The Aurora King watches us with the saddest, most defeated expression on his face. He’s like an entirely different man from the one I know.

I look at Nadir, who still hasn’t moved, frozen in shock.

The world shakes around us, and more rocks fall, blocking more of the doorway.

“Nadir, the whole thing is coming down!” I shout.

He looks at me, his mouth closing and then opening, clearly at a loss for words.

I wait as father and son stare at each other, and then the Aurora King does the last thing in the world I expect. Pressing a hand to his chest, he tips his head forward before looking back up and mouthing the words “I’m sorry.”

Nadir steps back, shaking his head.

More rock falls, nearly obscuring our view of Rion, who continues to watch his son like he’s become the only thing in the world that matters.

“Nadir!” I shout. “We have to go. Now.”

He looks at me and nods, and then, with one more glance at his father, we both mount Morana and Khione before they race up the path.

Behind us, I hear the roar of the cavern collapsing in on itself, forever burying the Aurora King.

The dogs howl, and the sound echoes a mournful cry against layers of stone. They deliver us up and up through the mountain and its winding tunnels, ferrying us to safety.

Billowing clouds of dust chase our heels until we burst out of the mountain and race along a blanket of glittering snow under a canopy of stars and the rippling lights of an Aurora sky.

CHAPTER 72

The dogs slow to a stop, and I slide off Morana’s back, falling onto the snow to press my forehead to the cool surface. My mind spins, struggling to comprehend the scale of what we just experienced. For several long seconds, I spiral into the tumbling void of my thoughts, trying to arrange the pieces back into place.

When I feel like I can breathe again, I drag myself over to Nadir and throw myself on top of him, thinking of the look on his face when his father tossed me the ark and that last moment before the Aurora King was lost to us forever. I spent so many years plotting his death, imagining the day I’d get my revenge. But now that he’s gone, I don’t feel the relief I expected. I just feel hollow.

“Are you okay?” I ask, framing his face with my hands. Nadir spent even longer than I did seeking retribution against Rion, and I wonder if he also feels this same yawning emptiness.

“He’s gone,” Nadir says as if he’s testing the words for their truth. “I never thought I’d see the day.”

He blinks and meets my gaze.

“It’s okay to feel conflicted right now,” I say. “He was still your father, no matter what happened.”