“It’ll be time soon,” I say, pulling him up with me, and we set out of the forest, hand in hand. Me and Julius against the world.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

THUNDERCLOUDS FLICKER OVERHEAD AS we trekked the rest of the way to the grave site. Zora, Taavi, and the Macazi are hardly noticeable tucked in and around the jpango branches and thick foliage near Yiyo.

“Everyone okay?” I ask, panting. The hike wasn’t short. A few miles at least. I know because I ran one stint of cross-country. Mainly because I wanted to see Julius at practice.

“Yes,” Taavi says, studying me closely. She must know I talked to her mother about the Chancellor. But she’s all plastic smiles, so I say nothing.

“We haven’t seen anyone else,” Zora says, gaping at Shaun’s hair in my hand. “That can’t have been easy. The Yakanna would be very proud.”

I don’t know what to say, so I take the hair and stick it in my pocket with a nod. She needs to know about Kai. But now still isn’t the time.

“My Ancestors’ burial ground is just beyond the clearing in a dirt pit on the cliff’s edge beside Yiyo. Let’s get moving.” I hustle toward it with Zora, Taavi, Julius, and the rest at my back. We push through the forest and the clearing around Yiyo comes into view. Yiyo’s peak kisses the clouds; beside it is a stretch of unmarked dirt. I remember well the place where I touched the ground and felt my Ancestors for the first time—where I met a certain someone as he practiced his sparring. Seems like a lifetime ago.

Julius points. “Is that…”

In the distance, through a part in the trees is Jhamal heading our way with Kai and the Yakanna, in full armor, beside him. Zora turns, hearing the commotion. Her weapon falls from her fingertips and she runs to them. Kai is tough as nails, but I swear I see her lip tremble. They hug tight, spinning in a circle, and her sisters wrap around them. They hold it there, swaying, chanting something. I know that feeling. That feeling of one of your own coming home again, safe, okay. Nothing like it. As angry as I am with Jhamal, and Kai, I’m happy for the rest of them.

A horn blows, and in the far distance, behind Jhamal, are flocks of men in fur, curved blades attached to their arms. Beerchi. Shaun isn’t among them. It’s no secret what I left to do. It’s no secret what this spell will be able to do. And it says something that so many of Shaun’s people showed up to see it.

“Rue,” Julius says. “The moon.”