A human seer and an elven prince have one thing in common: a missing sister.
Seraiah's dreams have a habit of coming true, but when all her dreams turn into nightmares, she fears for her sister's life. Each nightmare is a little different, but they...
They ran their horses ragged through the night and well into the next day until Kestrel deemed them far enough from the city to slow down. Only then did they allow their horses to walk.
"Do you think they followed us?" Seraiah asked, glancing over her shoulder at the road behind them and then to the forest on their left. She couldn't see or hear anything other than the crashing of the waves on the beach below them. They'd hugged the coastline instead of heading into the woods.
"Not if Eryx was able to hold them off," Kestrel said. Pain and worry laced through her words.
"What are we meant to do now?" Seraiah asked.
"We wait, and hope Kai meets us," she hesitated a beat, then added, "and if he doesn't, we go to the Cave of Faces on our own."
Seraiah pressed her lips together. She didn't want to argue with Kestrel, but she wasn't convinced Kai would be joining them.
They followed a trail down the cliffs to the beach, where waves frothed on the sand.
"We'll wait here for Kai," Kestrel announced, stopping in front of a cave. The opening was little more than a crack in the cliff face and appeared to be the only access point.
Seraiah wouldn't have looked twice at it.
"How will he know to find us here?" she asked.
"Because it's our safe place," Kestrel answered, looking out over the water. "When we were children, this was where we would come to get away from the city."
"And he'll remember?"
Kestrel swung down from her horse. "He has to."
Seraiah joined her on the sand, and they walked their mounts single file through the narrow entrance. Kestrel used her magic to create a ball of light to illuminate their path.
Once inside, the passage opened up to a small room. The air was damp and smelled vaguely like fish. A trickle of water ran down the back wall, feeding a small pool.
Kestrel cursed as her light gradually dimmed and then went out altogether, leaving them in semi-darkness. The bit of sunlight filtering in from the entrance was just enough for Seraiah to make out the frustrated look on Kestrel's face.
"Is something wrong?"
Kestrel scowled at her hand. "I can't even summon a ball of light. I must have used what little magic I had left when I burned the rope back in Nyrene."
Seraiah remembered what Kestrel had said about the portals failing without their queen. It wasn't just the portals. "You're losing your magic without Sterling."
Kestrel nodded.
"How long have you known?"
"A while," she admitted. "I'd hoped we'd have longer before it completely failed."
"We should have left sooner," Seraiah murmured, "as soon as I woke from my vision."
Kestrel didn't answer as she unsaddled her horse.
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