Let The Wind Rise (Sky Fall, #3)(68)

A cold chill washes over me. “The Easterly?”

My mother nods, turning her eyes to the sky, where a flock of birds sails among the clouds. “I don’t know how to explain it. But I can feel that it’s him—some tiny glimmer of his former essence. And Raiden threatened to destroy it. With one snarled command he could turn the last whisper of your father into one of his mindless slaves. I couldn’t bear to even imagine it. So I agreed to call you over. I knew you were strong and could fight him. And I half expected to be ignored. Hoped for it, honestly.”

Vane shifts his weight, probably remembering that he was the one who convinced me to go.

But Gus was behind the idea as well.

“What do you expect me to say to that?” I ask. “That all is suddenly forgiven?”

“No,” my mother says. “But I hope you can at least learn from it. Raiden is the master of impossible choices. And before this is over, I have no doubt that you’ll be forced to make one. That’s always his strategy, so that even his losses can be called victories.”

I think of what happened with Gus and the cost of my escape.

It wasn’t truly a conscious choice that time, but I still paid the price for it.

It’s always more than a battle with Raiden.

It’s a game of wits.

“So what are his weaknesses?” I ask her. “You?”

Her smile is sad. “Even my vanity won’t allow me to believe he still cares for me.”

“But he did once, right?” Vane presses. “That’s what Audra meant about you being his queen?”

“Yes. Though I hardly knew he had such grand aspirations. When Raiden and I were together, he was simply a charming guardian rising through the ranks of the Gales, and I was the notorious beauty flirting my way through life, trying to decide my best option. There was something magnetic about him, and for a brief time I thought . . . maybe?”

“So why’d you reject him?” Solana asks. “Did you realize he had a darker side?”

“I’d love to claim such wisdom and foresight. But my motives were much more selfish.”

Vane snorts. “Big surprise there.”

“What does that mean?” I ask her.

“It means . . . I realized that Raiden needed me as much as I needed him. He was broken in ways—and don’t ask me for specifics. He never spoke about it, and I wasn’t interested in asking. I wanted someone to shelter me. Someone to help me shoulder my burdens. Not someone I had to fix. So I stayed with him until I found a better offer, and left him for your father. I knew I’d chosen the better husband, but I didn’t realize the mess I’d avoided until a few years later.”

I can’t decide how to feel about her story, except to drown in the irony that my mother’s fickle selfishness led her down the safer path.

“And you really have no idea what issues he was dealing with?” Vane asks. “Not even any guesses?”

My mother studies her hands. “Like I said, I wasn’t interested in knowing—though I did suspect it had something to do with his family. He told me his parents were both dead, and he never seemed sad about it—except one time, when he lost his whistlepipe and panicked—”

“Whistlepipe?” Vane interrupts.

“It’s a child’s instrument. Raiden always wore it from a chain around his neck. I assumed his parents gave it to him—”

“Do you mean this?” Vane asks, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a small, silver instrument strung among several feathered hair ornaments.

My mother’s eyes widen. “Where did you get that?”

“It was hanging above Raiden’s bed in Brezengarde. I took it mostly to piss him off, so he’d know I was in his room, messing with his stuff. But you’re saying it’s important?”

“Incredibly so. He never told me why, though. The most he ever said was, It helps him to remember. And like I told you, I wasn’t the type to ask questions.”

Vane’s lips twist into a cold smile. “I guess I know what to do with it now. I’ll crush it right in front of him.”

“I wonder if Os knows more about its significance,” I say, mostly to myself. “He and Raiden were close during their time in the Gales.”

“Well, you’ll be able to ask him”—my mother closes her eyes—“right about . . . now.”

The word has barely left her lips when dozens of Gales drop out of the sky, forming a circle around us, their windslicers raised for attack.





CHAPTER 41


VANE


My army doesn’t look happy to see me.

I guess I can’t totally blame them, given the fact that I kinda ran off and abandoned everybody.

Still, you’d think they’d give me at least some credit for getting Audra back and making it out of Raiden’s fortress alive.

At least there are more guardians than I was expecting. It looks like maybe fifty—and they’re all strong and healthy and loaded up with weapons.

It’d just be better if those weapons weren’t . . . y’know . . . pointed at my head.

“Thanks for coming,” I say, giving them my best no-need-to-stab-me smile.

Os ignores it and decides to kick off the convo with the worst possible question. “Where’s Gus?”