In order to save the world from eternal night, Red must find a way to unlock the dormant power of the Sun Goddess running through her veins without killing herself and everyone she loves.
...
He had to know who it was. Because if she didn't want to go back to his brother... If there was a chance, however slim, that she did return his feelings...
Unless she'd seen gold hair instead of silver. Amber eyes instead of crimson.
"Are you insane?" Red asked, throwing out an arm to point. "She's just a baby. We can't abandon her!"
"The Earth Mother will watch over her," Gretchen said flippantly.
"Like she watched over Eddy in the first place?" Red's hands curled into fists and her eyes started to glow white, as they always did when she was angry. "The Goddesses are fickle with their attention. Forgive me for not trusting in their judgement."
"Semantics," Gretchen said, waving away her argument. "I was willing to indulge your little hero complex before, but we don't have time to waste anymore. Rana's people need to be warned so that they can muster an army of their own. The fate of the land and the balance of celestial powers depends on it."
Red scowled, crossing her arms. Sebastian liked it when she put her foot down, leaning into her stubborn streak. Perhaps a little bit too much. "I made a vow that I would see Eddy home safely —"
"You don't get to decide!" Gretchen snapped. "You're as much a child as the foal you claim to be your ward. I can't turn my back for five minutes without you wandering into the maw of some ravenous creature!"
"At least my feet take me forward," Red hissed. "I chose to escape my prison, but you were forced out of yours. I don't think someone who spent their entire life inside a cage of their own making gets to lecture me on how to live."
Gretchen's eye twitched, her blackened fingertips sparking. This was getting ugly. Sebastian started to move, but Rana transformed before he could push himself between them, slinging an arm around Red's shoulder. Midnight scales gave way to blue hair, bronze skin and a slick smile with too many teeth.
"Ladies, no need to fight over me," Rana said, winking at the witch. To Sebastian's surprise, Gretchen blushed from the collar of her shirt to the roots of her scalp, which only made her frown even more fiercely. "It just so happens that Eddy's home is on the way to mine. All we have to do is fly through that."
Sebastian's head turned along with the others, ears flattening against the back of his skull at the ominous wall of clouds in the distance, shot through with the occasional flare of blue and purple lightning. The knuckles of the Grey fist weren't even visible anymore, lost to a veritable soup of grey.
"It's too dangerous," Gretchen objected.
"You said it yourself; we have to make haste. And it just so happens that flying straight over the peaks is the fastest way to my homeland."
Red turned towards him as the witch and the wyvern bickered, already pulling her hair up into a braid. "I'm going with or without you," she said, jutting out her chin. "But it's probably safer if you go another way."
The Wraith thrust his nose into her stomach. I will follow you always. No matter how much it hurts.
If only he had the gall to say it out loud.
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