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Before we could reach the door, the stone began to disintegrate, ebbing away like the vestiges of a half-forgotten dream dissipating into dawn.
“No!” I roared, clawing at the shimmering mist, all that remained of the stone sky that had been so solid just a heartbeat before. “Maerwy
If we opened another door now, before Skallagrim’s power faded completely from the air, we’d be able to track him to whichever world he’d fled to. But if we waited too long, the lingering traces of his path across the stars would be lost.
I ground my fangs when I realized Maerwy
“Maerwy
Maerwy
“You have been gone a long time, Wylfrael,” Maerwy
“News can wait!” I snapped. Who knew where Skalla had ended up? Who knew how much damage he was doing already? He should have found her... He should have found her by now!
“I do not think so,” Maerwy
“My mate-mad cousin nearly killing me, twice, and then going on a bloody, berserker rage through the cosmos is the least of my concerns?” I scoffed. “You must take me for a fool.”
“I do not.”
I stared at Maerwy
Except...
Except, our star maps weren’t the same. The stars that should have glowed on his lower left arm, the way mine did, were gone.
He caught the direction of my gaze and raised his left hand in the air between us. His mouth twisted in a mirthless smile as he closed his starless fist.
“You have been gone a long time,” he said again, softly this time. So softly I barely heard it.
Dread hardened in my guts as I tried to figure out just what it meant that a stone sky god’s star map had started going dark.
“Tell me, Maerwy
OceanofPDF.com
OceanofPDF.com
CHAPTER TWO Wylfrael
Maerwy
I may not have stopped him yet. But at least I saved Sio
But this was not Sio
“Why does the council not open the gates?” I asked bitterly, studying the impenetrable white. If they had simply opened their gates, used Heofonraed’s power to help me, as was their duty, then Skalla would be bound. He’d be safe, along with the rest of the cosmos.
“They will not open to us. They will not hear any petition now.”
I whirled on Maerwy
“What are you talking about?”
The whole purpose of the Council of the Gods was to govern and assist the stone sky gods. They were the only ones with access to Heofonraed’s full power – power that was supposed to be used to answer petitions. Petitions like mine.
Maerwy
“It’s the star-darkness. They fear it will spread to their halls. They will allow no unmated god inside.”
“Star-darkness...”
Maerwy
“Star-darkness. This.”
I looked at my own palm, glowing with my star map. Just like Maerwy
“What is it?” I let my hand fall, and so did Maerwy
“I do not know. When my stars started going dark, I went to see Rúnwebbe. To see if she had answers.”
Rúnwebbe. The whisper weaver. Older and wiser than any stone sky god.
“And?” I pressed.
Maerwy
“She did not know what it was, nor where it came from. She did have other whispers for me, though. She told me that it was spreading among the mateless stone sky gods. She told me that Sceadulyr’s star map has completely gone out. He is trapped, now, in his Shadowlands palace.”
“Trapped?” I echoed, feeling suddenly off-balance. Maybe it’s the blood loss. I folded my wings and sat heavily upon the shimmering ground. I frowned down at my torso, slick with silver blood coursing from wounds inflicted by Skallagrim.
“Trapped,” Maerwy
I was glad I had seated myself. Because otherwise, Maerwy
A stone sky god who ca
It was unheard of. Impossible.
Maerwy
“Does it hurt?” I asked.
His fist clamped tight and stayed that way.
“No,” he replied, turning his black and red gaze back to me. “I feel nothing there, Wylfrael.” His voice caught strangely in his throat. “Nothing.”
I swallowed hard, looking down at my own hands, arms, chest, places that thrummed with the soft murmur of the star map’s power. I opened my wings and twisted, inspecting them. In a movement roughened by clumsy haste and blood loss, I stood, yanking off my Sio
At least for now, everything seemed right with my star map. The blue flickers of the constellations glowed along my legs and across my groin as they always had. I fixed my trousers while Maerwy
“You say this is spreading among mateless gods?”
“Yes,” Maerwy