Page 162 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

It was set. Tomorrow I would enter the temple again.

Chapter twenty-four

Serta

Kilian

I awoke in a puddle of sweat and a dull burn on my arm. The seal of bargain between Snow and I had ebbed and almost faded. Something was wrong. Quickly, I got dressed and faded to where the seal directed me to.

The cold hit me first, and then the snow began coating my hair and clothing before I gathered a sense of my surroundings. I groaned when I saw where I was. This damned woman.

Few feet away from me stood the temple in the Islines.

Without thinking it further, I stepped inside the veiled temple. The space was completely enshrouded in darkness, but my senses were brighter in it. If not, I saw even better.

Between the statues lining the second entry of the temple, I made out her figure navigating between a large round archway under the god of gods, Fader.

“This relationship between you and peril ends now,” I said approaching her.

“Gods!” She startled, dropping her torch to the floor.

“Close, but you can keep calling me Kilian.”

She breathed hard, a hand over her chest and the other gripping the hilt of her sword. “It’s not him,” she whispered to herself.

“It is me Snow.” Grabbing her hand, I pulled her to my chest, letting her feel me as I felt her after weeks of not being able to touch her. I breathed her in and kissed every corner of her face. Sweet gods and blessed heavens, I’d missed her. “We have not entered the Crafter’s enchanted veil yet.”

She swallowed. “How do you know about that?”

“I entered it about a hundred times when I lost you that day in it. I recognise the way around it by heart.”

She backed a step away from me. “You shouldn’t be here.”

I lifted my hand, showing her the inked bargain that had begun fading under the foreign veil of magic. “You are tethered to me.”

“I’m getting the sceptre.”

“Not until we figure out how to cross the veil.”

She shook her head. “Father is determined to get it this time, I know it. He has sent a team to the Islines to enter the old Krigborn lands and find other entrances. It is a matter of time before we lose this one too.”

“Then we are getting the sceptre.”

Her jaw tightened. “No.”

“Yes.”

“You’re a living sieve, you idiot.”

“But living, nonetheless. Either we go together, or no one goes at all.” I reached chest to chest with her. “Go on, say no.”

She dropped her head back and groaned before turning on her heels and continuing down the temple.

The room was just as I had remembered, a small flicker of light circled around the room illuminating the drawings and the numerous statues about the walls and ceiling. We both looked down as red liquid filled us to our ankles.

Snow squeezed my hand tight, her eyes jumping about the room. From the way those golden irises had thinned, I knew we’d entered the veil and she was seeing and hearing things that could drive a sane person to insanity.

A bulbous light jumped about the ceiling, illuminating the dark charcoal drawings. At the centre stood a white winged woman with her hands bound together, eyes painted in a pale starlight and her hair a blinding ivory.