Blood Before Sunrise

Trust. Like I had any idea what that was. But I reached out anyway, my fingers trembling. God, I was afraid. I wrapped my fingers around the ring-my ring-and the warmth pulsing from the silver put me at ease. If the ring hadn’t burned my hand to ash, then maybe that meant Tyler could forgive me. I pulled it from its perch, and as I did, the snow left its stasis and began to float in a slow waltz to the ground. A warm breeze kissed my cheeks, and the branches of the trees quivered, tiny buds of green dotting their once-bare arms.

“Holy shit,” I whispered.

“Darian…”

Brakae’s voice, tiny but somehow strong, drew my attention from the natural wonder before me. Slipping my ring back on my thumb, I left Moira to collect Reaver’s half of the hourglass and went to check on Raif’s daughter. Raif’s. Daughter. My God, I’d really found her. Well, more to the point, she had found me.

She left Faolan’s body in the now-melting snow and walked toward me with slow, measured steps. Like a hollow representation of her former self, she limped along, gripping her side to stem the flow of blood from one of her many wounds.

“Are you all right?” What a stupid question.

“No,” she said, and I respected her for her candor. “But I will be.”

Time heals all wounds, right? “I-Brakae-” Fuck, what the hell was I going to say? Sorry I killed the guy you used to love.

“We are nothing more than the servants of destiny,” she said, holding her hand out to me. I took it, and, well, it didn’t even feel a little awkward. “Leave this behind like a stone on the road.”

Raif had said that to me once. I felt the sting of tears at my eyes and bit back the emotion. I missed him. Brakae looked as tired as I felt, as emotionally raw and worked over. We’d both passed through the eye of the storm and come out on the other side. And I knew neither of us would ever be the same for it. Her gaze lowered to my neck, and her lips curved in a sad, wan smile. From her robes she produced a glowing green emerald suspended from a length of silver chain. “The Key,” I said, taking it from her waiting hand.

“It’s not an easy job,” Brakae said, “being the Guardian of Time.”

“Or the Keeper of it,” I added. Her gaze dropped to the ground, and sorrow consumed her expression. She had it much worse than I. She’d suffered and sacrificed. She needed a ray of sun in the dark of her life. “Can I bring your father here?” Hope swelled within me at the thought. I refused to believe Raif had died in that hotel room. Damn it, he had to be alive, and I was going to reunite him with his daughter. “So he can see you?”

I saw a trace of sunlight in her expression, maybe the beginning of a long road toward healing. “I would like that,” she said. “Very much.”

Suddenly, I felt a little sun as well.

Moira joined us, carrying Brakae’s half of the hourglass in one hand and Reaver’s half tucked in the crook of her arm. Weren’t we just the embodiment of girl power? “Brakae,” she said, “your wounds need tending.”

Her knees wobbled beneath her, and I reached out to support her. Where were those trauma nurse Sprites when you needed them?

“I can help her,” Moira said.

“You’re a Healer.” Levi had mentioned that. I was going to have to keep that guy on retainer. “Right?”

Moira nodded and made her way to Brakae. She touched her fingertips to her skin, and a soft blue light flowed from the wound, moving outward like rings on glassy water. She began to hum while she worked, a rhythmic, melodious tune that snaked around me and filled me with emotion. It struck me as strange, the way lives and events intertwined to form the knotted chain of destiny. It made me think that, maybe, life wasn’t just a random pattern of bullshit tied to bad luck or good fortune. “Moira…”

“Do you really want to torture yourself with the truth, Darian?”

Damn mind readers. “Can I talk to him?”

“No. It doesn’t work that way.”

“He knew. Azriel had to have known all along what would happen to me. It isn’t coincidence. I just want to know the why and how of it.”

Moira sighed. “He made you what you are.”

What was that, exactly? Damaged? Distrustful? A control freak who refused to open up to anyone?

“He made you strong,” Moira said. “Perhaps Azriel strayed from his path, but without him, you would have died today.”

“Raif made me strong.” No way was Az going to get the credit.

“Raif made you a fighter,” Moira corrected. “Azriel made you capable.”

I opened my mouth to argue. I didn’t want to acknowledge that Azriel had done anything but permanent damage by taking me under his wing. But Moira’s gaze locked with mine, a warning-or a suggestion. Do not speak of it. Her voice echoed in my mind. Leave the past in the past, Darian.

After a moment, Moira stood. “Brakae, Reaver’s glass must be returned. Things are still too volatile here for my peace of mind.”

“I agree,” Brakae said, and I suddenly felt like an outsider in a private conversation. “Go with my blessings.”

Moira handed over Brakae’s half of the glass and bowed her head before looking to me. “See you on the other side.”

She held out her hand, and I clasped it. “Count on it.”

“Brakae,” Moira said, turning to leave, “I shall see you soon.”

She nodded and raised her hand to gesture her off. “Good-bye, Moira.”

A ripple of energy stirred the air, sending the snowflakes swirling, and then Moira was gone. “Will it always be like this?” I asked, feeling centuries old. “Constant threats and me here fighting while time flies by at home?”

“No.” Was it my imagination that she actually sounded disappointed? “You won’t be often called upon. So few know of the hourglass, of me, of O Anel. It is nothing but legend now, and besides Moira, you have the only other key. That is what you’re meant to protect.”

She was lonely. Bitter. I knew that tone well. I’d been alone for almost a century, hiding away at Azriel’s command. I could only imagine how bad it was for her, here in this place where her deep connection to time aged her at a whim and in any direction. “I’ll come visit when I can. And I’ll bring Raif too.”

She pulled me into her arms and squeezed me-hard. My ribs wanted to crack under her fierce display of affection, but I totally didn’t mind. I put my arms around her as well, to let her know she wouldn’t feel so separated from the world she’d once known now that I had something to say about it.

“Now, you go home,” Brakae said. Was it my imagination that her voice sounded younger, more childlike?

“Just click my heels together?”

Brakae pulled away, gave me a strange, innocent look. “No, just use the Key. Why would you click your heels together?”

Wouldn’t she get a dose of culture shock if she came home with me. “Right, use the Key. Honestly, I’m not sure how.”

“Just concentrate. The Key will do the rest.”

My heart pounded a staccato against my ribs, and my stomach twisted like a pretzel. Christ, was returning to the mortal world so hard to face? I wanted to go home. I needed to see Tyler, but I was so afraid to face him, I didn’t know if I could bring myself to leave.

“Go with my blessings, Guardian.” Brakae’s voice calmed me, slowing my racing heart. “And I will see you soon.”

My gaze swept past Raif’s long-lost daughter one more time to the place where Faolan’s body lay. Hourglass in hand, she turned away from me, toward her dead lover, and left me where I stood.

“I’ll be back sooner than you think.” She didn’t acknowledge me, but I knew she’d heard. I left her to grieve and dangled the emerald pendulum before me. Just concentrate. Okay. I pushed my fear and anxiety aside and stared into the glowing green depths of the gem as I had so many times before, allowing infinite green to consume me. I want to go home, I thought, Tyler’s face looming in my mind. Time to go.

A chill breeze blew my hair back from my face, stealing my breath. And a dark, cold, cloudless sky welcomed