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A prismatic aura enveloped Lunara, dancing up to tease her hair, and Illamiata flared.
When she spoke again, her voice rang out in warbling layers. “I think I might be one of them.”
His eyes went wide. “How?”
“I have no idea.”
Lunara shook him off, lifting the book between them before sending it back to its spot on the shelf. She hated leaving it, but if she’d misread the vision and Sokar spoke true, the mistake would mean her death. She couldn’t afford to risk it. Still…
“I’ll be back for that.” Like Fern, Lunara felt it.
Sokar didn’t argue.
There was no way for Lunara to tell exactly how long they were entrenched in the library’s depths, or how long she was lost in the vision. All she knew for certain was that returning to Straelon and feeling Solyrian’s light on her face was like the first gasp of air after nearly drowning.
Pressing her head to the chamber window, Lunara soaked it in, the sunstar’s heat a perfect foil to the cool glass.
“I think it’s absolutely imperative we slow down and establish that you are not, in fact, one of the Sisters who battled through the cosmos, landed here, and formed this world as they died.”
“Yes, Fern, I am aware of that.”
“All I’m saying,” she yelled from the washroom, “is that it would be perfectly understandable if you became a bit of a dingbat under the circumstances. It’s fine, you can tell me. Delusions of grandeur are nothing compared to some of the other shit going on.”
Lunara sighed, the pane fogging around her face. “I am not having delusions of grandeur.”
Her body was begging for a bath, and to sleep in a real bed, but there was too much to do. She had to go about her day and act normal, see Brand, but tonight…
Tonight she was going to the chasm again, armed with a new perspective.
It had to be enough. Endellion, insufferable creature that she was, conveniently fucked off and refused to answer Lunara’s calls into the void.
No matter. You’ll just have to figure it out on your own.
The washroom door banged open and Fern emerged from a cloud of billowing steam. “Thank fuck for that. Torturing creeps in libraries is nasty work. Also, I’m sorry. My hair was matted into a single fucking piece! Took me forever to comb the nest out.” She flopped onto the mattress belly-down. “Have you got it in you to dry me off before your turn, Exalted Celestial One?”
Lunara rolled her eyes and waved her hand, the particles of water lifting from Fern as a fine mist and dissipating into the air.
Fern sighed, burrowing deeper into the blankets. “I love you, even though you’ve lost your mind.”
“I haven’t lost my mind. I am perfectly aware of how it sounds.”
“I’m really not sure that you are.” Fern’s chuckle was muffled. “Honestly. A blimmin’ star goddess…”
Lunara grumbled the whole way to the bathroom and through her shower, only stopping to groan when the hot water hit her skin. She may not have been torturing creeps, but everything else that happened was like a film on her skin and she needed to scrub. Commanding it away just wouldn’t be the same.
She dried off and dressed, pointedly avoiding the mirror. Murmuring voices greeted her when she opened the door, and she discovered Hedda sprawled out in bed next to Fern. Going by the shite-eating grin on the Demon’s face, the bleeding Fae traitor already told her everything.
“I hear you’ve moved up in the world.” Hedda sat up, reclining on her elbows. “From a lowly witch in the woods to an actual goddess in a few months. You never even had to step foot in the Evesong to see to your Keeper duties! Shite, what’s your secret?”
“Ha. Ha. Yes. You’re both very funny.” Lunara chucked her soaked linen into a basket. “As I’ve said about a thousand times since we left Argoph, it isn’t what you’re thinking.”
“Believe me,” Fern snorted, “you have no idea what I’m thinking.”
Based on the amount of times Fern made her reiterate what happened, and the worried skepticism twisting her pert face afterwards, Lunara had a fairly good idea.
“We don’t have time for this.” She spared a second to run her fingers along Brand’s dagger and the carved trilliatum before asking, “Where is he? Was he…alright while we were gone?”
Hedda raised a brow. “He’s fine. You only left here about two hours ago, and he spent most of that time in the washroom bathing according to Fal, who heard it from Magnus.”
