Page 226 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

Idiot. “Your taste is questionable,” I said, smacking my tongue to the roof of my mouth in an attempt to wash away the sugary taste. Better no more candy for me.

He kissed my cheek. “My taste is exquisite.”

If I could blush, I would, it’s just I was freezing and that would have required an insane amount of heat. My insides, however, were twirling like little spirits under moonlight. What the frozen hells was the matter with me?

After throwing the rest of the candy in his mouth, he reached into his pocket and brought out a small stygian cube about the size of a chestnut. “I finally worked it out. How to keep the Foglings away from the cities. One of my scholars dissected the beast and found their trigger. A tumour grew welded to their hearts, a black mass that fed on light. He took the essence and tested it on many counter elements. Darkness worked best.”

My mouth parted in awe, and I stared at the small thing he held. “That?”

He nodded. “Oryn helped me make these. Adriatian steel carrying the essence of two Obscurs. The king that died in the mountain and mine—to reinforce it. The creatures don’t need darkness to stay away from it, like the clouds the Nimbus are creating. The essence alone will keep them away.”

He looked around and went to a round well positioned in the city square, dropping the cube in it. “I will have one made for each tribe. Order your Nimbus to pull away the clouds.”

“I don’t think that is the best idea.”

“Snow, tell your Nimbus to pull away the clouds. If anything happens—which is highly unlikely—I am here.”

The Nimbus stood guard atop the rocks surrounding the city. Cupping my hands around my mouth, I whistled the signal twice to alert them to pull away the clouds. The fast palpitations of anticipation had my hackles raised. I reached for my sword only to find the sheath empty so daggers it was. Many other sentries around the city followed suit, and we waited as clouds pulled to reveal the clear blue sky of midday.

We waited and we waited, weapons and magic at ready, but nothing happened. Then we waited some more, and minutes turned to an hour. And nothing happened.

Nothing was happening.

Claps and cheers made my reality snap in place. People circled the streets rejoicing with one another, muttering and crying prayers as they stared at the sun and sky with blissfulness and hope in their tearful eyes.

Hope.

He’d given them back their hope.

I turned to Kilian who was smiling at the blue skies of Olympia. “I—”

“It is my duty,” was all he said.

I nodded. “Could you take us to Kvan? The Skye warriors and Cai are there, but I just want to check if everything is alright.”

Kvan seemed darker now that I’d basked under the sun. I couldn’t wait to break the news to the others on what Kilian had found.

“I’ll pay a visit to the western cities first,” he said, backing away from me and I nodded.

“Wait,” I said, grabbing onto his arm. “My brother’s sword. I think I dropped it in Amur.”

“I’ll get it.”

When I didn’t let go of him, he raised a brow. “Yes, love?”

I didn’t want him to leave. Not when I still felt him all over me. I wanted him to bring night and kiss me again. “Nothing,” I said, turning and diving into the narrow streets of Kvan.

The further in the city and past Fogling bodies I went, the more I realised the sun wasn’t the cause of the lowering and the calamity over the city. One by the other, ravens took spots on the building roofs. Their cawing grew, reverberating in the quiet of the valley of Kvan and I spotted Memphis on the high tower of the city library, eyes shut and her head ducked down—then her pain slithered down our bond to fill my chest with a swarm of augur.

A throng of people stood in the middle of the city square, circling around something. Faces were pulled in mourning and something began emptying inside me. All of the sudden...I began to feel dull again.

Cai showed up before me, his face hard with shadows and specks of black blood. The man who’d seen distraught and never faltered had it now painted all across his face. And if I’d felt dull before, the pain of my friend became my own and I felt anything but dull.

“Move, Cai.”

His head dropped and he pulled his fist tight together before moving aside and letting me pass.

The crowd parted for me, and Cori’s small frame laid on the ground covered with a blanket. Her tribal marking had faded in places and her long brown hair streaked with white paint fanned on the dirty ground. Some elderly said children were of the heavens, they were pure and kind, and could smile the sun back to the skies. I believed in little, but I believed in that because of Cori.