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Puckered scars shot out like branches of lightning from the Tear Stone, twisted from shoulder to shoulder, four stark slashes running diagonally through the mess. He remembered their battles, but he’d watched through different eyes. Finally seeing them with his own? Fuck. Knowing she felt that pain, that he was the cause…

It was enough to make him weep.

And still, she was made all the more beautiful by her trials. His perfect mate.

The tower shuddered and light poured down. Brand turned his gaze to the shimmering twin moons above, now perfectly aligned, so huge that he swore they were close enough to touch.

At contact with that cascade, Luna sucked in a sharp gasp. Her back arched as she was plucked from the ground by Illamiata itself, ascending. Higher and higher, the tipped spire opening up to let her pass through. Brand fought a threatening episode, his lesser half screaming inside at seeing her go, afraid she might float away forever until she was one with the river of galaxies flowing above.

It almost made sense, as if she belonged there among them—naught more than a little moon, finally at home with her looming twin sisters.

A burning caress came first, tracing its spectral touch over his cheeks. He leaned into it, imagining it was Luna herself blessing him with the feel of her elegant fingers. And then, all he knew was blinding star fire.

Brand threw his arms up for protection, but the sheer force of it peeled his flesh away, straight down to his bones. Battering. Pummeling. Even then, the pain was a prayer. A blaze he welcomed as it tore him apart and rearranged his being, rebuilding him anew. Brand dared a look, begging the light not to sear away his eyeballs. He just wanted one glimpse of her like that, in all of her blessed glory.

Lunara delivered the Evesong’s Occurrence from the center of a raging cataclysm, arcs of prismatic power leaping from her body to strike the spire’s ring of crystal shards. They shot the power down in every direction over the land, into every crack and crevice.

He wasn’t ready for the moment she straightened and opened swirling eyes, turning them to the city below as she stretched her arms out. Starlight and moonlight, the power of the Celestials incarnate, pouring out of her in lustrous beams until all was lit as if Solyrian itself was shining.

“Creatures of the Evesong, land of endless night, accept the blessing of your Keeper.”

Brand couldn’t breathe for the song in her voice and its chorus of warbling layers. His tears flowed freely, no bounds to his awe.

Years must have passed before the light faded, taking the mind-bending pressure with it, and Brand nearly collapsed into a puddle. He blinked against the glaring spots in his vision, clearing them in time to watch Lunara touch down again.

So soft and graceful, as if she hadn’t just decimated him. As if she hadn’t just done for the Evesong what it took a whole fucking landscape—a sunstar and mountains and prisms and obelisks, all perfectly in line—to do for the Montrealm.

And then she raised that wicked blade.

If he waited, he might’ve seen her hesitation. Might have noticed that she was already on her way towards not doing it all by herself.

Instead, Brand swallowed a shout and lunged, half sprinting, half diving for her.

Luna snapped back into that blind state when his fingers closed around her arm. He yanked, murmuring his most heartfelt apologies as he twisted and wrenched the weapon away. It killed him that this was their first touch after so long apart, the contact desperate and violent instead of the devoted worship she deserved.

Then again, her colossal strength was somehow a match for his as she fought to get the blade back, even with his rage, and Brand was so shocked that he bloody laughed.

Luna’s fangs flashed as she hissed, whipping around to take a bite out of him, so much pure, fucking joy sparkling in him that he almost didn’t dodge the attack. He wouldn’t mind her feeding, but he was fairly certain that wasn’t her intent.

Exquisite fucking creature.

Kneeling to scoop her up, he hugged her thrashing body and whispered, “I know I’m not supposed to carry you without permission, but I think it doesn’t count this time. Come back to yourself, little moon. Come back to me.”

Damn the inability to relinquish his rage, the agony inside holding him prisoner and keeping him from kissing that stunning sneer off of her perfect lips.

Araxis appeared from the mist with Cordelia. “Out of the way!”

Brand scrambled back. Araxis touched Luna’s head as he blurred past and she went limp in an instant. Snatching the dagger from where it fell, Araxis rejoined Cordelia, pressed his fingers to her throat, and nodded.

“Creatures of the Evesong,” she said, a perfect imitation of Luna’s empowered voice, “land of endless night, accept the gift of your Keeper.”

The words were still reverberating when Araxis grabbed hold of Cordelia’s hand, raised the dagger and opened a massive gash down her arm, then did the same to himself.

Blood gushed from the violent wounds and splattered to the crystalline floor. It sank and spread outwards like crimson ink in water from the puddles they produced, staining the entire spire red. A beat of silence, two…

Brand actually felt it when Starkeep erupted below, their deafening cries and cheers reaching all the way up to rattle the stone and crystal—just like every other realm when they received power from the Sisters and their lingering magics.

Both Araxis and Cordelia listed, crumpling to the ground. Whether with relief or their suffering, he didn’t know.