Sparrow glances across the wide crimson-stone cavern to where Thierren is unrolling his bedding, her brow knotting as she notices, not for the first time, how careful he’s being to position himself far away from everyone else. Her gaze slides to Aislinn, who, as usual, has taken a spot on the other side of Sparrow and Effrey, also positioning herself away from the Vu Trin, this soft-spoken, watchful, and deeply kind Gardnerian as unwanted as Thierren.

The maverick high commander of the Vu Trin forces, Vang Troi, gave the order allowing Thierren’s and Aislinn’s passage east. But, as much as the soldiers accompanying them seem to respect Vang Troi’s military prowess, they are all of one intractable mind.

Mages should not be allowed in Noilaan.

Sparrow’s gaze slides to the cave entrance, which frames a panoramic view of the desert landscape. The light is a luminous saffron as the sun sinks closer to the horizon, the stone walls surrounding her glittering a breathtaking gold. The goat-size ivory dragon Raz’zor sits on the cavern’s ledge beside young Effrey, one of his wings fanned out against the child’s back as he scans the view like a dogged sentinel, hell-bent on fulfilling a fealty-vow to Elloren Grey to keep their group safe.

The desert’s expanse of crimson sand is such a gorgeous orange-red that, for a moment, Sparrow’s artist mind yearns for decent drawing supplies—a sketchbook with fine parchment and colored pencils—so she can create an imprint of the ruddy stone formations that arc over the desert like great swaths of paint.

It’s stunning, this edge of the continent’s Central Desert, but Sparrow is more than ready to step into that portal tomorrow and leave the West far behind. And she would have never made it this far without Thierren.

“Thierren has aided me...and Effrey too,” Sparrow tries to explain to Ulluwyn as the muscular soldier lounges on her bedroll and takes a long swig of water, eyeing Thierren with venomous dislike.

As if sensing her eyes on him, Thierren glances at Ulluwyn. His gaze slides to Sparrow, and a heated shiver runs through her that she’s instantly ashamed of, especially sitting in the company of this fellow Urisk woman who spent over a year on the Fae Islands.

That familiar, piercing ache rushes through Sparrow. Her friendship with Thierren increasingly feels like one of a handful of true things in her life. Yet her growing feelings for him also seem like a betrayal of her people, illicit and unfathomable and wrong.

But...every time she thinks about leaving him behind as she starts a new, free life in the East, her heart squeezes to the point of actual pain, the bond they’ve forged over these past few months a source of incredible comfort...and increasingly tinged with want.