Before we could reach the door, the stone began to disintegrate, ebbing away like the vestiges of a half-forgotten dream dissipating into dawn.

“No!” I roared, clawing at the shimmering mist, all that remained of the stone sky that had been so solid just a heartbeat before. “Maerwynne, open another. I’m too weak.”

If we opened another door now, before Skallagrim’s power faded completely from the air, we’d be able to track him to whichever world he’d fled to. But if we waited too long, the lingering traces of his path across the stars would be lost.

I ground my fangs when I realized Maerwynne was not moving to open a sky door.

“Maerwynne,” I growled, my voice laced with deadly fury. At this point after the battle, Maerwynne was much stronger than I was. And I had no right to threaten him. But I couldn’t let Skallagrim escape. Not now. “Open the sky door.”

Maerwynne’s eyes met mine. The red within black of his gaze reminded me so much of twin crescent moons, two curving scarlet slashes in each dark eye, their tips meeting at the top and bottom, creating deep black pools in the middle.

“You have been gone a long time, Wylfrael,” Maerwynne said slowly. “I have much news to share.”

“News can wait!” I snapped. Who knew where Skalla had ended up? Who knew how much damage he was doing already? He should have found her... He should have found her by now!

“I do not think so,” Maerwynne said. His voice was even, but I was not so stupid from my wounds to miss the hardened edge of warning there. “Things have come to pass that make Skallagrim the least of your concerns.”

“My mate-mad cousin nearly killing me, twice, and then going on a bloody, berserker rage through the cosmos is the least of my concerns?” I scoffed. “You must take me for a fool.”

“I do not.”

I stared at Maerwynne in disbelief. Our wings held us aloft, making us into mirror images of each other. Maerwynne’s star map was a different colour than mine, flame-like against the darkness of his black hide, but its shape was identical. Since we were currently on the same world, our star maps showed the same thing, the constellations stretched over our bodies in the exact same positions, reminding us where we stood in the universe.

Except...

Except, our star maps weren’t the same. The stars that should have glowed on his lower left arm, the way mine did, were gone.

He caught the direction of my gaze and raised his left hand in the air between us. His mouth twisted in a mirthless smile as he closed his starless fist.

“You have been gone a long time,” he said again, softly this time. So softly I barely heard it.

Dread hardened in my guts as I tried to figure out just what it meant that a stone sky god’s star map had started going dark.

“Tell me, Maerwynne.” There was no hope of following Skallagrim’s trail at this point. I would have to regain my strength and try to track him down another way. But for now, I needed to know what had happened to Maerwynne. What had happened everywhere, to everyone, since I’d been gone, recovering under the red mountains of a far-flung world. “Tell me everything.”

OceanofPDF.com

OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER TWO Wylfrael

Maerwynne and I descended to the immaculate white stone of Heofonraed. Well, immaculate except for the crack that had opened up under the force of Maerwynne’s body being flung upon it. If I ignored the crack, looked only at the smooth white, I could almost pretend I was descending upon the winter snow of Sionnach. My mother’s world. The world I’d occupied until Skallagrim had crashed through the sky in his delirious rage and forced me into battle so long ago.

I may not have stopped him yet. But at least I saved Sionnach...

But this was not Sionnach. We landed in front of the gates, the Eaforswynne watching with their silent red eyes.

“Why does the council not open the gates?” I asked bitterly, studying the impenetrable white. If they had simply opened their gates, used Heofonraed’s power to help me, as was their duty, then Skalla would be bound. He’d be safe, along with the rest of the cosmos.

“They will not open to us. They will not hear any petition now.”

I whirled on Maerwynne.

“What are you talking about?”

The whole purpose of the Council of the Gods was to govern and assist the stone sky gods. They were the only ones with access to Heofonraed’s full power – power that was supposed to be used to answer petitions. Petitions like mine.

Maerwynne raised his starless hand again, staring at the extinguished star map. Now that I was closer to him, I could still see remnants of the map that had been there. Dark greyish marks. Scars where there should have been stars.

“It’s the star-darkness. They fear it will spread to their halls. They will allow no unmated god inside.”

“Star-darkness...”

Maerwynne stretched his hand out, his palm in front of my face.

“Star-darkness. This.”

I looked at my own palm, glowing with my star map. Just like Maerwynne’s should have been, but wasn’t.

“What is it?” I let my hand fall, and so did Maerwynne.

“I do not know. When my stars started going dark, I went to see Rúnwebbe. To see if she had answers.”

Rúnwebbe. The whisper weaver. Older and wiser than any stone sky god.

“And?” I pressed.

Maerwynne grimaced. His wings, deep red, gave an uneasy sort of flicker, making his long crimson hair shift behind his shoulders.

“She did not know what it was, nor where it came from. She did have other whispers for me, though. She told me that it was spreading among the mateless stone sky gods. She told me that Sceadulyr’s star map has completely gone out. He is trapped, now, in his Shadowlands palace.”

“Trapped?” I echoed, feeling suddenly off-balance. Maybe it’s the blood loss. I folded my wings and sat heavily upon the shimmering ground. I frowned down at my torso, slick with silver blood coursing from wounds inflicted by Skallagrim.

“Trapped,” Maerwynne replied flatly. “Every place that goes dark on your star map is a place you can no longer open a sky door to.”

I was glad I had seated myself. Because otherwise, Maerwynne’s words would have toppled me.

A stone sky god who cannot open a sky door?

It was unheard of. Impossible.

Maerwynne was no longer looking at me. He gazed at the gates of Heofonraed, his face unreadable, his star-dark hand opening and closing, over and over.

“Does it hurt?” I asked.

His fist clamped tight and stayed that way.

“No,” he replied, turning his black and red gaze back to me. “I feel nothing there, Wylfrael.” His voice caught strangely in his throat. “Nothing.”

I swallowed hard, looking down at my own hands, arms, chest, places that thrummed with the soft murmur of the star map’s power. I opened my wings and twisted, inspecting them. In a movement roughened by clumsy haste and blood loss, I stood, yanking off my Sionnachan leather trousers. I stood naked under my own fierce inspection. I was aware that Maerwynne was inspecting me as well, no doubt looking for the same thing I was. Any sign of star-darkness.

At least for now, everything seemed right with my star map. The blue flickers of the constellations glowed along my legs and across my groin as they always had. I fixed my trousers while Maerwynne turned his face from me. Not before I saw a strangled sort of emotion upon his features. I could not tell if it was envy or relief.

“You say this is spreading among mateless gods?”

“Yes,” Maerwynne said.