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Her resolve settled over him right as she commanded, “Do it now, Demon.”

Brand was tempted to argue, but it would be halfhearted at best. “We finally have our answer then,” he murmured, pinching her chin and giving her a gentle shake.

Luna pinned him with a furrowed look. “Answer to what?”

Maybe the first thing about her that he truly fell in love with. In Glynmor, of course.

“There are no bounds to your kindness.” One corner of his lips ticked up. “You’re an exquisite creature, little moon, right down to your very soul.”

With little more than a thought, Brand opened a channel through the stone. Immediately, a chorus of shrieks came tumbling down the long tunnel, Okthana’s creations clambering on the other side, but it was no use. Even the smallest among them were far too big to squeeze their way in.

Luna crossed her arms. “You give me too much credit. This is purely out of spite.”

“Oh?” He knew that for the lie it was. “Care to explain?”

“She claimed both of us were required in order to save them. I threatened to rip her face off and save them on my own, no need for her at all. Here we are. I’m merely keeping a promise.” A blink and she shrank, once more her lesser self, though a bit wobbly on her feet. “Stay there. I’ll be fine, and I’ll be right back.”

Brand released a long-suffering sigh when she disappeared into the passage without another word. He stared into the darkness the entire time, not daring to move, focused solely on that blessed, glimmering current between them. On the echo of her steps and steady breaths. And he didn’t even think of relaxing until she was once more before him, a frown twisting her mouth.

“The dreadbeasts, they…calmed as soon as I arrived. Didn’t even try to harm me. Only the Forgotten were aggressive.” Another long look at Okthana, further belying Luna’s alleged motive. “It’s as I suspected, though. My magic won’t work on the other side of the wall. We’ll have to come up with a plan to bring them over one by one.”

Brand flashed an arch brow. “That plan will have to wait. You and I are delivering Okthana to my parents, and then we’re sleeping for a bloody month.”

“Hear, hear!” Fern called across the field, the others chuckling.

“I—”

“Save it, Lunara.” Brand sent his request down the bond, and knelt to pick her up after she nodded. “A month. And Sisters help anyone who dares to need us before then.”

In the bowels of the Great Plateau, so deep below Argoph that the craggy walls gave off their own heat, Emperor Alwyn aht Bordoroth found two of his beloved children standing before the final cell door and nearly collapsed.

They were absolutely disgusting, coated head to toe in the grot of battle, and he’d never seen a sight more blimmin’ welcome.

Safe. They were safe.

He embraced Lunara first, offering her a Fae kiss. “The Imperial dungeons are no place for you, my flower,” he murmured against the top of her head. “This pit is for far uglier things.”

She clicked her tongue at him with an impish twist of the lips. “Menace.”

Brand was next, and Alwyn would be a liar if he said that holding his son in that moment wasn’t one of the greatest reliefs of his damned life. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t be there. That you had to face that creature alone. I⁠—”

“I wasn’t alone,” Brand rumbled, “and I never have to look on her again.”

His tone was soft but strong, instead of shy. Alwyn had to swallow past the lump in his throat. Hearing no bitterness in the words soothed a quiet worry that had been keeping him up at night. Fionerys, too.

Forbidding them from ending the creature if they could help it was a risk Alwyn loathed. He was not at all interested in damaging their relationship over the life of a villain, but he had no choice. Duty demanded he play the role of Emperor, that he protect his own son’s transgressor to ensure the safety of all realms, when he wanted only to be a father.

“She is within?”

Lunara nodded. “And Brand is the only one who can free her.”

A fact Alwyn would make sure the creature was ever aware of. Repeatedly. Endlessly. She would never rest again for what she’d done. Would never see the light of Solyrian or feel a balmy breeze on her skin.

And the second she was no longer of use, her cursed life was fucking over.

Alwyn concealed his building wrath behind feigned amusement. “I believe it’s time for the two of you to find the nearest body of water and submerge yourselves for at least a week. Honestly, Brand, what would your mum say?”

Both Brand and Lunara laughed, sharing a sweet look, brimming with so much love that Alwyn’s own heart felt it.