Page 92 of Reign of Stars and Fire

The chains of gold honeycombed from Kase and Malin, spreading to Gunnar Strom, to Hagen. The strands slithered away, deep into the trees as though speeding away to another connection. They would go to another king and queen, to Valen and Elise. If they connected to my king and queen, then they would be connected to me.

Every step crafted a bond between two fated kingdoms with friendship and unity.

Kase reached for Malin’s tear-stained cheek. “I do not know what I did to deserve your devotion, Malin Strom. But I cherish it.”

A gift of devotion. The whisper didn’t stop me, it fueled me onward.

I spun on my heel and chased the wild vortex. I wanted to keep going, wanted to see how the tangled web we’d treaded for turns came to be, how it ended.

“You cannot run, Awakener!”

Davorin glared at me and hunched over his knees. His face contorted into a cruel wince when all I returned was a smug wink, stretched out my arms, and let the power of the storm pull me down.

A strange urgency pummeled my heart. Some call to race forward, as though time were running short.

The fresh blossoms and dewy grass of the isles struck my senses, and I let out a gasp when storm blue eyes met mine. A new kind of ache burned in my heart. By the gods, I knew I missed her, but this pain was a jagged shard of iron through my insides.

Open your eyes, Ari.

Saga glared at me, or at least a past version of me. Hells, I missed her snarls and anger. Fight me all day, so long as she loved me in the night.

Saga wore her Borough guard tunic and had a sword tethered to her waist. No shadows doused her body, only billowing, gilded ropes tethered her waist, her wrists. Then again, Davorin hadn’t been able to find her until . . .

Three hells—until this day.

Her gaze was focused on an Ettan longship, the sail as battle worn as the few Northern warriors stepping onto the docks beside me. I’d tried to appear dignified. A fine tunic, hair tamed as best I could, but my eyes when I looked at the gawking Borough guards were still blazing with war. Wounds still healed on my skin.

Saga shuddered the first moment our eyes met. I didn’t recall the way she’d curled over her knees as though she’d been stabbed between the ribs.

I’d been blind to the thick darkness invading the isles the moment our hearts connected. Shadows that weren’t there before rose from every tree, every blade of grass. More frenzied than the others, Saga’s cords of fate shot forward.

A choked gasp crawled over my tongue when our destinies collided.

We’d been oblivious to the significance of the moment at the time, but this force was stronger than others. Saga carried the fated journeys of her kingdom, her brother’s curse, the hope of an entire broken past and world.

I was tethered to the paths of two healing kingdoms. More than one rope knotted between us.

With every twist, and every tale witnessed, Davorin’s darkness had been there, battling with the pull of the fate spell cast the night the fate king discovered his betrayal.

In our moment, though, Davorin emerged from the shadows of the past, strong and cruel.

His pale eyes were wide, a grin of triumph twisted on his mouth as he drank Saga in, as he found his missing raven. The golden sheen surrounding her was enough to shield her, but it was the catalyst that brought us to where we now stood.

Rune, as Saga told me, was the one to pull her away. I watched her fade into the misty past. The spectral of the past battle lord followed the threads of gold until he found where I stood on the docks. His face twisted and he bled into his own power, soaking into the soil of the isles.

A hand gripped the back of my neck.

“I never lost sight of you,” Davorin hissed in my ear. “That day was the day you sealed your fate.”

“You’re right. My fate has always lived with her.” I whipped my head back, cracking my skull against his nose.

The squall pulled us down, away from the isles.

When we landed again, the commotion ceased.

Open your eyes, Ari.

I fluttered my eyes open. We were back where we began. Riot tossed the door open, storming out, and as before, he called for the heads of all the men who harmed his sister.