Mag-log inWhat do you think?🤔
UNKNOWN The raven arrived without eyes. I watched it land on the stone railing outside my window, claws scraping over frost. Someone had stitched its eyelids shut with silver thread.Kairos.Always theatrical.I remained where I was for several seconds, staring beyond the bird towards the mountains.Night had begun swallowing them.From this height, the northern territories stretched endlessly beneath the fortress. Black forests. Frozen rivers. Villages abandoned long enough for trees to grow through roofs. Farther south, barely visible beneath the gathering darkness, silver light shimmered between two peaks.The Veil.It was weaker than yesterday.The raven croaked."Impatient bastard," I muttered as I pushed away from the window.The raven hopped onto the table when I approached.A small black cylinder was tied around its leg.I removed it.The bird immediately launched itself back through the open window, disappearing into the darkness.There was no parchment inside the cylind
AZAI Athena stood several feet away from me with Bart's message open between both hands. Taka was awake. I had known the news would affect her. I hadn't expected to see every bit of strength leave her at once. Ember had just finished getting dressed and was drying her hair with a towel, but the moment she saw her expression, she hurried towards us. "What happened?" Athena blinked as though she'd only just remembered we were there. "Taka woke up." Ember's eyes widened. "Oh...oh goddess. That is...that is great news." Athena looked down at the parchment again, and this time her fingers began to shake. "Can he move? Did the healers examine him? Does he remember what happened before he—" "Athena." Her eyes met mine, and I saw the panic fighting openly with hope. "I don't know anything else yet," I said more gently. "Bart sent the raven as soon as Taka awoke. We'll send it back and ask." Her throat moved. She nodded once, but she continued staring at the message. Ember
AZAI The mark was moving. I had watched silver crawl beneath Ember's skin at Selene's lake, and perhaps I should have been prepared for this.I wasn't.She sat between my legs with her back against my chest, trembling so hard I could feel it through the both of us. My wolf surged forward, and I pushed him down."What is it doing?" Ember whispered.I didn't answer immediately.The mark looked exactly like the one I had drawn from memory. Except it wasn't still.Silver light pulsed on her skin in slow, ugly waves. Ember cried out and grabbed my forearm.That was enough.I placed my palm directly over the mark. Power moved from my core, up through my chest and down my arm, hot and violent enough to make my fingers twitch. The silver light fought me.I felt it. It was more like pushing against a command that had already been given.My jaw tightened. "Enough."Lightning crackled through my palm. Ember gasped. The silver lines flashed so brightly, they illuminated the inside of the ten
EMBER The voice didn't return. That should have made me feel better, but it didn't.For half an hour after Azai heard the man inside my head, neither of us slept. The guards searched the clearing twice, Athena strengthened the wards around the camp, and Azai walked the perimeter himself despite my objections. He came back smelling of cold air and pine, with nothing to report except that there was nobody close enough to explain what we'd heard.Eventually, there was nothing left to do except try to sleep. The temperature dropped sometime after midnight.At first, I ignored it and pulled the blanket higher, determined not to complain after spending most of the journey complaining about my poor abused body. Unfortunately, the cold seemed equally determined to find me. It crept beneath the blanket, found my feet, and crawled along my legs until I curled into myself."Azai," I whispered.A sleepy sound came from behind me."I'm cold."His arm tightened around my waist right away. "Co
EMBER By the time we were finally set to leave the fortress, Kora had been gone for almost an hour. I was handling it very well. Which was why I had checked the western gate four times. Dora's carriage was obviously not going to magically reappear because I stared hard enough. Even so, every few minutes, I found myself wandering towards the courtyard again before remembering that I had agreed to this. Dora had offered, Azai and I had discussed it, and eventually I had looked at the son I'd only just gotten back and made one of the hardest decisions of my life. I let him go. Temporarily. Nivara had been unusually warm beneath my ribs when Dora carried Kora away, and when panic nearly sent me running after them, one word had moved through me. || Safe || So I was trying to believe her. I tightened the strap on my travelling bag. Then tightened it again. A hand covered mine. "If you pull any harder, you'll break it." I looked up. Azai stood beside me. His hair was
EMBER "Razan is one of the anchors," Athena said quietly. Azai's head lifted. It was a little frightening how quickly grief disappeared behind something colder. "Are you certain about that?" "I believe it." "That isn't the same thing." Athena nodded. "No. It isn't." There was no irritation in his voice, but I recognized what he was doing. A few weeks ago, perhaps Azai would have heard Razan's name, decided exactly what it meant, and started tearing the fortress apart until somebody gave him a throat to close his hands around. Now he wanted facts. "What makes you believe it?" he asked. Athena finally moved away from the door. "When I saw them beyond the Veil, I thought blood loss was making me hallucinate. Razan was dead. Teyan had been gone for decades. Seeing either of them would have been impossible. Seeing them together..." She trailed off. Azai's jaw tightened. "I followed anyway," she continued. "They reached the frozen ravine and stopped. Teyan went farther no







