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Still. Magnus thought to sneak up on her?

Fern waited until the last second to unfurl her wings and leap. His curse and the furious little crinkles around his nose when his hand closed around nothing fucking delighted her.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded.

“Mag? Is everything alright?”

Magnus’s entire demeanor changed when Brand called out from the balcony. His features softened, worried, and Fern wanted to cut out her heart for turning over.

“Aye, lad. We’re fine.” He turned back to Fern. “I asked you a damned question.”

“I’m doing what you will not,” she snapped—softly for some stupid reason—and buckled the belt around her waist.

“What won’t he do?”

Great. Now twig dick was going to try and stop her.

Fern turned just as Brand stopped a few feet from the barrier of his shiny cage and eyed the two of them. “Be a decent person. Look out for his friend. Stop acting like he’s better than everyone. Cease being a piss guzzling troll cock. Take your pick.” She flapped the pouch on her new belt. “Which of these will get me to Araxis?”

Brand’s brows shot up. “Colorful, as always. Why do you want our brother?”

“Because Lunara is missing and I need him to find her.”

Magnus threw his hands up. “For fuck’s sake⁠—”

“What did you say?” Brand rushed right to the edge, throwing himself against the shield boundary. “What do you mean missing?”

Well, shit. He looked blimmin’ pissed, but it was the fear in his tone that endeared him to her.

“As I was trying to tell Mag-pus over there, I woke up and she⁠—”

“Wait.” He ran back outside, leaning against the balustrade.

The ache in her chest melted away to nothing when Brand visibly relaxed, and Fern couldn’t decide whether to do the same or rage at the sky.

She knew without any doubt that Lunara was back from wherever she’d been with the most unbelievably inconvenient timing the realms had ever seen.

Magnus was never going to shut his stupid fucking muzzle.

“She’s near,” Brand shouted. “I feel her.”

Fern spun on Magnus. “Which one for the mountaintop?”

“What did I tell you?” His smug chuckle was going to be the death of him. “And I don’t have any tolls for that portal, so I’ll be taking my belt back now, lass.”

“What belt?” Fern made sure to kick him in his already-bruised face as she blurred by. “Ta, fuckwit.”

Who needed a portal anyway when she could fly her way up there to shred her idiot friend to pieces—right after she made Lunara tell her fucking everything.

“I cannot say, so do not ask.”

Lunara was ready to peel her skull open and spoon out her own brains just so she never had to hear that sentence ever again. Even Ax was agitated, pecking at her and the ground in turns.

“You’ll know the truth eventually,” Lunara mocked out loud.

Here’s an idea—what if ‘eventually’ was now, and you simply told me the truth!

Endellion released a heavy sigh. “What if, indeed. You’re not the only one who’s vexed by your density at the moment.”