know exactly where the Sky Witch’s room was located, so I turned toward the only tower in the Vault of Sky and prayed no one had touched her things yet.

If I secured this item for Mavus quickly, then I could go hunting Ransom, and a pretty little picture in my mind showed me securing both wins today.

Offering Mavus the traitor’s skull this month would mean I could keep my weapons for next month’s payment and buy myself a hell of a lot more time for training.

This whole disaster could turn in my favour, and I shot a prayer to Delphinus to secure myself a measure of luck.

It felt damn good to flex the strengths of my Order form, to pounce and leap across the rooftops then climb with a level of prowess that told me I had been born for this.

When I reached the highest window of the tower, I perched myself on the sill and peered through the glass.

Eské sisca – fuck yes.

The Sky Witch’s room looked untouched, her four-poster bed still made, awaiting her return from a day of training.

A tug in my chest came at the thought of her never reaching that bed and I cursed myself for the soft spot I’d formed for my enemy.

How many Raincarver deaths had she claimed?

How could I see her in any other light than a wicked murderer of my people?

But she was one of the few Fae I’d met who had seemed to really see me when she’d looked at me.

Yeah she was rude and kind of a bitch but she was honest and fierce and real in a way that so few Fae were too.

I shifted back into my Fae form so I was left naked with an icy wind chilling my ass.

Leaning closer, I pressed my nose to the glass, fogging it up as I tried to get a feel for the magical protections on this room.

The echo of the Sky Witch’s power trickled over me.

It was powerful, and likely a challenge to break, especially as there was a touch of darkness to it that told me she might have used more than normal magic to seal it.

I had no idea how to unravel the intricacies of it, but maybe I didn’t have to…

I shut my eyes, feeling Calcifiend crawl out from under my thick curls and clicking his tongue in interest at where he found himself.

“Lucky you can’t talk or I bet you’d spill all my secrets to your asshole of a master,” I muttered, focusing again.

Calcifiend chirruped indignantly, but I blocked out his sassy chatter as I tried to draw upon that mysterious power I possessed. It stirred to attention, sluggish at first then more alert, like a beast rising from a deep slumber.

“Come on, you’re mine. You live in me. You’re part of me.

Do as I tell you.” One moment it seemed I had control, the next it slipped from me again.

I clenched my teeth in frustration, then remembered that the angrier I got in training, the more clumsy my magic became.

I was pretty sure this power needed me to relax and open myself to it.

I just had to think of something good and calm and-

My foot slipped from the sill and I gasped, my hands catching it as my chin impacted with the window.

That strange power exploded from me in a burst and I had no idea how I had cast it - or what the fuck smashing my chin into a windowsill had to do with unleashing it - but the sense of Vesper’s wards came crashing down all the same.

Before I could try and harness it, the mysterious magic fizzled away again. But kaské, I’d done it. And if I could do it once, I could do it again. Perhaps the next time Kaiser crossed me, he would find his possession over me crumbling to dust just before my dagger met with his hollow heart.

A smile curled my lips as I pushed the window open and climbed inside.

Calcifiend released a curious trill as he glanced around the room with a floor of flagstones, adorned only by a large red rug.

It was a fine space, the large four poster big enough for five Fae to sleep comfortably in it but I doubted Vesper had shared it with many.

Though perhaps she had spent nights curled up talking with her friends Dalia and Moraine, whispering of their faraway kingdom.

I couldn’t imagine gossip leaving the lips of the Sky Witch though; I couldn’t imagine her attending the balls of her king’s court, rubbing shoulders with princesses dressed in silk.

But I could imagine her scoffing at them all beside her closest companions.

Friends who she had died alongside. Perhaps she was better for it.

I crept into the room, an echo of her presence sending a shiver down my spine. This was her domain.

I noticed a book on her nightstand with a feather sticking out of it as a bookmark.

“What did the Sky Witch read about?” I murmured, walking over and opening it up.

My eyebrows raised as I took in the sketched picture of a white leopard with a thick tail and bright eyes. My breath caught as I read the name above it.

The Aquina Leopard.

I quickly read the passage describing the Order form, my pulsing elevating at every word.

The Aquina Leopards were once a well-established Order, thriving mostly in the islands of Turqesca and the southern lands of Cascada that were previously called Faetaly, but they took a sharp decline in numbers after the Escalas Vampire Coven invaded the island.

Over the course of a hundred years, the Vampires wiped out vast numbers of the Aquina Leopards.

Though many details have been lost to the passage of time, there is one legend which has prevailed.

That of the Divine Moment between one Vampire prince and the Aquina Leopard he kept in captivity.

The stars summoned them together to unite them as Elysian Mates, but both Leopard and Vampire declined the stars’ offer, marking them as Star Crossed.

My brows lifted at that. It was well known that the stars could offer out bonds between Fae.

The incredibly rare Elysian Mate bond between two Fae of the same element was considered a high gift from the stars, a love match crafted by their hands, marking them with silver rings in their eyes.

Their tie to one another made for great warriors-in-arms, the strength of their love for one another a fearsome thing to face when brought to battle.

It was a rare thing indeed to receive such a gift, but rarer still, Fae from opposing lands had been summoned under the stars to be marked as Elysian Mates on occasion.

It was thought that the stars were offering these Fae a test of loyalty to one’s own Elemental land.

To deny it marked them with black rings in their eyes and star-crossed them eternally.

It was no easy task to deny a star gifted bond.

The stars encouraged Elysian Mates to crave one another beyond all reason and would drive them together time and again until they accepted the bond.

So to deny that call when they were made to crave their enemy was truly admirable.

They would forever pine for one another but would live on in the knowledge that they had done their land a great service.

There was only one Fae I could recall in Cascadian history who had been star-crossed. Galina Kyrax who had refused the Elysian Mating to an Avanis warrior. Apparently there was a statue of her in the chambers of the Magistrine, and one day I hoped to be lucky enough to visit it.