LOGINIanIt’s storming in Veiled Valley, as it usual is in the later afternoon. I honestly love it here, and I’m not alone. Aris and Posey’s home, which they share with their entire brood of children, rests on a cliff overlooking a dense, mystical forest that doesn’t make any sense. Evergreens grow thick here, but so do tropical trees and underbrush that makes the view from the crystal skybridges overlooking their deep valley an uncommon shade of bright green. Aris, as a Shadowsynger but also the divine heir of his bloodline, controls the weather here. At least, his emotions do. I honestly don’t know much about that. I’m normal in comparison. Skye spirited me here an hour ago. Lucan, her son, is at home in Moonrise with Alex, where they both work as researchers at the university. Moonrise was my first stop. Uncle Sydney didn’t say much to me when he arrived in New Glade, but he did talk to my parents for a moment. I’m not really sure what to expect now. To be collared again? Probably. To
IanDad’s in the mill on the edge of New Glade territory when I walk into the village. It’s almost noon. I took my sweet time walking home, mostly because Miller and Allison crossed paths with me, and I knew for sure he was about to get his ass handed to him in pieces for keeping her out well past sunrise. Both looked guilty as hell, which is good. He deserves that. She does, too, honestly. The air is spiced with saw dust and sap. I breathe in deeply, filling my lungs with the familiar smell, and lift my eyes to the catwalk where my dad is standing, his arms crossed over the railing, talking to another equally imposing man twenty years his senior. Grandpa Ryan arches a brow down at me, and I know I’m screwed. “Fuck, fuck,” I murmur, climbing the stairs to the catwalk, grumbling over the hum of saws. “Well, well, well.” Grandpa smirks, his beard peppered with sawdust that makes up half the air in the room. “Chose the long way home, I take it?”“Likely to avoid the conversation he
OakleyI’m barely lucid when the rolling, golden hills of Silverhide come into view at first light. A giant breakfast spread was laid out in the center of New Glade when Ian and I traversed back down from the peak after several hours of just talking and watching the stars. I’m not sure it even happened, to be honest. It feels like a dream, even now, while walking in sleepy, quiet solidarity beside him. Neither of us have said a word since we set out after breakfast. I have no idea where Allison is, but I’m sure she is on her way home as well. I trust Ian, which means I should trust his friends, too, and if not, Miller has another thing coming for him in the form of Allison’s fierce mother. My house comes into full focus when we approach the village center. The shops are opening for the day, and the air smells like yeast and sugar from freshly baked bread with a hint of the smoke from the village fire. Ian has slowed his pace for the past half mile or so. I’m pretending not to notic
IanRhett frowns beside me, both of us leaning on a neat stack of logs yet to make it through the mill for processing. It’s well past nightfall, but the village of New Glade is bright under the haze of firelight. Music and dancing takes up my vision, but I’m keeping a close eye on Oakley while she stands in a group of young women a few yards away. I stayed close to her throughout the ceremony, which I’m sure can be daunting and a little outlandish, even for people from the tribes. Funeral pyres were a big deal in the Glade when our people were in Pantharas. Death was everywhere, according to my father and the elders. Now, people live long, happy lives, or will, anyway. All the children here live past their fifth birthdays. No one has to worry about their fathers, brothers, and sons getting swept into servitude or cullings. This ceremony is how we honor who was lost before the wolves of the Glade finally found freedom. Oakley took the ceremony in stride. She was interested, which ma
OakleyI need to see a healer, I think. A priestess actually. Yeah, that would be more helpful in my situation. I’m either cursed or losing my mind, along with chunks of memory, because I do not remember hurting myself last night. I meet my bloodshot reflection in the mirror in the bathroom while rubbing my swollen wrist with a potent healing salve I pilfered from my Aunt Shuna. It’s from Teshka, of course, like she is. It feels gritty on my skin, like the rough sand beaches in that territory, but it does quell the incessant tingling. A sharp knock on the door tears my attention from my reflection. My mom’s voice rings out, “They’re here! Prince Ian is downstairs waiting for you.”“I’m coming,” I murmur, shaking my head several times like I can somehow knock loose the wool rolling through my mind like a ball of yarn, snatching memories and rational thought with it. When I step out of the bathroom, every female hand in the house begins to fuss over me like it’s my wedding day. By t
Ian“Ian?”I haven’t even closed the front door to my childhood home before Mom’s voice rings out through the foyer. For a house in New Glade, it’s rather nice. The foyer connects to two front rooms and a wide staircase leading to the upper floor, where three bedrooms and a bathroom soak in late afternoon light. Downstairs, a small, seldom-used kitchen is tucked in the back, as well as another, larger room where my parents spend most of their free time. I find her there, at a worktable, priming arrows. Shelves line the walls, full of weapon-making supplies and little trinkets of past adventures. Family pictures hang on the wooden walls, alongside blades dangling from hooks. My toy box is still in the corner of the room collecting dust, but I used to sit here, at this very table, playing with little carved effigies of warriors and wolves while my parents talked in quiet tones about hunts and the occasional skirmish between packs and tribes. I can still feel that silver chain around
RyattI’m not surprised by the warm welcome we receive. I’m also not surprised by the lush apartment Ella, Granger, and I are led into after a long walk in the unfiltered, sand-filled heat. The luxury of this place–Oasia–doesn’t shock me, nor Granger. No, we don’t expect anything less from Jaxon. He’
Amanda“You better have good news for me, Nytos,” Granger growls somewhere behind me. His words whisper over a spring wind carrying ash and decay. “The only news I have is that there’s still no sign of Alpha Ryatt or his Luna.”My stomach clenches. I roll a smooth, white rock in the palm of my hand as
EllaIt’s odd seeing Ryatt in plain clothes. He doesn’t fit here, I realize, as I watch him turn his gaze from the strangers seated nearby back to the water all around us. He’s been silent since we walked onto the ferry that runs between the isles and Maatua. I wish I could take a peek into his mind,
RyattMy mother blinks, then blinks again, that milky, whirling magic clearing from her eyes. Eyes the color of emeralds lock on mine, then slowly graze toward Westfall.Her skin goes pale.“No,” she says, so softly we all almost miss it. “Where–” She backs away from Isaac and Westfall, shaking her hea







