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“What does that mean?” Hadima was pale as fresh snow.

Iryana swallowed. She didn’t really know.

“It means things are going to get worse. The gods’ war is… continuing. Whatever that means.”

“What do we do?” Hadima’s hazel eyes were wide beneath her raised brows. Iryana could see how hard she was trying to hold it together. To stay strong for them.

Iryana looked to Misha, who was watching her with a slightly scrunched brow, lips parted.

“I don’t know yet,” Iryana admitted. “I need to talk to the First. We have to… prepare.”

“Okay,” Hadima said sharply, nodding vigorously and looking more than a little unhinged. “Okay… okay.”

“And the creature we saw, it’s some kind of fox-serpent. It’s like the dakii but made by Mhakiza.”

“A different…” Hadima sounded strangled.

The three sisters were quiet for a moment, letting everything sink in. It was the youngest of them who broke the silence.

“This is what I bought with my birthday boon?” Misha narrowed her eyes in displeasure. “We get a new war of the gods? Can I return my boon?”

Iryana stared at her little sister, jaw dropping.

“Misha!” Hadima chastised. “How can you make a joke right now?” But it seemed to have pulled Hadima from her panic.

“I’ve never known peace.” Misha arched a brow stubbornly. “We’ve been at war with the beasts since before I was born. Okay, there’s a new war now. At least they’re fighting each other and not us.”

Iryana stared at Misha in shock. She couldn’t tell if it was false bravado or if her sister had really come to terms with things so quickly. Iryana still hadn’t reached that level of acceptance herself.

“There’s more, but…”

“You have to talk to the First,” Hadima finished for her. “After you talk to grandmother, we’ll all sleep in my room. You can tell us everything.”

Misha nodded beside her.

“Thank you.” Iryana wrapped them both in a hug, and Misha didn’t even fight it. They held on tightly. As much as they were trying to act like everything was all right, they all knew it wouldn’t be.

She breathed in their scents, so familiar and strange at the same time. She was lighter now, like these truths were a weight they now shared between them. But gods, was she afraid. Afraid she was going to fail them. Afraid she was going to lose them. Tears burned in her eyes, but she had to hold it together a little longer.

And then she had to find her grandmother.

When Iryana finally slipped into the First’s study, she was waiting stiffly. Like she could sense how horrible the news would be.

She didn’t comment on how long Iryana took to get there, just leveled her with that intense gaze the moment she closed the door and took her seat on the other side of the desk.

Telling her sisters was one thing. But she was afraid the First wouldn’t have the answers she hoped for. Wouldn’t have a plan to get them all through this. What would they do then?

Iryana shoved her trembling hands beneath her thighs.

“Well?” the First demanded. “Do we have a second kind of monster to contend with?”

That was an easier question to answer than… the rest. “I think what we saw was more of a spy than a new threat.” Iryana’s voice was tight.

“A spy?”

“A spy for the gods.”

The expression on the First’s face changed rapidly. It morphed from disbelief to surprise to confusion to horror.