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CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

C assandra couldn’t sleep.

No different than any of the past nine nights she’d spent in Mireille’s apartment, tossing and turning as the seconds ticked by.

Once her frustrating training sessions were finished each day, she, Ronin and Mireille would return to the apartment for a tense, silent meal, after which Mireille would work in her shop and Ronin would leave to roam the city in search of Selene. And it was during those lonely hours—after Cassandra had showered, dried her wings, and put herself to bed—that her mind came alive.

It couldn’t stop tabulating the long string of poor decisions that had led her here. Stealing memories, leaving the Temple, restoring obliviates, defying the Emperor, getting tangled up with an exiled Prince. And though she didn’t regret that last one, not for a single moment, the weight of Tristan’s absence only compressed her anxieties.

She bore most of the consequences of those decisions on her own—her Turning, her death sentence. But now, others might suffer for her choices. How could she drag Mireille and Ronin into this appeal with her? High Gods, what if something were to happen them? What if they died because of her?

She couldn’t stomach it. Couldn’t just lay here in this claustrophobic little room with these excruciating thoughts after doing nothing but fail at training day after day after day.

There was one thing she thought she could fix. Something she’d dreamt about fixing since the day she’d arrived.

And the idea of taking some action, righting at least one of her many wrongs, was far too tempting to ignore.

Cassandra dressed in her training leathers and slipped out of the quiet apartment into a night dark enough to cloak her next decision.

The mists surrounding the moat seemed murkier than they had two weeks ago.

And as soon as Cassandra stepped off the bridge, they surrounded her like a night’s cool kiss. She kept her footfalls gentle, listening for those voices she’d heard before Reena had run off.

Nothing called to her as she walked. And walked. And walked. And walked.

No break in the darkness, no sound except her own breaths and the steady beat of her heart.

After several hours, her legs were aching, even with her new Fae stamina. She had no idea where she was, this second journey just as disorienting as the first.

A debilitating wave of panic stole through her. If she got lost in these mists, who would even know to come looking for her? Would she spend the rest of her immortality wandering through nothingness?

She took several deep breaths in, and just as she was about to berate herself for her impulsivity, a faint, far away growl echoed through the mists.

Reena .

Cassandra headed toward the sound. Whenever she lost track, spinning in a search for her bearings, the growl sounded again. Slightly closer each time.

The growls began to mingle with that familiar buzz between her ears. The hairs on her limbs stood on end, the downy feathers at her shoulder-blades prickling, and her teeth vibrating with electric pain. The sensation was so intense it felt like her brain might explode.

She clapped her hands over her ears, and a faint pop echoed in her mind.

The mists cleared.

Heat kissed her cheeks and she shielded her eyes as a whipping wind tossed tiny grains of sand across her face.

A hundred yards away, nestled between two giant red sand dunes, a glittering pool of ink-blue water was surrounded by the strangest, most beautiful trees Cassandra had ever seen.

Thick, stark white trunks supported fluffy, near perfect balls of leaves in every color of the rainbow.

And right in front of them, head bowed and drinking from the pool, was a large tiger.

“Reena!” she shouted, though her voice was stolen by a violent wind that flung sand in her eyes and stole strands from her braid.

She dashed through the sand, her feet slipping. “ REENA!”

The tiger lifted its head, amber eyes reflecting in the pool, then sauntered through the white trunks and disappeared.

“No,” Cassandra blubbered as she reached the oasis.

The wind ripped through the trees and a single blue-black leaf tore free. As soon as it kissed the surface, the water came alive.

Strained whispers echoed from the ripples. A female voice.

And a male one that, even laced with fear, made the feathers lining her wings stand at attention.

A firm, powerful voice that she would recognize anywhere, in any time.

Tristan .

She knelt at the edge of the churning, boiling pool and as she peered into the water, the blurry vision upon its surface crystallized with life-like clarity.

She couldn’t tell where he was; the background looked like some kind of church.

What she could make out was that the female with him was stunning.

Honey-blond hair fell to her waist in a thick braid, and her indigo eyes showcased an almost divine confidence.

But it was the two white wings at the female’s back that had Cassandra sitting back on her heels in stunned silence.

Ione .

Cassandra felt two intense emotions at the exact same time.

The first was profound relief.

Tristan was alive .

And the second was gut-wrenching envy.

He was with his first love. The woman he’d Turned purposefully rather than by accident.

A female who radiated such grace and power that she looked like Adelphinae herself reborn.

How had Ione found him?

Had she?—

Cassandra’s relief curdled in her chest as Ione launched herself at Tristan, wrapping her arms around his neck and snaring his lips.

Cassandra’s chest hollowed out and her breathing went shallow.

She barked out a choked sob. “Tristan?”

At the sound of her voice, the vision dissolved and the pool went still.

“No,” she cried. “No, no, no. Bring it back.”

She scrambled to her feet and leaned out over the edge, begging the pool to return the vision to her. As soul-crushing as it was to see Tristan kissing someone else—not just someone, but Ione —Cassandra needed to see what happened next.

She leaned out farther, shouting Tristan’s name into the still pool.

Then the sand beneath her feet crumbled and she crashed into the water.