Epilogue
Close to Kystis’s border
(the day before the final fight)
The little girl huddles closer to her mother, seeking her warmth.
She is exhausted, tired, and cold, and even if she would never admit it, frightened.
The men are rough and mean, speaking a hissing language she has never heard before, and if her daddy were here, he would have killed them already for the way they treated her and Mom.
Suddenly, there is so much wind. The tent around them shakes. There are screams, and the ground vibrates, as if it were trembling alongside her.
“Mom.” She shakes her mother, who is wide awake as soon as she notices the strange noises around them.
Only moments later, the flap to their tent is thrown open, revealing a strange man with glowing orange eyes and slitted pupils.
Golden scales retreat from his skin, while she watches, fascinated by it.
“Lady Blackstone,” he addresses Mom, and the girl feels safer right away. He knows how to speak properly and uses the right language as well.
“Did my daddy send you?” the girl asks, stepping forward while her mother pulls her back.
“No, princess, your aunt did,” the man rumbles.
“Are you Sparrow’s friend?” she asks, and when he smiles and nods at that, she tugs her mother forward.
“Sparrow, huh? That fits.” He chuckles. “What do you say about getting out of here and meeting a siren?” His face scrunches up at the word siren as if he smelled something bad, and the girl giggles.
“So you like sirens, huh?” he asks, and the girl nods. “How about dragons?” And when she nods again, he grins. He leads them out of the tent, and as soon as they are out in the open, he turns into a massive beast.
“Get on,” he rumbles. His voice is now the sound of mountains shifting.
But the girl is not afraid. If he is Sparrow’s friend, he is her friend as well.
She pulls her mother with her, and the dragon welcomes them onto his back.
He flares his wings, and Mom makes a choked sound, but the girl giggles when the dragon launches off the ground and soars off for the faraway coastline.
Telos ( Night of Ara’s victory)
True to his name, there isn’t a sound when the black shadow slips through the door of a villa close to the academy grounds.
The atrium is big and much more elaborate than you would expect for a deputy commander’s pay.
But then, Silence knows of his other sources of income.
The guard stationed inside the house opens his mouth, but his eyes widen when no sound comes out, and before he can recover from his shock, he lies motionless on the floor.
Not even the thump of his falling body disturbs the night’s peace.
That is the benefit of being sound-gifted in this kind of profession.
The stairs and the wooden floor on the upper level of the house, where the bedrooms are located, are smooth, with a faint scent of lemon and beeswax.
Again, too lavish, too expensive for his status in this society. A man he would have had to deal with sooner or later anyway.
It’s an easy job, and one Silence would do a hundred times for what he gains for it. Ara settled Sloan not just in the mists, but right in Tynan’s very keep. Nothing and no one will get to her now.
For Sloan, he would do anything, so her cousin’s request was as good as done as soon as she contacted him.
Foley snores softly, oblivious to the fact that he is already dead. That’s how it always is, but somehow that doesn’t do tonight. Silence shakes him awake, and his dagger and his words slide home at the same time.
“Tamara Summer Blackstone sends her regards.” The soft rasp of his voice right next to Deputy Commander Foley’s ear is the only sound in the room, while he dies in silence. Understanding and horror on his face, and Telos’s new ruler of the underworld by his side.