I took a couple of minutes to speak with my mother prior to heading out to the Samotarcis Domain. After the news coming in from The Shade about Visarion and the increasing number of fae now held in their sanctuary, I had to talk to her. I had to make sure she and my father were okay.

“Where’s Dad?” I asked her via the earpiece.

I was outside our meeting room in Emperor Tulla’s palace, overlooking the lush gardens. The rest of our crew patiently waited inside, while Lumi joined the emperor and Trap in another study to discuss the logistics of evacuating the entire planet. She’d already asked for significant amounts of serium to be shipped to Cerix in two interplanetary spells. It was a big load.

“He’s… a little busy right now, honey,” my mother replied. I didn’t like the tone of her voice. It could also just be my paranoia, given that I’d just learned that practically half of Sofia’s side of the Novak clan had been crammed into charmed crystal casings, ill from Hermessi influence. “The news of Visarion’s betrayal hit him hard.”

“No wonder. Visarion led our Royal Guards,” I muttered. “When can I talk to him? I tried calling through the earpiece.”

“Oh, he doesn’t have it on,” Mom said. “I’ll speak to him and have him reach out to you, I promise. But you focus on your work, honey. From what you’ve told me, that Samotarcis library could hold important information about the Hermessi. The sooner we put this issue to rest, the quicker we can all be together again.”

“I doubt that’ll happen anytime soon, Mom,” I replied, no longer able to hide my dismay. “I’ve got a feeling the troubles are only getting started.”

“How is Inalia holding up?” she asked, changing the subject slightly.

I could see her from the balcony, sitting at the table with the rest of my crew. Her arms crossed, her dark gray uniform slightly crumpled, and her fiery red hair swept up in a tight bun. There was so much sadness in her eyes, it hurt me. I couldn’t stand the sight of her like this—contemplating, wondering if the next twenty-four hours were the last she’d ever get.

“As well as you can imagine,” I said to Mom.

“What are your odds of succeeding, Tae? Honestly.”

I sighed. “I’m not sure. Those original documents might have something. I hate being stuck like this, with all these unanswered questions. We don’t even know how Inalia would take her father’s place. Technically speaking, she should know. Apparently, the Hermessi fire inside her is rife with eons’ worth of knowledge. But the poor girl didn’t even know what she was until a few days ago. None of us expect her to know how to tap into that energy inside her. She’s barely learned how to get it under control and not flame out like crazy.”

“Oh, Tae,” my mom mumbled, sounding downright heartbroken. “You like her.”

That caught me off guard. “Wha—What?”

“You like her. I can tell from the way you talk about her. Your voice softens.”

Silence ensued, as I couldn’t find an answer for my mother’s assessment. I could never lie to her, anyway. “Mom, I’ve only known her for what, two, three days? Saying that I like her might be a bit of a stretch.”

“But is it, though?” she replied. I could almost see her smiling, on the other side of our connection. “Your father loved me before I loved him. At one point, I didn’t even realize it. But, after a while, I ended up loving him, too… That’s the thing about love, Tae. It strikes unexpectedly, with no care for timing. It’s just a tiny little flame at first, but if we nurture it, it turns into something that’s impossible to contain. And even harder to live without, if we lose the object of our affection.”

I knew where she was going with this. I’d thought about it, too.

“You think I should get over it before it becomes painful, in case she does sacrifice herself and become the next Hermessi. Right?” I replied.

She sucked in a breath. “I didn’t mean it like that, Tae.”

“But you did. It’s okay, Mom. I won’t hold it against you,” I said. “Listen, I have to go now. Just tell Dad to get in touch when you see him, okay? I’m worried.”

“Okay, honey. I will.”

I pressed the end call button on my earpiece, then went back inside.

“How’s Nuriya?” Amelia asked.

“She’s fine,” I replied, then frowned at the door. “We should get going. We’re losing time here.”

I had no intention of addressing any of my family concerns. Not while Inalia’s life was on the line, and Cerix was a couple of days away from freezing and dying. As if summoned by my very urgent thoughts, Emperor Tulla came in holding a scroll.

“Lumi and Trap expect me back in my study,” he said, then handed me the scroll. “This is the pardon for the Brothers. It includes my promise to organize a sit-down in a safe and neutral location, if they don’t wish to come here to Silvergate.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” I replied, then tucked the scroll in my backpack, while the rest of our crew got up, ready to leave.

“Be careful, younglings,” the emperor said to us, wearing a warm, almost fatherly smile. “Our empire is, for the time being, in your hands.”

“We’ll do our best, Your Majesty,” Raphael replied, then offered a bow before looking at me. “Ready, Tae?”

I nodded. We linked hands. I gave the emperor a faint smile, then zapped us out of the palace and onto the Landing Bed, where we’d first arrived. From there, we had a pretty good view of our surroundings, all the way to the city’s northern edges.

“We need to get there, first,” Inalia told me, pointing to the far north of Silvergate. “The Samotarcis Domain is that way.”

“Do you think Lumi will be okay back at the palace?” Eva asked. “What if the Hermessi come after her?”

I shook my head. “I doubt they will. We’re the prize. And the bigger group. They’ll focus their efforts on us.”

With the team’s agreement, I zapped us to the northern edge of Silvergate. We immediately sensed the mild temperature drop. The farther north we went, the colder it would feel—even more so than usual. Without a Fire Hermessi to keep the planet warm, the chillier regions were going to get hit first.

“It’s definitely starting,” Herakles muttered.

“It was inevitable, once Brann died,” Raphael replied. “I bet we’re feeling it more than most because of our tropical environments back home.”

“What do you think the Brothers of the Shadow are like?” Varga asked. “Should we be ready for immediate aggression?”

“It’s not like we can’t handle it,” I replied.

“The Brothers are extremely well organized,” Eira said. “They are very good with their covert ops. In some cases, they’re better than the Armed Forces. And I’m not saying this lightly. I wouldn’t say no to an intelligence and secrecy seminar taught by the Brothers of the Shadow. We could learn a thing or two.”

“Where does their name come from?” I asked.

“The shadow is the night, actually. The shadow cast on half the planet, while the other half basks in daylight’s sun,” Inalia explained. “They’re brothers of the night, so to speak. Most of their movements happen after the sun sets.”

“And they’re a tightly knit group.” Eira added. “Especially in the outer parts of the domains. The locals protect them, though not overtly. We’re also convinced they operate an underground network in the bigger cities and towns, though we were never able to find any of the passage entrances.”

“Oh, right! The tunnels!” Inalia gasped. “That’s true. That’s how they get around. There used to be a lot of violent storms, many centuries ago. It was a crazy period, really. Tornado after tornado after tornado… Just on and on. So, to keep as many of the people safe as possible when these storms hit, the Cerixians dug a series of tunnels with stone sealing and safe hatches, most of them unmarked on any of the old maps.”

“Some of them were sealed over the past couple of centuries, but the others were… well, they were lost,” Eira said. “Since they weren’t marked, we had trouble finding them after they weren’t used for a long time. We would’ve had to do a grid search in every larger town and city, but that would’ve taken years and plenty of expenses, so the government decided to just let them gather dust.”

“But then the Brothers of the Shadow started using them, right?” Amelia replied, slightly amused.

“Yes. Of course, the authorities then regretted not having invested in the search, but hey, we all make mistakes, right?” Inalia chuckled. I liked seeing her like this, even though I knew she was terrified on the inside. At least she was making an effort to relieve some of the pressure weighing her down.

“Where to next?” I asked, eager to find the Brothers and all the dirt we could potentially get on the Hermessi. It was hard to hate actual natural entities, but the Hermessi had brought the worst out of me. It saddened me to watch a stream of water and think of the treacherous element that made it flow, the evil it was concocting to destroy us. The same could be said about fire, of which I had none, for the time being. About the very air that I breathed and the ground that I stepped on.

“Across that stretch of water. See that island there?” Eira pointed in the distance.

I could certainly see it. A slice of green over the deep blue ocean, with trees rising proudly over the horizon. “What’s that?”

“Pannos. From there, we’ll teleport to another island. It’s the easiest way for us to reach the southern border of Samotarcis and go inland from there,” Eira explained.

I gave Inalia a soft smile, then took her hand in mine. “It’ll be okay,” I whispered to her.

“I know it will, honey,” Raphael cooed from my right, taking my other hand and fluttering his eyelids at me. Out of all the supernaturals in my crew, he scared me the most—he was the only one who could make me tumble through the entire emotional spectrum, from hysterical amusement to burning shame and everything in between.

“You’re a creep,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him, while Varga and Herakles cackled in the background. I glowered at them, too. “Children. I am stuck with oversized children.”

“Oh, shut up, sexy, and zap us out of here,” Raphael replied, his tone soft and sweet, imitating the damsel of fairy tales. It was his way of poking fun at me. He’d obviously noticed my soft spot for Inalia but didn’t just come right out and grill me over it. No. He preferred these pokes and prods, like inside jokes that only I was supposed to know the meaning to.

Glancing to my left, I could see Inalia flushed and confused, probably wondering if we’d lost our minds. Without further ado, and with zero energy to explain that Raphael could be both a majestic Perfect and a relentless prankster-clown hybrid, I teleported us onto Pannos.

From there, our journey would eventually take us to Samotarcis and, hopefully, to the Brothers of the Shadow. Hopefully, for we had no one to connect us to them. We were practically chasing ghosts, with only twenty-four hours on the clock.