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Through Dyonisia’s mere whisper of a web, the mist flickering in and out, enough of my powers had returned for me to sense hundreds of minds scattered throughout that prison. Many might be prisoners, but I’d bet anything there was a second round of elites waiting for us to invade.

“Is Dyonisia in there?” Kanuk had come stomping over to us after disemboweling an elite still twitching on the ground. “Does she have my brother?”

“I think so.” I flicked my sights back to the prison. Although I couldn’t sense Dyonisia or Jagaros—probably both swaddled in her last cocoon of protective mist—my tattoo was churning faster and faster along the skin of my back, urging me forward so that I could finally fulfill my oath.

But something even stronger was tugging me toward Rayna.

Something I couldn’t resist any longer.

Turning back to the other Sorronian faeries who’d lost their captain, I gave them a single order to get them out of sight so that they couldn’t witness what was about to come. From here on out, the only pirates I trusted were Nara and Barberro.

“Get in there,” I said. “Find the rest of the original Good Council.”

I waited until all of them had rushed inside before I glanced back at Sasha and Sylvie to give them a final nod.

At their beckoning, the cannonball—nearly smashed through the prison’s iron roof—rose one last time and came BOOMING down with a force that quaked the entire mountain.

Dyonisia’s antipower sputtered once. Then went out.

And all my magic burst back to roaring life in my veins.

A grin slashed across my face. Gripping Old Veracious, I stalked over all the bodies that lay before me, hardly noticing the drum of a thousand footsteps following me inside to a widespread hall lined with metal doors.

She emerged from the stairwell at the other end that same moment.

Rayna.

Every ounce of breath left my lungs in a whoosh as our eyes met, my smoky quartz locked on such a beautiful glinting color of jade-green. I thought I’d loved her before our destinies had collided, but now…

Kill your little girlfriend, Rayna Drey Reeve, the next time you see her.

The memory of Mydusia’s voice hissed through my ears again, and my feet began moving without me realizing. Rayna didn’t back away even when I raised my sword. She merely tilted her head up and began walking toward me.

We met each other in the middle, an entire army marching in from behind me and a flock of her friends and freed prisoners behind her.

“Hello again, little hurricane,” I whispered.

Her lips trembled up into a smile stained with blood. Splotches of blood freckled her face, too, as well as stained her dress, and my vision ran red even as her voice flowed through me, filling me with all I ever needed in this life.

“Hello, Coen.”

Slowly, gingerly, I lifted my blade to her delicate, pulsing throat.

I’d never held Old Veracious against her before. If I had, the sword might have told me all the truths about her identity I hadn’t realized until today. Now, it sang them to me even though I’d already tucked them deep into my heart.

Not the name Mydusia had uttered. Not Rayna Drey Reeve.

Rayna Drey Kalaidesique Reeve. Beloved daughter of Fabian and Don Drey. Long-lost offspring of King Jagaros Kalaidesique and Princess Chrysanthia Reeve.

And not my little girlfriend either, as Mydusia had claimed.

Because in that temple when Fate had momentarily stitched our worlds together and Free Will had sent a torrent of obstacles to keep us apart, our fingers had grazed.

In that instant, both our souls had perished, only to rise from the ashes and twine together forevermore.

In that instant, the world had shattered, only to reform itself until she was my center that everything else orbited.

In that instant, the word yes had echoed from Fate’s mouth.