I didn’t waste time getting ready. If Eli was willing to test the waters with something like this, I didn’t want to wait around to see what else he might try.

Sven watched me pack, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, a grim look on his face.

“I’ll be safe,” I reassured him again as I finished throwing in the few things I would need for an overnight trip. I’d shove it into one of the carriers we used to travel with things in our phoenix forms. I used to have a bag ready to go, but that was before my life had changed so drastically. “Igna is sending guards with me, I’ll be staying with my own flock, and I’ll be back tomorrow.”

Sven shook his head, straightening from his lean against the wall. “I’m coming with you.”

I shook my head, walking over to him and sliding my arms around his waist.

“You know you can’t,” I said reasonably. “The Phoenix King can’t simply abandon the capital and rush out to take care of every small issue. It’ll spread you too thin, especially when you still have to consolidate your power base. Someone could take advantage of your absence to try something, or something bigger could come up while you’re gone.”

He shook his head, sliding his arms around my waist. “My people can hold down the fort for a day,” he argued. “If we were that weak, we wouldn’t still be here.”

“You’re right,” I agreed, because he was. He and his people had managed to make their hold on the throne a lot less shaky in a very short amount of time. “Still doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. And you have that meeting today with the contingent of Chieftains that want to work with you in a more meaningful way. You need the support they could provide. You need more real allies, not just people waiting to see which way the cards will fall.”

“Then I’ll postpone it,” he retorted, but I could see he knew I was being reasonable.

“We can’t be glued at the hip twenty-four seven,” I murmured, settling my face against his chest. I knew he’d already agreed.

He sighed, tightening his hold. “I really hate this,” he muttered.

“I know.”

I stayed in his embrace for a few minutes longer. Then I had to leave. This wasn’t something that could wait.

Sven went out with me to the courtyard, his hand warm in mine. We used the flat expanse as a landing and taking off point because it could accommodate a fair number of us in our much larger phoenix forms. When we got out there, I was expecting the guards Igna had decided upon to escort me.

I just wasn’t expecting fifteen of them.

I stopped short just to stare for a moment at the small army he’d assembled. “Uh… isn’t fifteen a little excessive?” I said in a low voice, turning to Igna.

He raised a brow at me.

“I do not think you should leave at all,” he replied calmly. “So no. I do not believe fifteen to be excessive.”

I looked over at Sven.

“This was the deal,” he said with equanimity, his eyes approving of the number.

True. I had agreed not to argue with Igna’s security detail. I sighed. Gone were the days of me grabbing my bag and heading out on long flights alone.

Looking back at the amassed group, I could see Blaise waiting to leave over at one side, looking none too happy. He had not been excited to hear that I’d be going with him on this particular trip.

Good thing I didn’t really care about his feelings on the matter.

“All right,” I agreed, turning to give Sven another tight hug and quick kiss. That was about as much of a public display as I was willing to make. I couldn’t help being the target of so much gossip, but I didn’t want to give them more to gossip about than I had to. “I’ll see you soon.”

“Be safe,” he murmured, letting me step back.

I nodded, walking over to an empty spot and stripping to add my clothes to my carrier.

“I could have handled this on my own,” Blaise muttered next to me. “Now we will have a full procession to your flock.”

I shrugged. I agreed with him. “Just think about how safe you’ll be,” I suggested.

His face twisted and he opened his mouth to say something else that would no doubt be obnoxious, but I changed before he could, pushing him back.

Rude, but I needed my little victories.

Nodding at the others arranged around me, I waited for the lead guard to head out. In this case, it turned out to be Reelin, the strip of yellow plumage wrapping around his otherwise mostly orange midsection giving him away. I was glad Amna and he were coming. At least I knew them better.

We all followed his lead up into the air, his powerful wings propelling him off the ground with ease. I looked down and waved goodbye to Sven with a tilt of my wings and then straightened my flight.

The guards immediately encircled me, their sharp eyes watching the skies and ground around us as Blaise was pushed next to me. It made sense. Much easier to keep two people safe if we were together. That didn’t mean I was thrilled to have Blaise’s company the whole way there.

At least he couldn’t speak in this form.

Small favors.

The flight to my flock was a long one, taking about four hours without any stops. It was why we had to stay the night. We needed a rest before we left to come back. The long flight also meant I didn’t have anything left to do but think.

Nerves were a familiar friend every time I thought about my flock. Despite the fact that I visited rarely, they were still my flock, even though my grandparents were gone, had been gone for many years now. My parents were dead and gone even before they were, so my early memories of them were vague at best.

Being alone as a teenager was no picnic. I’d been placed with Jamine and River after my grandmother passed, which was a year and a day after my grandfather. It had been a devastating blow to be left without family, though at least my grandparents were together again.

She’d never been the same after he passed. They’d fallen in love young, spent decades together. In my grief, I’d contemplated putting her ashes out in the sun in the hopes she’d come back.

Just because we could rise from the ashes didn’t mean we were immortal. We had the typical phoenix lifespan. Her body had finally just given out. Even if she had resurrected… it wouldn’t have been a good thing. And she’d been done with life. She’d told me herself.

“I’m sorry I’m leaving you alone, Adara.” There had been tears in her eyes, but also a weariness that went soul deep. “Sorry I couldn’t last longer.”

She’d been old. She and my grandfather had waited a long time to have children, considering the burden of the Original Bloodline. I’d told her I loved her. She’d given me more than enough, which was true. I wanted her to have peace.

But a sixteen year old just wasn’t equipped to process so much grief. Not well, anyway.

When Aaden had placed me with Jamine and River, I hadn’t been the easiest to deal with. Quiet and withdrawn, I hadn’t had a whole lot of use for authority figures. Despite this, they’d been patient and kind, treating me just like they treated their little girl, who was only four at the time.

Siro. I felt a pang go through my heart.

She’d been the reason why I’d been able to come out the other side mostly whole. While everyone else had been careful around me, she’d followed me around and badgered me non-stop, making me play with her, dragging me out of my room, generally being a nuisance. It was exactly what I’d needed at the time.

We grew close, so close that even after I moved out on my own, we still spent time together regularly. She was the little sister I had never had and would forever be grateful for.

Now I hadn’t seen her in years. My heart clenched in pain.

After I had accepted the Internal Liaison position with Emberich, Jamine and River had distanced themselves. They just hadn’t approved of my choice. They had seen it as a betrayal of their values and a betrayal of our flock, because Emberich had made it clear he didn’t hold our flock in high regard.

They wouldn’t listen when I tried to explain having to work in the system to get things done, play the game in order to help everyone I could. I’d yelled at them that quiet resistance hadn’t accomplished anything.

In response, they’d forbidden Siro from talking to me.

They’d said I was a bad influence.

Jamine and River weren’t the only ones to basically turn their back on me, but they were the ones that hurt the most. Siro had still been too young to make her own decision. I didn’t want to put her in the middle of our fight anyway. It wasn’t her fault we couldn’t see eye to eye. So I’d given her a tight hug and told her I loved her. She hadn’t fully understood what was going on, but she knew it was a goodbye. Her tear-stained face was etched in my memory.

This much time later… her parents had probably succeeded in poisoning her against me. I felt another stab of pain in my chest at that thought, then pushed it aside. I needed to be as clear-headed as possible going into this if I wanted to have the best outcome.

Switching gears, I thought about all the possible reasons for Eli ordering his people to attack a small group like Aaden had claimed.

If Eli wanted to attack the whole flock, he would have done so. Attacking a small group and only injuring...

That was a warning. A way to check the flock rather than destroy it.

I had a couple of ideas why they would do so. Most likely, it had something to do with some of the “perks” Emberich had bestowed on the flocks that he liked, the flocks that were willing to sell others down the river for a cushier life.

My flock hadn’t been one of them. It was one of the reasons why I’d been offered the job as Liaison—nobody important wanted the headache of the work, especially when it was mostly an ineffective position.

At least, it was until I took it. I’d found… creative ways to help those who needed it. Now that Emberich was no longer here, though, it was as if someone had untied my hands from behind my back and given me free reign.

That was basically what Sven had done, wasn’t it?

Just another reason to love him.

I’d just run through all of the possibilities in no time, with hours of flight still to go, hours to worry about how the flock would receive me. No way around it.

Wonderful.

By the time we finally reached our destination, my stomach was tied up in knots, and I would have been biting my nails if I didn’t currently have bird feet.

The flock’s city was situated at the bottom of a valley, with guard towers posted all along the top edge to keep watch.

Or there had been guard towers. All the battlements had been obliterated in the civil war Emberich had instigated. The sight of their destruction still hit me hard, though I’d seen it before.

However, I could see crews at work now, getting rid of the charred remains to rebuild the towers. Security was key. I knew paranoia was at an all time high with the battles fresh in everyone’s minds. It would be like that for years to come.

The city below had been hit as hard as well. Many of the terracotta colored buildings that had lined the floor of the valley were damaged so badly they would have to be carted away and rebuilt from scratch, though I could see the progress made so far.

It did my heart good to see it.

The main road that traveled the length of the narrow valley had also been cleared of debris, along with the offshoots of streets that branched from that main thoroughfare.

I’d often thought the layout looked a lot like a leaf, and that opinion hadn’t changed as I’d gotten older. Maybe it had been the original intent.

Reelin tilted his wings to circle and descend, the rest of us following his lead as he aimed for the circular clearing at one end of the valley. I could see there were already people waiting there for our arrival.

I tensed up even more. There was nothing else to do but face the past now, wasn’t there?

I hadn’t been back for more than a cursory visit while rebuilding, and I hadn’t been back at all since I’d become Sven’s Consort. I didn’t know how that would change things.

We landed as a group, the last of us setting down only moments after the first. My eyes landed on Chieftain Aaden.

In his sixties, with a thick head of salt and pepper hair that was more salt than pepper now, his deep skin gleamed in the sunlight, showing off his handsome features, his face framed with a trimmed beard. He was dressed in a thin cotton shirt and pants, a play off of the traditional tunic and pants, and the outfit managed to show the strength in that whip lean body, corded with muscle.

There was a group of people behind him, but my eyes immediately went to Morgan. She was hard to miss, with her red hair and statuesque figure. Morgan was dressed in a pale yellow cotton tunic that contrasted nicely with her hair.

We didn’t get along even when things were going well. For whatever reason, we just rubbed each other the wrong way and always had. She didn’t look happy as she took in the crowd, her eyes lingering on me.

That made two of us.

I changed and dressed quickly. I couldn’t face this naked. I already felt too vulnerable. Shouldering my bag as the others followed suit, I walked over to the small group, Blaise hurrying behind me, still hopping into a shoe.

“Adara,” Aaden greeted me in that pleasant, deep voice, his eyes scanning the large group of guards behind me before turning back to me. “I was not expecting you. I’d heard you were currently not traveling.” He nodded at Blaise.

“I made an exception,” I explained.

“How fortunate for us,” Morgan muttered under her breath, just loud enough so I’d hear her.

I ignored her, even though my hands wanted to clench in response. It wouldn’t help anything. Aaden’s mouth twitched and I knew he’d heard it too, but he didn’t comment either.

Had I made a mistake in coming?

Aaden had been somewhat of a father figure especially after Jamine and River had distanced themselves. He’d been the only one who had listened to me when I’d told him why I wanted to take the Liaison position. He’d actually encouraged me, seen the potential to do good. But I’d also always known that his first priority had been the flock over any singular individual in it.

And now that I was with Sven...

What did he think? Did he think I’d sold out the flock? Was he as dismayed to see me as Morgan was? If my own Chieftain didn’t want to see me, how was I going to take care of this mess? Maybe it would have been better if I had sent Blaise alone—

I let out a surprised gasp as Aaden reached out and pulled me into a tight hug.

I could almost feel the tension ratcheting down in the crowd watching, both on Aaden’s side and mine.

“Why have you been such a stranger?” he said to me. “I’ve missed seeing your stubborn face.”

I chuckled, relief coursing through me as I hugged him back. “I wasn’t sure...” I trailed off, not wanting to lay out my heart with so many sensitive ears in close range.

“You are always welcome here,” he said, his eyes knowing as he stepped back. He already knew why I would be hesitant. His ability to read people was one the reasons why he was such a good leader.

“Come,” he ordered, herding me with him even as he gestured to the rest of the group to follow as well. “We have refreshments set up for all of you. We can eat and discuss our… issues.” His tone turned more serious, along with his face as he led us into the city, towards the main building for visitors that had somehow managed to escape the prior conflict more or less intact, from what I could see.

Perhaps because it was lower to the ground, a sprawling single-story compound with multiple wings for entertaining, meetings, and for lodging.

We walked through the roads paved in the same terracotta to help blend into the valley and make us less visible targets. My gaze skimmed over the curious people we passed. The city a hub of activity as everyone added their time and energy to the rebuilding efforts. I found myself looking for a familiar face and forced myself to stop.

I hadn’t seen Siro for years now. It was time to face reality. That was a relationship that was in the past now. I needed to focus on the present.