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“Did you know that Lunara the Moonweaver can heal dreadbeasts and Forgotten?” Endellion breathed, forcing a vacant look into her eyes. “She could probably look at them for you. Have you fixed up in no time.”

“She could…” He huffed a disbelieving laugh and released her. “Fuck, Endellion. You’ve really lost it haven’t you? What else do you not remember, I wonder.”

There was nothing she didn’t remember—her own curse. The only thing that caused her difficulty was the when. Stuck in here, chained for hundreds of years, the lives of every creature in the universe passing before her eyes while her own setting remained stagnant…

Well, it was to be expected that she might mix up where she stood within Bordoroth’s timeline on occasion. Not today, though. He’d given her an unusually long break and it had allowed much of the swelling in her entire body to go down.

He bent to the floor, a smirk on his face. Shite. This was going to hurt, and damn her vanity for it, too.

The long, white feather he presented had been beautiful once. Now, it was spattered with blood, the edges stained with all kinds of filth. And utterly useless, since it was no longer attached to her back.

None of them were.

It was an effort not to grit her teeth. Not to allow any tears to even think about welling. “Where did you get that?” she asked, voice light and gaze darting expectantly behind him. “Did you bring me a bird to eat? Can’t recall the last food I had…”

Yes, she could. It had been either a few hours or a few million years before she’d delivered her prophecy to the Emperor Stennyx, depending on how one looked at it. And it was hot tea and a bar of chocolate because she wasn’t a fucking fool and knew the memory of their taste would save her from the absolute misery later.

“Oh, my beloved.” He dragged it across her lips and Endellion’s heart kicked up as the myriad visions started consolidating into one. “How far you’ve fallen from your glory. I almost feel bad for having caused it, but you were naughty, and isn’t teaching lessons part of what⁠—”

There it was. The realization she’d been pushing for.

Endellion kept her breaths even, innocently tilting her head. “Part of what…what?”

“I have to go,” he whispered, and was gone as quickly as he’d come.

Dizzying, but a few minutes here and there was far preferable to his usual, hours-long outbursts.

Joy and regret mingled within her as she watched the feather float down from where he’d been, wishing she could reach out and catch it. Keep it from such indignity. That free, innocent thing didn’t belong in the muck and grime.

Apt, really.

“I’m sorry, my friends,” she said to the empty cavern. “There was no other way.”

Lunara stretched, leaning back into the warm, familiar wall behind her.

Brand hummed, pulling her closer. “I would say good morning, but…” A long sigh. “Well, it isn’t morning.”

She giggled and opened her eyes, sitting up in a rush when she took in their surroundings. “Shite, I completely forgot where we were. Dauwyn, is he⁠—”

“Fine. Sleeping like a babe, last I saw.”

The tent was sparse, only the wide cot they were on and a serviceable seating area on the other side. Her trunk was there, and a single stick of incense was burning on a low table beside a silver bowl, its perfume the same one she kept at her cottage—probably to mask the stench of death around them. Not terrible, all in all, for a ravaged battlefield in the Westrealm.

She threw the woolen blanket off, swinging her feet over the edge. “I should check on him. There’s no telling when the next wave will come.”

“Luna.”

Where were her boots?

“If there’s another like him, I need to be ready.”

“Luna.” He caught her hand, sitting up behind her. “I’ve instructed the Sorcerit on night watch to alert us if Dauwyn wakes up. And there will be no more waves or attacks or worries this night.”

“Care to explain?”

Brand told her of the mass retreat following Dauwyn’s healing. “Most of the armies are at the border now, making sure she and her beasts stay there so we have a chance of ending this after we’ve had a rest. Again, though, we will know immediately if anything changes.”

“That feels…” Her gut twisted. “Too convenient?”