Se connecterDarienThe airplane was delayed and I was impatient.I stood near the gate with my phone in my hand, scrolling through the photo Leah had sent me that morning. Her and Keanu in the kitchen, flour everywhere, Keanu looking like he was a powdered donut. She was laughing in the picture. That full, open laugh that crinkled her nose and made her eyes disappear into crescents. She looked happy. She looked healthy. She looked like everything I was desperate to get home to. My heart ached, wanting to be with her.“Stop staring at your phone like a lovesick teenager.” Cain dropped into the seat beside me, two coffees balanced in one hand. He held one out. “You've looked at that picture nine times since we sat down.”“Twelve.” I took the coffee.“Twelve.” Cain snorted, shaking his head. “Even worse.” He stretched his legs out and crossed his ankles, settling into the plastic airport chair with the ease of a man who could fall asleep anywhere. “We should be able to board in twenty minutes. You'l
Leah“The curse changed everything,” I said, thinking out loud. “When the kingdom went underground, the boundaries were preserved as they were at that moment. But this deed predates the wall.” I looked at the man. “When did your grandfather build it?”“He was a young man.”“I think he did build the wall but on the wrong boundary from the looks of it.” I held up the deed. “The original boundary was here.” I pointed to a line on the deed that placed the border six feet closer to the man's house than where the wall currently stood.His face darkened. “That wall is—”“I understand. And I'm not dismissing it. Your grandfather built that wall. B
Leah“You just got shell in the batter.”“Calcium.”“That's not how that works.”“It is in my kitchen.”“This is my kitchen.”“Our kitchen.”We fell into a rhythm. He measured sugar with approximate accuracy. I sifted flour and tried not to micromanage his technique, which was generous in spirit and chaotic in execution. He found chocolate chips in a cabinet and poured half the bag directly into his mouth before adding the rest to the bowl.“Those were for the cookies.”
LeahI glanced at Keanu, who was now pretending to be deeply interested in the texture of his cereal bowl. He looked sheepish. Good. He should.“The spirit parasite showed up.” I kept my voice calm. “Eyera. That's her name. She came to the castle while you were gone.”The silence on the other end was lethal. I could feel the shift through the bond even across the distance. The warmth hardening into something sharp.“She came to the castle.” His voice was dangerously controlled. “To my home. While I wasn't there.”“Yes. She tried to place a tracker on me. A rune forged by demons so Korvax could find me.” I paused. “I removed it. Then Andromeda and I had a conversation w
LeahI woke up to the sound of something exploding.My body jerked upright, shadows instinctively rising from my skin before my brain caught up with my surroundings. I was in my bedroom. Sunlight pouring through the windows. And Keanu, sprawled across the armchair in the corner with his legs draped over the side, a bowl of cereal balanced on his stomach, watching television.The explosion had come from whatever movie he was streaming on the flatscreen mounted to the wall. A car chase, from the looks of it. He was completely absorbed, his spoon halfway to his mouth, milk dripping onto his shirt without him noticing.I let the shadows sink back beneath my skin and pressed my palm to my forehead. My body felt like it had been filled with sand. It felt heavy and sluggish. Every musc
LeahThe shadows binding Eyera snapped. The concentration broke, the tendrils dissolving into smoke as my focus split between the threat in front of me and the brother who'd just dropped from the sky. Eyera hit the ground, stumbled, and in the half-second it took me to process what was happening, she was already moving.She dissolved. Her body broke apart into dark smoke the same way it had in the woods, scattering into the night air, threading through the garden, over the wall, gone. The scent of her lingered for a few seconds and then the wind carried it away.Gone. She was gone. And she'd taken every answer with her.“You stupid whelp!”Andromeda's voice ripped from my throat with a fury that made the
DarienThe feather burned in my pocket like a brand, a reminder of threats I couldn't afford to ignore. I stood at the base of the stairs, staring up into the darkness where Leah had disappeared, my jaw tight.A warning. That's what it was. Clear as the winter sky. Someone knew she was here. Someon
Leah“Listen to me.”“No.” His voice cracked again, and I watched a tear fall from his jaw onto my cheek, warm against the cold of my skin. “You’re not doing t
DarienI hadn't planned to stay.The balcony above the training yard was cold as hell, the wind cutting through even the thick fur lining of my coat. I'd come up here to check on the new officers, to see if Leah was making any progress with them. A quick glance, maybe ten minutes, then I'd head bac
LeahThe cold was a living thing. It clawed at my face, bit through my coat, found every seam and gap in my clothing and burrowed deep. I'd thought I understood cold, thought the winters back home had prepared me for this. I was wrong. This wasn't just weather. This was punishment.I stood at the e







