“Let him try.” Fain cuts me off, voice harsh. He sweeps his hand around. “This whole lair is warded and so is the airspace around it. And we have enough Mages of power here to give him a run for his money.” He gestures toward the Voloi Range’s peaks. “There’s also a small Vish’nile dragon horde at the top of this mountain that I’m on excellent terms with. Vogel, on the other hand, has forces that are currently massing on the western edge of a vast desert. They’re a problem, to be sure, and perhaps a bigger one than we thought, but not an immediate one.” Fain rocks back on his heels, a calculating glint in his eyes. “Vogel’s army needs at least a month to cross that distance, my dear. Assuming he can strike down every last storm band with nothing but a wave of his fancy wand.”

I huff out a desperate sound. “Count on it.”

“I am,” Fain says, another wave of his oceanic power rippling around me.

“Are you in the military?” I ask.

Fain smiles, as if this should be obvious. “The Vu Trin navy. With your friend Gareth Keeler.” A fond look crosses his features. “I’ve known Gareth since he was a babe.”

There’s no time to wonder at how Fain Quillen knows my childhood friend, the urgency in me running too hot and chaotic. “There’s no time to waste.” I insist, growing desperate. “I don’t know where Vogel has my fastmate. I have to find him...”

Fain reaches out to grip my shoulder and I let out a wavering exhale as his water power rushes through my tangled lines with steady, soothing force. “We’re going to help you, and we’ll locate your fastmate.” He gently places his other hand on mine. “You’re with family now, love.”

I hold his steady gaze as tears glaze my eyes and a dizzying upswell of emotion overtakes me.

Fain smiles, great kindness in his expression. “Welcome home, Elloren.”

CHAPTER SIX

KIN

Elloren Grey

Noilaan
Eastern Realm
Two days prior to Xishlon

“One month.” An angry, male voice sounds through the closed door ahead as I follow Fain and Lucretia down a narrow hall cut into the mountain’s black and purple stone. “One month, and the damned Crows will be on our doorstep.”

Fain opens the door, and all conversation snuffs out as the people inside turn toward me.