Page 175 of The Trials of Ophelia

“What exactly are you saying?” Barrett narrowed his eyes at me.

“I’m saying—what if that was not all she was given? What if there was something else?”

“Like what?” Rina asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t know.” The theory was budding in my mind, roots being planted, but nothing had sprouted yet. Tolek and I had categorized a number of ideas of what we may face if our plan to lure out the queen was successful—we’d set our own contingency plans, and he’d vehemently refused a few of my suggestions—but each still felt incomplete to me. “Vale recalled the Angels being prominent in each of her recent readings—as well as who she believes might be the gods—and she said she typically reads warriors, not higher powers. It’s still only a theory, but what if Kakias also has Angelblood?”

“She can’t.” Barrett examined his hands, long pale fingers adorned with jewels. “That ring has been ours for centuries. We’ve all shed blood at one point or another, but nothing ignited it the way yours does.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but it was Tolek who answered. “You can have Angelblood without it being active.”

Dax swiveled around to face us, eyes landing on Barrett’s ring on my finger. “Wouldn’t he have at least felt something within that, though?”

“I never felt anything with Malakai’s spear until well after he was gone, and he’d been training with it for years.” I shrugged. “But it’s only a theory.”

And I was so tired of the queen being two steps ahead of us—so desperate for a modicum of revenge for what she’d taken from us—I would try anything. Angelborn’s emblem warmed against my sternum as if in agreement.

“Speaking of the ring,” Barrett said, taking out a journal and tossing it to me, “Dax and I have been recording every variation of Blackfyre lore we can recall.”

I read their accounts quickly, then my eyes flashed up to his green ones. “Bant lost something?”

Barrett nodded, a smile twisting the mouth—a smile I’d once thought so cruel. “Even our renditions vary, as happens with folklore over time, but in every case, two facts remain the same: Bant was called there to battle a dark creature, and in the fight he lost a piece of himself.”

“We don’t know if it’s literal, like a limb,” Dax added. “But these things tend not to be.”

“A piece of himself,” I said thoughtfully, spinning the ring around my finger. “This wasn’t voluntarily given, then? He did not sacrifice his fossilized power because he wanted to.”

“Perhaps he did.” Barrett lifted a shoulder. “Perhaps it wasn’t about the ring at all, and that merely became the location later on. Either way, we have something to work with.”

“Thank you.” I sighed. It wasn’t answers, but every piece, every theory, helped me gain a little more control.

“We’ll keep thinking about it,” Rina encouraged as she finished repacking the ingredients. My fidgeting fingers itched to snatch the vials from her and check them all again, but I took a length of rope from my own pack instead. “I’m going to rest until we have to move again.”

Crossing to the back of the cave, Rina curled up, draped her cloak over her body, and rested her head against her pack.

“Tolek, I’ll take over watch,” Barrett offered. He joined his partner at the entrance, and the two began muttering.

Tol dropped down next to me, eyes catching on the rope in my hands.

“Yes?” I asked, slipping the thick cord around itself again. Did his eyes darken—or was it only the shadows of night beginning to fall?

“Ideas,” he finally said.

When his gaze lifted, it burned with challenge.

My cheeks flushed as I looked between him and the rope. A thrill shot through me, but I gave him a small smile, tossing it aside. “Perhaps one day. If we ever stop running.”

The fire in his eyes turned ice cold. Determined. He gripped the nape of my neck and stroked a thumb over my pulse. “A safe home and woven constellations,” he promised. “I’m going to give you everything you deserve.” Tolek pressed his lips to mine, and I allowed myself to hope for those vows to hold true. To allow this man to shelter me when I kept a guard up around everyone else.

Then, he pulled me toward him and leaned his back against the wall. “Let’s get some rest before we enter enemy territory.”

He joked, but the gravity of those words sank over me as I watched the sun slip lower behind the mountains, sleep evading me.

Hours later, a deep purple sky was peppered with stars spelling unreadable fates. The seven warrior constellations were bright tonight.

“Let’s get moving,” I instructed the group as I finished preparing Sapphire. She nudged her nose against my shoulder, her presence a balm to my worries. “I want to make the descent by night and find a cave by the river for the day before we cross to the Thorentil side.”

“I don’t think that will be possible,” Dax said from the entryway. His hands were wrapped around his axes, shoulders tense.

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