Page 152 of Mother of Death and Dawn

CHAPTERFIFTY-SIX

TISAANAH

Shadow and silence surrounded us like a blanket, save for the distant sounds of the soldiers above. The water around our waists was cold.

Max’s eyelids slid closed. He was pale and shaking. Water dripped from his hair, mingling with the tears rolling down his cheeks. I tasted salt and realized they streaked mine, too.

“You’re back,” I choked out, as we collapsed together. Our hands clutched something hard between us—I couldn’t look away from him long enough to even see what it was.

He smiled through his tears, and as the rest of my vision faded I thought,If I die here, what a perfect last sight.

“I’m back,” he said.

CHAPTERFIFTY-SEVEN

MAX

How much does a memory weigh?

A lifetime’s worth weighed enough to make my consciousness dull and fuzzy. Tisaanah and I fell together in the swamps of Niraja’s ruins. I awoke briefly to Sammerin and Brayan dragging us out of the water.

“Whatisthis?” Brayan muttered, reaching for the thing grasped tightly in my hands.

I summoned my nearly non-existent strength to pull it back. Even half-conscious, I knew this thing was important—dangerous. I wouldn’t let anyone take it from us.

“Max?” Sammerin leaned over me. The sight of my friend’s face summoned an overwhelming onslaught of memories.

“Sammerin,” I choked out.

I wasn’t sure what I was trying to tell him. But Sammerin’s brows lurched, and I knew that even in all the words I left unsaid, he understood that something had changed.

“They’re retreating,” Sammerin said. “We have a window to go—”

I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. I let the darkness take me.

CHAPTERFIFTY-EIGHT

MAX

When I woke again—really woke—I was in a bed. That alone was almost enough to convince me that I was dreaming. I sat up to see Sammerin’s back, hunched over a desk. Tisaanah was already up, and she gave me a grin that made my heart stop when I rolled over.

Sammerin rose and turned to me, the corner of his mouth lifting in a pleased smirk. “At long last. Welcome back, Max.”

Brayan and Sammerin had brought us to a nearby city on the outskirts of Threllian control. They said that the Fey and Aran armies had both retreated once things started to get wild—and, apparently, things did getverywild. To hear them tell it, Niraja, even in ruins, no longer existed at all.

“I have never seen anything like it,” Sammerin said, when we gathered around the table to regroup. “It was like… the landscape was moving beneath our feet. People were getting caught in rocks and plants that justmovedof their own accord.”

“It was one of the Fey,” Brayan said, stiffly, clearly uncomfortable with everything we had witnessed. “She was doing things that no one should be able to do.”

“She?” Tisaanah said.

“Reshaye,” Sammerin murmured.

The thought made me sick. With the fresh context of my newly restored past, I understood better than ever exactly how bad it was thatthingnot only still existed, but existedin its own body.

We needed to change that, and fast.

“It was…” Sammerin frowned. “If I hadn’t seen it firsthand, I don’t know that I would have believed it. We are in uncharted territory, even by our standards.”

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