Page 120 of Mother of Death and Dawn

Behind me, Tisaanah stood, sliding the letter into her pocket. The gold streaks that ran over it still glowed, as if light pulsed between cracks in her flesh. I hadn’t noticed it before, but it was dark enough in here that it was clear that the light was moving, too—the center point of the glow subtly shifting from her palm to the tip of her finger.

Ishqa could barely look away from it.

“It’s leading me somewhere,” Tisaanah murmured.

“Where?” he asked.

“I’m not sure. Somewhere… close, I think.”

“We need to follow it.”

Tisaanah’s eyebrows shot up.

“I need to go to my people,” she said. “I’m holding a letter covered in my best friend’s blood. They need my help.”

“And that is exactly why we must get that power first. You would be useless to them now. But if we had the power that wayfinder leads to, you would be able to help them.” He stepped closer. “If Caduan gets to it before we do, they will be in greater danger than ever. Think of what would have happened if he had it when he attacked Malakahn. None of them would have survived, and likely, neither would we.”

Tisaanah’s jaw clenched. She cradled her glowing hand, silent.

Ishqa’s voice softened. “I will fly to them. We—”

A crash cut off the rest of his words, coming from the back of the apartment. I grabbed my sword and ran towards it, only to nearly take Brayan’s head off as he pushed past me and stumbled into the living room.

“We need to go,” he ground out. “Right now.”

“Ascended above, what the hell happened to you?”

He was dripping wet. Rivulets of watered-down blood ran down the side of his face, and crimson soaked the midsection of his shirt.

Tisaanah rose. “You’re hurt.”

“It’s nothing. I—is your hand… glowing?” He shook his head. “Never mind. Later. As we’re leaving. We have to go through the back. I got—”

Sammerin, still stationed by the front window, let out a curse. I peered out beside him. Up the street, a cluster of men were headed towards our door—and heading them up was Brayan’s friend from earlier.

I whirled to my brother. “Brayan, what did you do?”

“I didn’tdoanything, except nearly get myself killed trying to get back here to warn you in time.”

So much for lying low.

I grabbed the swords from the wall and tossed one to Sammerin, then one to Tisaanah. Ishqa was already plenty well-armed.

“Do we have another one?” Brayan asked.

“Why would we have another one? Where’s yours?”

“I don’t want to get into it.”

Ascended fucking above. We had what, thirty seconds before a pack of bounty hunters were at our door? I snapped my fingers and conjured flame to my fingertips. It was weak compared to what I knew I was capable of, but it would need to be enough.

I held the weapon out to Brayan. “Here. I can—”

“Don’t be a self-sacrificing fool.” Sammerin gave his sword to Brayan instead, before shooting me a disapproving glance. “I have magic that’sactuallyuseful. I’ll be fine without.”

Ouch. I might have been offended, if he hadn’t been right.

We slipped out through the broken window in the back of the inn, landing directly in a puddle of rancid water in a back alley. Tisaanah went last. Just as I was helping her down, another crash carried from within the inn, followed by the sound of splintering wood.

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