Page 143 of Sunsplitter

Normally, conversation lowered people’s guards. The aedari stared at her, suspicious.

“What’s it like?” Fi pressed.

“Warmer,” he said, his breath fogging the Autumn evening.

And more sun, Fi guessed from his tan, his partner’s deep brown skin.

“You have humans there? Like me?”

“They’re cared for,” he said, a stiff tone that raised several acute doubts on Fi’s end. “There are many boons offered to those who serve the divine.”

“Oh, right. Of course. And those marks on your arms, those are glyphs?”

They were subtle. Fi had noticed the tattoos glowing during their fight, five of those little pictograms inked in black inside his wrist.

When she pointed, he grabbed her arm.

“Prove yourself first,” the aedari warned. “Then, you may be rewarded with—”

A whinny interrupted him.

Under better circumstances, it would have been comical to watch an immortal’s brow furrow, the baffled head tilt as a scaled horse trotted out of the trees. She pranced in the road, ears flattened, a snort as she scented the aedari.

“Aisinay,” Fi breathed, a grin ghosting her lips.

What a wonderful beast. A stubborn burr at her side, always able to smell her out.

Fi cried out as the aedari gripped her wrist tighter.

“What is this?” He tensed, scanning the trees. “What have you—”

Static snapped Fi’s tongue, and her grin turned devious.

It took her.

Antal and Ixli smelled the aedari a moment too late. He was hurtling through trees when he saw the flash of gold. Saw Fionamara fall from her horse. Saw the beast’s arm around her.

Then it took her.

It ran. They chased.

Antal chased that wretched creature as fast as he could teleport, as fast as he could catch its burnt scent amidst the decaying leaves. Not fast enough.

They lost the trail.

They searched the forest, Antal fast as a flicker of Void, Ixli struggling to keep pace.

All his life, he’d been told to fear the aedari. That they would hunt him down. That they would carve him open with their blazing swords. That they would send his energy back to the Void screaming. Nothing as savage astaking her away from him.

She was strong. She was clever. She’d survive.

She wasstrong. She wasclever. She’dsurvive.

Antal repeated the words like a plea to the endless Void.

When he saw the horse take off through the trees, he followed without question.

When he heard that cry of distress, not even Ixli’s hiss of caution could slow him down.