Hana laughed, and it was like iron nails on crystal. Sora cringed.

“Fale Po Tair? No, sister. This is Kichona. Look more closely at the mountain. I think you’ll recognize it.”

Sora squinted at the distance, and this being a prophecy not governed by the ordinary rules of the world, the mountain came into sharp focus. It was purplish-blue against the sea, its scraggly trees clinging to the steep cliff faces, a tiny building halfway up the switchback passes. Sora gasped. “Is that Mama and Papa’s house?”

“It was,” Hana said without emotion. “They’ve been dead since the first attack on Kichona by the Southern Alliance.”

Sora’s giddiness from standing on a pile of vanquished enemies petered out. “The Southern Alliance?” She was afraid to ask, but she had to.

“The united armies and navies of Fale Po Tair, Xerlinis, and Vyratta. But don’t worry. You’ve slaughtered thousands. Including that ex-gemina of yours.”

Oh gods. Daemon?

Horror shuddered through Sora’s body. Her consciousness was fighting back now, reminding her that she was actually swimming in an underground lake in Naimo Ice Caves, not here on a battlefield in the future. But that also meant she was beginning to process what this all meant—that she would become part of the Dragon Prince’s bloody pursuit of the Evermore. That Kichona would be razed by the Southern Alliance. That Sora would kill Daemon.

“This can’t be true,” she said.

“But it is,” Hana said with a smile. “Aren’t you happy we’ve been successful together?”

“Yes. I mean, no!” Sora shook her head to try to get her thoughts straight.

Something shot through the back of her mind like a spear and hurtled to the forefront. It pierced Sora’s consciousness, and a sensation of unbreakable connection washed over her, as if she were tethered by the rope on a harpoon.

Daemon!

He sent surges of confidence to her, and she held fast to their bond, feeling him tugging to extricate her from this so-called prophecy.

She remembered clearly now that she was swimming in the Lake of Nightmares.

Sora grabbed hold of their gemina bond and hauled herself out of the vision, hand over hand as if climbing a rope. Future Hana scowled at her. But Hana was already blurring, and milky white poured out from the center of the scene until it filled all of Sora’s vision again.

She blinked, hard, and the cloudiness dissipated. The vision of the battlefield disappeared, and Sora saw the water again. She was twenty feet down from the surface, still another thirty or so to go to the trap door at the bottom.

Sora clung fiercely to her gemina bond as if it were a lifeline so she didn’t lose her mind.

Daemon Daemon Daemon.