Valeria woke and knew something was wrong when her sorrow ebbed away until it was nothing but a solemn, aching throb. For the first time, she drew in a deep breath, the only constriction a boy’s arms as he clung to her in a strong embrace.

Nile, she realized his name, even though he’d never told it to her. She peered at his sleeping face that was so close to hers. He had a soft stubble of blonde around his chin that fascinated her. Father’s had always been coarse and dull, but when she ran her fingers over the boy’s skin, it felt soft like velvet against her touch.

It should have hurt to think of Father, to know that she’d never feel his scruffy beard against her cheek when he gave her a goodnight kiss. But that pain was somehow gone.

She frowned as she stared at the boy named Nile. Even the birds had taken a liking to him and perched on his shoulder as they preened his hair.

A sinking dread lingered in her bones, knowing that he’d done something to change her, and in his world, it meant foul things to become Changed.

His eyes broke open as if he’d sensed her scrutiny. She squinted against the onslaught of Light that came with his gaze, but she knew what it was now, having shared something deep and phenomenal with him in a grove that had died to save them both.

That too, should have hurt to remember, but when she broke his gaze and shrugged off his warmth, she was able to regard the discolored land and towering, dead remnants of Tree Mother without so much as a tear. Only the birds remained, their color lost and changed into a grayish hue as if they’d been touched by the foul magic in this place.

Her beautiful birds had turned black, all of them, and their dark, little eyes watched her full of expectation and patience.

“I’m sorry,” Nile said, his words a husky sound in the dry, stale air.

Her frown deepened. “What does it mean, to be Changed?” She’d heard that word in their shared memories, but she wasn’t sure if she knew what it really meant. But somehow, it was important.

He shuffled to his feet and rubbed his neck. “It’s what the Hallowed do to make room in their souls for more power.”

She cocked an eyebrow.

“What does it feel like?” he asked. He adjusted the torn shreds of his robes over his healed chest as if in modesty.

She sighed and turned again to face the grove and her waiting flock of birds who littered the wilted blossoms like lost grains of sand. “It doesn’t feel at all.”

He hummed thoughtfully. The ground crunched as he approached her. “It’s temporary, I hope.” He rested a hand on her shoulder, the touch so light that she barely felt it. “It’s just until Ferdinand gets here,” he assured her. “I needed to buy us time.”

She frowned, but didn’t pull away from his touch. She trusted him now that she knew his soul was kind and his intentions were true. He’d been fleeing an enemy just as much as she, and be it destiny or coincidence, they’d found themselves trapped together on the Obsidian Sea.

Her gaze scoured the landscape, rising to take in the broken wall that had once protected the grove. Its translucent barrier still stood, but now was cracked and warped with a sheen of dusty, peeling layers, as if Tree Mother’s bark had grown over the invisible field.

“We’re to wait here, then?” she asked. Even if this place had once been a sanctuary, Tree Mother was gone. Shadow slithered in through the cracks of dried bark and she knew it wasn’t safe. She couldn’t trust that this mentor of Nile would be able to find them before the Obsidian Shards pierced through the soil and sought out her soul.

Ferdinand, she realized. The name echoed in her head and with it came images that beat against her skull as if shoving themselves in the crevices of her mind.

She grimaced and pressed her thumb into her temple as the fresh wave of memories overtook her.

Nile rushed to her side. “What is it?”

“Why did you share all your memories with me?” she asked. She found his golden gaze and peered into it, desperately hoping for answers. She wanted to feel angry, to feel her grief, but emotions were a distant memory. She searched his blazing gaze and wondered if her memories were hidden in the flicker of a shadow in the backs of his eyes. “Was it the only way to Change me?” she asked, realizing what he’d done.

He frowned. “I didn’t intend to share my memories with you, but I’m new to this.” He spread his fingers, the tips of them sparkling with the layer of gold. “I was recently made Coterie, and I had to save you.” He bit his lip before saying again, “It’s just until Ferdinand gets here.”

She knew of his mentor, but she tried not to think of the old Hallowed master, lest more of Nile’s memories bombard her as they unfurled in her mind. “He won’t know how to fix this,” she said, a statement that they both knew was true.

Nile had entangled their souls too close, done something that he shouldn’t have been able to do. Her gaze fell again to his chest where his bloated soul still glowed. “Did you really feed on the Coterie?”

“They were going to feed on me,” he retorted a bit too quickly.

She turned and crunched her way through the broken grove. “That didn’t answer my question.” She trailed her fingers along the frayed barrier as she spoke. “Did you drink the power of Creation from a soul which was not your own?”

She knew she was being cruel. Nile hadn’t had time to consider his choices when his soul had been split open and bled into the air. But she’d been Changed and didn’t have the emotional capacity to feel guilty for pressing him. Nile needed to face the truth of what he’d done before he’d be of any use to her.

Anger and frustration wound through his words as he lowered his voice, and Valeria imagined that it was Nile’s version of a growl. “You weren’t there,” he insisted.

She swirled to face him. She wasn’t angry. She wasn’t capable of the emotion, but she was getting impatient. “Answer me,” she said and her words boomed with eerie power. The world around her snapped and warmth sparked through her soul and funneled into the connection that was between them.

He jolted as the single affirmation came from his clenched teeth. “Yes.”

He gasped for breath as she relaxed. The birds hadn’t responded to her outburst, but no longer were they scattered statues on the ground. They fidgeted as she watched Nile burrow out of the rainbow of his emotions. Disbelief, grief, rage. They were all hues of reds and deep oranges that flared like fire across the brilliance of his gaze.

She gave him a nod. “Good. Now that that’s out of the way, our connection will work freely.”

He blinked, the grove flashing with the abrupt disconnect of the waves of Light pouring down his cheeks. He’d gotten stronger by admitting the truth. The truth was what allowed him to access those stolen bits of Creation he’d taken from the Coterie, and now it was a warmth that would feed into her.

She sighed as Nile’s Light drove away the insufferable cold from her wound. Yet, when she rolled her shoulder, she realized that the cold came from within, as well. Perhaps, it always had.

Nile settled himself on a dark, crusted root that had once thrived with Tree Mother’s life. Now it served as a simple bench as Nile folded his hands over his thighs.

Valeria eased down beside him and watched the birds as they shifted colors, still dark, but now grey instead of a midnight black. They preened and shuffled through the ash looking for insects that had survived the scourge.

“Do you know what you are?” Nile asked, his voice a harsh intrusion on the silence.

Valeria’s fingers curled over her knees. Having her emotions locked away didn’t make it any easier to admit what she knew she was. “I am death.”

Nile insulted her by huffing a short laugh. She pinched her lips and drew her brows together in a scowl. “Dear Divine, no,” he said, then turned somber. “You’re an angel, or at least, part of you is.”

Valeria had no doubt that she came from the same mysterious place in the sky whence all angels came. But she hadn’t misspoken. Her gaze turned skyward, her vision blocked out by the dome of black that was the dead remnants of Tree Mother’s protective energies. Ironically, now they were trapped by a sea of Darkness that ceaselessly crept through the cracks of Tree Mother’s walls, and if they didn’t figure out a way to escape, they’d be strangled by the dark power before angels or demons could ever become a threat.

“I have an idea,” Nile said excitedly, the tone in his voice drawing Valeria’s gaze to him again. He smiled his honest, sheepish smile. “If I can share my memories with you, that means that you could share yours with me. Have you ever met any angels? Were any of them like me?” He pointed at his eyes. “Hallowed?”

She frowned and a glimmer of something jagged and sharp that felt suspiciously like anger tapped against her chest. She absently rubbed at it, realizing that perhaps her emotions were still intact, just distant and removed. “Why would I want to talk to death?” she asked.

He frowned. “I told you, angels—”

She snarled and jerked to her feet. “Don’t you understand? Angels are death. They’re rotten and cold and…” she hiccuped as sorrow threatened to burst to the surface.

Nile wrapped his fingers around her wrist and squeezed. The cold, merciless bite of her grief instantly retreated.

“I’m new to this,” he explained. “I told you, the Change was temporary. You’ll have to stay calm until Ferdinand gets here. If your emotions come back, you’ll take us both down with you in the flood.” He released her. “You don’t want that, do you?”

No, she didn’t want that. Even if she wouldn’t admit it, she rather liked Nile. She didn’t wish her grief to crush him into a thousand pieces from which he’d never recover. She didn’t want him to become like her.

While she tried to focus on the invading warmth he’d just shot into her bloodstream, rather than the underlying cold bite of her misery that threatened to break through, the birds began to sing.

It wasn’t like a bicker of songs that birds sometimes liked to do. It was a cascade of trills in harmony as they sang a melancholy song. Their melodies fell and rose with the beat of her own heart until she realized that they were singing the song of her soul.

Nile sighed. “I hope Ferdinand gets here soon.”