“Find who?” I groaned, rubbing blearily at my eyes. We’d both been sound asleep. I rolled onto my back and squinted up at Skalla’s glowing frame. He was hunched over, gripping the bedding tightly in his lap, his wings vibrating with tension against his back.

He didn’t answer for a long moment, and I was almost back to sleep when he replied, “Your human friends.”

Well, now I was fucking awake. I snapped upright into a seated position, then scrambled on my hands and knees until I was in front of him. I needed to see his face for this.

“What? What do you mean? What did you remember?”

I’d gotten used to him suddenly remembering and remarking upon things from his past out of the blue. But I’d never expected this possibility. The ship had left the world we’d been on. Even if Skalla began to remember more about that event, there was no way for him to know where that ship had fled to.

Right?

“Heofonraed,” Skalla said. He spoke hurriedly, as if worried that the words, the memories, would disappear if he didn’t speak them into the air this instant. “Heofonraed. It’s the... the meeting... The Council! The Council of the Gods!”

“What’s the council?” I prodded when he suddenly lapsed into tense silence.

“It’s... I do not entirely remember. But I know there is a group of stone sky gods with powers beyond my own at a place called Heofonraed. I do not remember ever asking them for help before, but I can picture the gates so clearly now. It’s as if I was just there...” He paused, touched the scarring on his face, then shook his snout like he needed to clear his head, to find a path through overwhelming memories.

He gazed at me steadily, conviction firm in his voice. “I can go there. I can petition them to use their resources to find the machine that took your friends away.”

A tingling buzz made my hands shake against my legs. Skalla swept my fingers into his, steady where I wasn’t.

“I can picture the world clearly enough to open a sky door there,” he said, figuring out the steps of his plan and explaining them to me all in one go. “I will petition the council for assistance. Once I know the location of the humans, I will travel there. I will destroy the vessel, kill the men who took them. And then,” he looped his fingers through mine, his eye boring fiercely into me, “I will bring every last one of your friends safely back here to you.”

CHAPTER FIFTY

Suvi

Neither of us went back to sleep that night. After it was decided he would go, things happened very quickly. By the time the sun had begun to rise, plans were fully in place.

“Say it again,” I urged him, excitement and nerves fluttering so hard in my stomach I was nauseous. “I want to make sure they’ll understand you.”

Skalla did his growly, dragonish throat-clearing thing. Then, in fangy, hissy English, he said, “Suvi is in a safe place. She sent me here to save you. I am her friend and you can trust me.”

Skalla had scowled and objected to being merely called my friend, but I figured that in the chaos that was sure to accompany his arrival, letting my friends know he was my mate, that he’d fucked me, was probably a bad idea to get them to trust and actually go with him. We’ll deal with that little issue when they’re all here. Safe...

I felt light-headed at the thought. The women I’d missed so much, whom I thought I’d never be reunited with again, were suddenly within reach. They’d been flung somewhere across the universe and it was like I could reach out and grab them. And it was all because of Skalla.

“Thank you,” I said quietly, tipping forward and laying my cheek against Skalla’s chest. His arms and wings folded around me in a protective embrace. I nuzzled closer, then sighed. “I know you won’t be gone that long, but I’m going to miss you.”

His chest swelled beneath me.

“And so you should miss a mate as grand as I am,” he scoffed. I laughed, then leaned back and swatted at him teasingly. He caught my face between gentle claws and bumped his snout to my ear. Softly, and much more seriously, he murmured, “I love you, little star.”

“I love you, too. Don’t take too long, alright?”

“I will not. I do not believe it will take more than a day of conversing with the council before I have access to the humans’ location. From there, things should be quick. I do not imagine it will take long to destroy the machine and disable the crew running it.” I felt his grin against my skin. “Knowing what I know of human females, I expect the most challenging part will be getting a group of stubborn, untrusting women to actually come with me.”

“You have to take them all,” I said, feeling worried and knowing that he was right. “Even if someone doesn’t want to come, just...” God, I couldn’t believe I was saying this. “Just take them. Once they’re here, and safe, it’ll all be worth it.”

“I will not leave a single one behind,” he vowed. “And I promise not to break anyone’s bones in the process.”

I gave a queasy laugh, then swallowed, my throat feeling very dry. My head was hurting. Probably because of the lack of sleep. I leaned forward to hug him again, my face turned to the side. I watched the Bohnebregg sun rise and warm the world, thinking about all the new humans who would soon be in it, and smiled.

After a quick breakfast for Skalla – I didn’t eat anything, too nervous – we went outside and down the stairs to inform Zev and Jolakaia of the plan.

“They can stay here, at least at first. We’ll make room,” Zev said firmly.

“Koltar will have to be persuaded,” Jolakaia warned.

My stomach plunged in worry at the thought that my friends, after everything, might not be let in. But Skalla merely snorted in derision, and his confidence helped mine get steadier.

“I will persuade him with my fists, then,” he said with a nonchalant toss of his snout. Then, more thoughtfully, he added, “I can take care of the women outside of Callabarra if need be. I can build a new home for them on the river. And if one should become injured, or fall ill, I can fetch you to examine them, Jolakaia.”

I gazed at Skalla, my insides turning to goo at the male who was volunteering to house and feed and care for about twenty other humans he had no real need for. But he did it without thought, without hesitation. And I adored him for it.

I hugged him again, squeezing hard. And then, there was nothing else to do or say. No time left to waste. Skalla didn’t bother leaving the city by foot – he simply vaulted up into the air right from the very place we’d been standing outside of Zev and Jolakaia’s house. A few shouts from nearby neighbours rang out like applause for the arc of his powerful body through the air. Children, maybe some of the same ones who’d played at the pond with us that day, ran into the street, gawking and shouting. Some of them jumped, as if hoping that they’d sprout wings midair.

I shaded my eyes with my hand, watching Skalla become smaller, wings pounding and urging him ever upward. Then, once he was so high he looked more like a little toy figurine than the room-filling Skalla I knew, he stopped. The sky hardened in a great sheet before him, opaque as if darkened by a gathering storm. I knew what was coming next, but the sound of Skalla’s fist cracking the stone of the sky still made me jump and gasp anyway. The children dispersed at the great crack, scurrying back to houses and the arms of parents. I barely noticed them, my eyes entirely fixed on Skalla as he darted into that black chasm...

And disappeared.

I wasn’t prepared for the wave of dizziness that came over me at the sudden loss of him. I was in an alien world without him.