ORIANA

Rana's wounds refused to close.

Every wingbeat threatened to unseat us as we sped through the dissipating storm clouds, a sapphire arrow dissecting the dusk. The sky was a pomegranate cleaved in half, clusters upon clusters of blood-blister clouds ballooning off the sun, an angry yellow wart that festered as the day wore on. I hated that I drew my strength from that hideous monstrosity, that aloof Goddess who burned without care for the lives She lorded over.

Bannor — that was what Hunter called the enormous blue wyvern, before we parted ways — shot past the bloated sunset at what felt like the speed of light, through cloud formations and competing air currents and migratory flocks of birds. Always the straightest path, no matter the obstacle — or the missile it posed to us. It made for an unsettling ride over the mountains, particularly for the limp body I was trying to prevent from careening off the edge.

It didn't help that there were three people to a saddle meant for one. Sebastian gripped the wyvern's neck tightly with his thighs, one muscled arm snaking around my waist, the other securing our shifting weight to the spike behind him. I was utterly at his mercy as I clung to Rana's deadweight with both hands, every muscle and joint in my body aching from the strain. During our battle in the air over Kirin Country, Bradon — a sadistic, feral-eyed lycan who'd delighted in tormenting me as a child — had sliced clean through the leather straps meant to secure our legs.

My lip curled at the memory of the white flames licking along his sword. Moonfyre was one of Nya's rarest blessings; it was said She whispered closely in the ears of those who wielded it. That Hunter's sword touted the flames made sense, given his lineage, but for Bradon's cruelty to be vetted by the Night Goddess as well...

He's dead now, I reassured myself, going over the memory of that monster plummeting to his death aback the wyvern he'd forced into servitude. There was no mistaking their collision with the ground; the impact had sent up billows of dust and an unsuspecting raven. That's all that matters.

"Duck!" Sebastian exclaimed.

I trusted him implicitly, ducking my head, just in time for another flock of birds to pass over us. Bannor simply came upon them too quickly; they splattered against his midnight scales like moths on a window-pane, blood and bone tumbling into the void.

This time, readjusting my position was an ordeal. My arms trembled, desperate to let go of their burden, and my legs ached from clenching for purchase. It was getting harder and harder to tell where my cold sweat ended and the blood began, gloving my hands in red and brown. The wind was quick to blow it dry, but warmth continued to pulse between my fingers, no matter how hard I pressed down on Rana's wound.

As with Nya's sleeping venom — the likes of which put Eddy into a coma what felt like years ago — moonfyre afflicted the soul as well as the body. No matter how much healing energy I channeled into Rana's ruined chest, her muscle and bone refused to knit back together. Only like could cancel like in this instance, and I'd already spent the power stored in my cloak by shifting into a wyvern for battle. If it was anything like the warm trickle of Rya's Blessing returning to my veins with the rising sun, the cloak would have to recharge under the open sky, under the moon's watchful eye.

"There it is!" Sebastian cried, his arm tightening around my waist. I dared to look up from Rana's ashen face, only to be stabbed in the eyes by a blinding light, flashing like a piece of mirror in the sun. Through my lashes, the spiky light morphed into a set of sparkling turrets jutting from the side of the mountain. Not made by quartz so much as grown from it, grey and milky at the base but dazzlingly clear at the points. As I watched, three bird-sized flecks peeled away from the outer turret, speeding towards us on wing.

It didn't take long for them to grow into fully-fledged wyverns, enormous compared to the scant few I'd seen in my time. Each one tripled Bannor in size, and they crowded around us, flanking Bannor on all sides. Rubies, emeralds, opals — each scale was a gemstone in its own right. We were drowning in a sea of treasure, a cold and glittering hoard.

When he realised they were trying to ground us outside of the castle, Bannor twisted and dove without warning, rolling out from under the leathery sails of their wings. The ruby beast trumpeted a warning, but Bannor merely bunched his muscles and surged forward, shooting free of their clumsy claws like an arrow, true to its course.

We landed smoothly on one of the inner turrets, in spite of the harrying entourage. Sun Warriors burst from the door and flooded the rooftop courtyard, a choppy sea of white and gold, crashing against the hull of Bannor's sapphire scales.

Strong hands clamped down on my legs, yanking me off the wyvern's back. I shouted in alarm as they tore Rana from my arms, jostling her limp and ashen body. Sebastian snarled in warning, taking a literal approach to kicking up a fuss, breaking quite a few noses before he, too was overrun. They hauled him to the ground like a sack of grain, calling out for help as more and more piled on top of him.

Somebody tried to seize Bannor's reins, only to recoil with a scream as frostbite snaked up his hand, necrotic flesh spreading through his golden skin like a drop of ink unfurling in water. Night's embrace was too frigid for servants of the day.

The others opted to hold Bannor at spear point instead. I scowled as they turned Rana over, pushing the tangled mop of sapphire hair out of her face.

"It cannot be..." the warrior whispered, the colour blanching from his face. "Captain!"

The ranks of warriors parted, admitting a muscular woman in an imposing raiment of amethyst dragon-scale armour. Her brows were angular, the tips slanting up towards her ears rather than down, and studded with tiny spikes that must have been embedded under the skin. Similar spikes adorned her knuckles, and I flinched out of habit when she raised a hand for silence, thinking she was about to slap me.

The captain narrowed eyes of blue-grey slate, flecked with brown impurities. "The Sun Priestess will decide her fate," she said coldly, without the reverence the others seemed to hold for Rana. I resisted the urge to struggle as they carried my friend away, suffering the bleak reminder that this was why we were here. We needed their help and could only hope they would labour to save one of their own, defector or no.

The captain's upper lip curled as she looked to Sebastian, twisting the pink scar slashing through it to a studded nostril. Cold hate filled her eyes as she took in Bannor behind him, narrowing at silver bridle muzzling one of their own, the insult of the leather saddle on his back.

The butt of her spear came down upon Sebastian's throat. She leaned into the hold, slowly crushing his windpipe, and my resolve to arrive peacefully crumbled.

"You are favoured by the night," she said cryptically, wrinkling her nose as she looked him over from head to toe. For the first time, I lamented the silver aura that Sebastian wore as naturally as his own skin; it was a not-so-subtle hint of the celestial power trapped within his veins, straining to get out. "Her power hangs about you like a bad smell."

"I do not use it," Sebastian choked out. "I cut myself off from her influence."

"Bah!" she exclaimed, shoving off of him. "And yet I see the evidence of your cruelty and greed choking a member of my kind."

"That wasn't him," I butted in, drawing a reproachful glance from the woman. "He's trying to help! We can help if you just —"

"Kill it," the Captain commanded. "I can endure the stench of wet dog no longer."

An unencumbered warrior drew a wicked dagger from its sheath, preparing to slice through Sebastian's throat.

"No!" I screamed, panic blasting through me, tearing through the skin of my hands. Flames exploded from my palms, charring the crystal floors. The Sun Warriors' scale armour turned white from the heat, but they cried out from shock as opposed to pain, marvelling at the sight as the fear wore off.

I sensed the shift in the crowd as they connected the dots.

"By the Goddess," the Sun Warrior holding me whispered. He let go to drop to one knee in reverence.

The knife at Sebastian's throat stopped shy of a full kiss, drawing a thin trickle of red. The Sun Warrior looked between the Captain and I, torn by indecision.

"The mutt has seen our city," the Captain barked. "He cannot live."

"You will not harm him," I commanded, nostrils flaring at the stench of burning leather. My feet were melting through the soles of my shoes, eating slowly but surely into the crystal underfoot.

"Or what?" she asked, faintly amused.

"I'll evaporate you."

Her brows went up, incredulous, only to swoop down in a fierce frown as the last of my shoes gave way. The moment my bare feet touched the crystal, light pulsed into the castle. The mountain rumbled beneath us, making the Sun Temple tremble.

"Ori," Sebastian said, his scarlet eyes wide and urgent. "I'm going to be fine. Take a deep breath."

I didn't want to take a deep breath. I wanted to incinerate these fools to ash, and watch them scatter on the wind for daring to threaten the man that I —

I shook my head, trying to clear it of that fiery rage. Violence would not bridge the gap between our peoples, but honesty might. "Sebastian is a friend to our kind. He saved your princess's life and my own, many times over."

The Captain looked me up and down. "I see no family armour."

"I was taken as a child," I said curtly, jutting out my chin. "Rana and Sebastian helped me to escape the Blood Moon Pack, and now we're here to save her. To help save you all."

A muscle twitched in her jaw. "And that is why you have Morgana's Fury strapped to your back?"

I'd forgotten about the cursed relic I'd picked up on Rana's behalf. The glaive belonged to an ancient wyvern who'd been exiled for the crime of loving a lycan, and now I was brandishing it — along with my relationship to a lycan — upon my return.

"I know what it looks like, but please. You have to listen," I said, raising my hands, hoping to show them I wasn't a threat. "We come bearing news of an enemy legion marching this way. You need to start bolstering your defences."

It was the wrong thing to say. Sebastian hissed as the blade dug deeper, the tendons under his jaw snapping taut as he pulled as far away from death as the guard's chokehold would allow.

"You dare to threaten us?" she hissed. "Us, in the heart of our own domain?"

"No! Do you truly think Bannor would have abided an enemy rider?" I asked, pleading with them now. "He trusts us. And you'll need to as well, if you're going to survive what's coming."

Doubt flickered across the Captain's face. "Bannor? Is it truly you?"

The sapphire wyvern let out an affirmative rumble, reaching out with his thoughts. Warm and wordless, they lapped against the shores of our minds, making every wyvern go still. Only Sebastian seemed perplexed by what was going on, and I realised it was because the sun magic was on a different wavelength to what he was used to.

"He helped us escape from the Nightfall Legion. They're the ones who put the bridle on him," I explained. "But we can help you find a way to take it off. You just have to trust us."

"Is that true?" the captain asked Sebastian, crouching down to face him.

The silver-haired boy hesitated. I knew what he was thinking; that he couldn't access Nya's Grace without rendering himself vulnerable to Her influence. He'd expressed on multiple occasions that he would rather die than become Nya's puppet again.

For a split second, I wished he would throw caution to the wind and embrace his silvery magic and the mate bond he'd repressed along with it. I would have begged him to lie with my thoughts.

The silence bloated. Sebastian was afflicted with the noble pride of wild things. They did not bow and scrape for validation, existing purely on their own terms. Disagreements were settled with violence and violence alone.

The Captain of the Guard flashed her teeth, but it was more of a threat than a smile. "Very well. I'll trust you as far as I can throw you," she said, jewel eyes glinting as she grabbed him by the throat.

The Captain hurled him off the rampart before I could even draw breath to scream.