Page 184 of With Hearts of Flame

And then I finally understood. They were saying goodbye.

Lunaya’s smile was radiant and calm. “I’m sorry to die without ever falling in love. But I’m glad you had the chance. I’m glad you found it.” Her eyes went to Kage, then to me. “I never felt that kind of love, but I had the chance to love in other ways.”

Lysander was crying openly now, tears streaming down his face.

His sister touched one of his cheeks, then stood up on tiptoe to press a kiss to his other. “Brother, you are the greatest love I have ever known. I will miss seeing you in my dreams.”

Then she turned and stepped into the arch—before we could move to stop her. I waited for her to vanish into the light. But instead, she came apart. For a moment, she was a dark silhouette—and above us, somewhere high over the manor, we heard a wordless roar. Then she crumbled, soundlessly. A pale cloud of ash fell through the arch and onto the floor.

Lysander made a terrible wordless sound and sank to his knees. I moved just as Kage did. We reached him, folded ourselves around him, holding him as he shook with sorrow.

Above us, the house had gone quiet.

Lunaya had known. She had held on through pain and corruption and terrible bondage long enough to help others. She’d saved Persis, Florence, and the children. She’d waited to see her brother one last time. And then she had taken herself and her dragon out of evil’s reach forever.

I looked at the pile of ash. Lunaya had won. And the ones who had done this to her? They were about to lose.

Chapter 60

MEDRA

I woke with a pounding heart to the sound of my mother’s voice calling my name. For one confused second, I thought Orcades was in the tent with us. I lay very still in the darkness, listening. But the call didn’t come again. Beside me, Blake was a warm, solid shape, his breathing deep and even. I carefully slid his arm off me and sat up.

Outside, the camp was quiet. There was nothing wrong, nothing obvious, but my heart would not stop hammering. I touched a hand to my chest—and then it hit me. A terrible, wordless void burned in my heart.

Orcades was gone. I didn’t know how I knew it, but I did.

My breath caught in my throat as I reached for a heavy jacket and pulled back the tent flap. My mother’s spirit hadn’t been inside me, we communicated only through dreams. And yet I knew. The fragile thread that had been hanging between us was gone.

“Pendragon?” Blake mumbled.

“It’s all right,” I made myself murmur, hoping he would be too sleepy to pick up on the distress in my voice. “Go back to sleep.”

He mumbled something I couldn’t make out, then flipped onto his stomach and shifted deeper into the blankets. I crawled out of the tent, grabbing my boots and yanking them on as I stood up. We’d set up our camp under an overhang of rock. For being underground, it was practically cozy. Pale, bioluminescent mushrooms grew along the wall in clusters. Beyond the overhang, the dwarven sky gave off that same diffuse glow of an ever-present false dawn.

The rest of the camp was asleep. Well, most of it. Someone was in the midst of the circle of tents. Rodriguez was pacing, walking a few steps one way, then back again. He dragged his hands through his hair, muttered something I couldn’t hear, and then turned around and saw me. Relief broke across his face.

I walked over to him slowly, pulling my coat around me. “What is it?”