Epilogue
ONE WEEK LATER
A fire crackled in the stone pit in back of the Station.
The flames reflected off the still waters of the lake Nyx had made a few days prior, the orange bright against the black glassiness of the water’s surface in the dark.
Nyx, Evra, Morgen, Tristen, and Kaden sat around that fire, taking in the evening.
It was peaceful and still, the only sounds the crackling of the flames and the nighttime song of crickets, punctuated by the occasional croaking frog.
Nyx leaned back in her chair, her eyes closed.
A soft breeze stirred, the cool night air teasing at her hair.
It was the kind of night that felt full of promise.
The fire was the illuminated epicenter of her world, the darkness at its edges the unknown potential expanding ever outward into the vastness of the universe.
That potential called to a restlessness that had always been in her. A need to explore, to know the unknown, that was as persistent as her need to have somewhere to belong, to always have a place to come home to. Twin desires, less opposites than they were sides of the same coin. The same her.
Curiosity, which had been numbed in her for months, was now waking and stretching cat’s claws.
The portal magic in her bracelets called to her, millions of points of possibility.
There was a whole universe out there, and she was still living in it.
But at this moment, she knew exactly which point she wanted to reach.
Because she had lost something in the battle with Loclyn, and she intended to get it back.
“How do you guys feel about breaking into the Kormadin royal palace?” She needed a new anchor to Serenity’s room, or she was never going to see her sister again.
Despite posing the question out of nowhere, Morgen only asked, “Again?”
“Yeah. Again.”
Evra stretched. “I could always use the exercise.”
“I have no plans,” Kaden said.
A speculative look entered Morgen’s eyes. “I hear they have one of the finest laboratories in the universe, and I have been wanting to get my hands on a sample of Ooryn.”
Nyx blinked. “You’re holding my relationship with my sister hostage for a lab chemical?”
“It is a biological sample, not a chemical, and all samples come from there. It is exorbitantly expensive and there are about a dozen restrictions on what types of labs can acquire it. You could spend an entire career in the biological sciences and never have the chance to work with it.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“Not when handled properly.”
If that didn’t fill her with confidence, she didn’t know what would. “Fine, we break into the Kormadin lab and get to my sister. Deal?”
“Deal.”
She looked at Tristen. “You coming?”
“Coming where?” a new voice asked. Maruca sauntered up. She was back in what Nyx personally referred to as combat-light gear: loose pants and shirt and sturdy boots.
Nyx had considered having the Station throw Maruca back outside the boundary the moment Nyx had felt her cross it, but she was trying to grow as a human being.
“What are you doing here?” Kaden asked.
“You invited me when you came to Raveras.”
Kaden’s brow furrowed. He very clearly had no idea what she was talking about.
“Your exact words were ‘If you’re so worried about my life, you know where to find me’. So I found you. Where do you want Tristen to go with you?”
“To break into the Kormadin royal palace,” Morgen said.
A gleam entered Maruca’s eyes. “It could be entertaining.” She looked at Tristen. “Are you coming?”
“Absolutely,” he said quickly.
Nyx managed not to laugh—especially because Kaden’s face actually condescended to take on a sour expression—but it was a near thing.
She couldn’t, however, stop the smile that spread across her face, and she didn’t want to.
She was finally looking forward to something—to going on an adventure with her friends that didn’t have the fate of worlds hanging in the balance.
Something daring but doable. Something her younger self would have daydreamed about.
She took that spark—of interest and joy in life—and held it tight.