Page 3

Three

Myron

Ayna flies straight for the training grounds when we all disperse to get ready for practice. I’m not sure if it was me who sent her bolting from the dining hall or if she’s restless in general; it’s hard to know with Crows in their bird form. Everything is driven by instincts and so much harder to control. It’s a miracle she hasn’t tried to tear anyone’s face off when Silas, Royad, and Tori get at it, discussing the best fighting techniques and strategies for battle.

Allowing my boots to make sounds on the stone floor, I make my way toward the back door—better to announce my presence than startle the fairy soldiers we’re training with today and risk getting a blast of magic in my face.

“You all right?” Royad joins me halfway to the arena, dressed for battle and ready to kill on my behalf, as always.

I shrug. It’s not a secret I haven’t been all right since the moment I learned Vala locked my mate in her bird form. The Goddess of Water has taken enough from me already. Centuries and centuries under her curse are more than any Crow should be able to bear. Yet, here we are.

When I don’t say anything, Royad clasps my shoulder in a familiar gesture of comfort. “You went to the temple again?”

“Did she follow?” I don’t want to ask, but since Ayna won’t stay in the same room with me to broach the subject, I need to rely on my cousin to know if she’s getting herself into trouble.

He squeezes my shoulder. “What do you think?”

Of course she did. When I first spotted Ayna circling high up above the streets, peering down from roofs, hiding behind chimneys, my heart all but seized, and it took all the self-control I have mastered over centuries of being cursed to not confront her and send her back to the palace when she so obviously doesn’t want me to know she’s following me on my nightly trips, and I’m still not over the absolute terror of anything potentially happening to her when she’s out there on her own. I didn’t spot her yesterday, though. Luckily, I have the most loyal cousin to watch my mate’s back while I sneak into Shaelak’s temple in a narrow side street at the edge of the city—the only temple of Shaelak, or the Brother Guardian as they call him here. All the other temples are dedicated to both Guardians, but I need only the God of Darkness. He’s the creator of Crows, and if anyone holds the power to change Ayna back, it’s him, no matter that it was Vala who cursed her.

No—Ayna isn’t cursed. The goddess merely informed her there would be repercussions to using her Crow powers and her water magic at the same time; she didn’t voice an actual curse.

The others are already there when we arrive in the arena, Silas sparring with Clio, the fearless fairy princess, Herinor chatting with the part-Flame, Kaira, who seems to be the only one who can leash his ever-loving bastard of a temper, and Recienne is poring over a map pinned with magic to the stone wall near the stack of logs at the side of the entrance.

My eyes skip over them all, though, searching the space for the small, beautiful black bird that is my mate.

She’s perched on the highest point of the construction, far above the top benches of the auditorium where a small group of soldiers has assembled to watch and learn before they leap into practice of their own and carry the proven techniques to their legions.

“Any success last night?” Royad asks when he notices the direction of my stare.

I shake my head. “I thought the gods had merely abandoned Neredyn, but it seems they hate Eherea enough to leave it behind as well.” Neredyn—my chest aches at the thought of wild forests and clear blue oceans. One day, I’ll return to the place I was born.

“Have you tried?” Gaze dropping to my leather-clad forearm, he sniffs the air for traces of my blood.

“Of course I tried. I try every night.” My fingers absently rub the small incision I made there last night, even when the wound has long healed without a scar to tell the tale. How I wish it hadn’t, leaving a reminder of my efforts at convincing the God of Darkness to release my mate from the hold of her feathered form.

Squeezing my shoulder once more, my cousin gives me a pitiful glance. “Don’t give up.”

“Never.”

As I watch him stalk toward Herinor and Kaira, I blow out a slow breath to steady my heartbeat.

All those days of hoping that the fairy healers would find a way to transform Ayna back… My hands are shaking at the mere thought of the nights I spent hoping as they fed her tonic after tonic to force her out of her crow body. The pain and fear she must have gone through. Ire blazes in my veins, and I struggle to keep the silver power from rushing from my blood in an all-consuming blow.

It’s not the fault of these people—our allies—who are willing to expose their weaknesses to become stronger together. It’s nobody’s fault.

So I force down another breath and shift into my bird form, ignoring Tori’s call to fucking drag my ass over to the map so we can talk strategies , and join my mate on her vantage point instead.