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GAVREL ~ EIGHTEEN TURNS OLD: SPRING

A few days ago, I celebrated my eighteenth birthday, yet I felt unchanged. I wasn’t any more a man than I had been then. The realm was still rotting before our eyes. Food and resources were depleting.

So, I’d done it.

I’d joined the Order in hopes that I could be of use. That I could better protect those I loved. Make some sort of difference for our realm.

My mother was upset with me for enlisting, and it was no secret, at least to our family, that she despised the Elders and their laws. It was likely why she had asked me to go on this walk with her: to try to convince me to change my mind.

However, I would continue to disappoint her because I was still leaving for Pneumali City in a couple of days to begin my training.

I glanced at her as we walked through the grymwoods, her aura sparkling in shades of honey and caramel as she made contact with various trees. Her energy soaked into the trunks, leaving a healthy, reddish tint where she’d touched.

Earlier in the turn, she’d confided in me that she was a Druik. I assumed she believed this revelation would persuade me not to join the warrior legion, making me worry for her safety and think that her premonitions were true.

Hestia Larkin was not one to shy away from a bit of coercion when she considered it to be for the safety of her family. The thought curled the corners of my lips.

“Sweetheart, you know very well my dreams have never been wrong. If you’ve never believed me before, I need you to heed me now.” My mother gripped my forearm, her light green eyes pleading. The moonlight skimmed over her ebony waves, making the crests appear blue.

I kissed her cheek, tucking her hand into the crook of my elbow. “Tell me then. What have the Fates whispered in your ear?”

“Gavrel, I’m serious.” She paused, turning and placing a palm on each of my biceps. “Morpheus himself came to me last night.”

One of my eyebrows lifted. “How blessed you are, Ma. The Ancient of Dreams paying you a visit.”

She ignored me, wrapping her arms around her middle. “He came to me. Said that you were in danger. That Seryn was in danger.”

Seryn ?

What did she have to do with me? I’d always felt a kinship with her. The need to protect her had been relentless. But she was my brother’s best friend. She was like a little sister to me.

“Gavrel, she’s … she’s your khorda.”

My heart stilled, a disbelieving huff clogging my throat. “Ma … that’s … that’s absurd.”

Her eyes softened as she studied me. “Is it? You know your father and I are khordas. It is rare, but it’s possible.”

“If this is some trick to get me to stay, it won’t work.” I scoffed, running my fingers through my shaggy waves.

“It’s not a trick, my love. My dream warned that you both were in danger, and that you needed to take action to hide your bond. I know not from what or whom, but it was clear that it was a matter of life and death. There are things you … you don’t know.”

I narrowed my eyes, voice lifting. “Enlighten me then.”

“Hush now, you know the Elders have ears everywhere.” Ma placed her hand on my arm once more, her thumb brushing back and forth.

“Before Seryn was born, Maya fled her home—wherever that may have been—and asked me for a protection rune that she eventually embedded in Seryn’s neck.

She said that the girl was destined for great things, but that if others knew too soon what she’d become, they’d destroy her. Destroy us .”

My breaths were shallow now, confusion and fury battling within me.

At the thought of anyone harming the girl.

Anyone harming those I cared for. My mother’s words slammed against my skull, prying into the crevices of my beliefs.

“You aren’t making sense. She’s only thirteen.

What threat could she pose?” I pulled from her hold. “Fated? This can’t be true.”

“But it is. Even though Maya and I were close, she kept much locked away. I don’t know everything, but it’s enough. Enough to know that just as Seryn has a talisman, so must you. The thread that ties you to the girl must be severed.”

My mother gulped, lips parting as if wanting to say more, but then sealing shut as she thought better of it. The nagging suspicion that she wasn’t telling me everything thrummed along my nape. But I knew how stubborn she was. She’d tell me exactly what I needed to know, and nothing more.

My mouth twisted as I looked at the night sky. The stars were taunting me, winking as if they kept all the secrets of the universe. I didn’t want to believe my mother, but something deep within knew her words to be true.

The space above my heart constricted, and it felt as though a cord was yanking on my ribs, trying to pry them open and free the bleeding muscle within.

The girl had endured a great deal, dealing with her mother’s disappearance and her emotionally distant father.

She deserved the best chance at freedom and the ability to choose whom she would love someday.

While a bond didn’t dictate who to love, I could only assume that it didn’t make things easier.

If Seryn was my fated, it was my duty to protect her. Regardless, I’d done that over the turns because she was like family.

Because she was Kaden’s best friend.

Because it was the right thing to do. And the gangly, little thing was constantly getting herself into trouble.

I shook my head, looking at my mother. Chuffing a strangled laugh, I cupped my nape with both hands. “I thought you brought me out here to dissuade me from joining the Order.”

Her chin dipped, eyes glistening with unshed tears.

“Quite the opposite. Although it’s not what I want, you need to go …

for your safety and hers.” She tapped the place over my heart and handed me a thick sliver of obsidian.

My thumb ran over the etching carved into its glossy surface: a decagon with a lightning bolt slicing through the middle.

My molars clenched together so tightly I thought they’d crack. My pulse thundered in my ears, drowning out the sounds of the forest, and the mist crept over the needle-laden earth toward us.

She deserved a choice.

Deserved to be more.

Seryn had enough fire within her to burn down the realm if she set her mind to it. Perhaps she’d be the one to save Midst Fall.

“I’ll do it.”

With a sigh, Ma cupped my cheeks in her hands.

I took out my dagger and nudged it into her palm as her arms lowered.

She lifted her chin. “Seryn’s talisman prevents her ember from manifesting, but yours …

yours will block your bond and perhaps other embered attacks.

This rune symbol—it’s powerful—is a gift from Morpheus himself.

It will prevent you from talking about the bond or its purpose.

It’ll be painful, sweetheart, but I know you can weather it. My boys are made of the cosmos itself.”

At least I’d feel something , I thought wryly.

I nodded, pulling my tunic up my body and then staring blankly at the stars trapped in the aether above.

With a look of sorrow, Ma cut into the space above my heart, making quick work of embedding the talisman and sealing my flesh with her healing ember.

I winced as the rune’s power scorched through me, burrowing within like a poison seeping into my soul. Rubbing my palm over my new star-shaped scar, I closed my eyes.

Seryn’s sweet face flickered behind my eyelids. She laughed and dashed through the meadow as astra poppies danced around her. The girl would be free now, just as she deserved to be.

My hands fisted at my sides, gripping my conviction tightly. I would make the same choice over and over again if it meant protecting someone I cared for. If it meant fighting the malevolent shadows creeping over what good was left in the world.

Because, although there was always a choice … sometimes there was never a choice at all.