Sagan pointed out, "What about when you first got your wings? You'd discovered them by now because the last time you three went lava surfing was earlier in the same day the Lyriks attacked."

I almost winced and tried to recover by dismissing it. "Oh, getting my wings wasn't nearly as fantastical as my brother or dramatic as Korac."

Korac cut through my pretense. "You never told me or Nox how you came by them, either. I don't even think Savis knew."

I studied birds. How they came to fly. When it was the right time, mothers dropped their offspring from the nest, and their children either commanded their instincts enough to soar or... Not.

Li Mountain was the tallest peak on Cinder. Savis spoke of it often as her favorite climbing spot. We—Korac, Nox, and I—had scaled it many times, never aware of our foremother sleeping within. At the equivalence of sixteen, I climbed to the top, walked to the edge, and jumped off. I was alone, but I knew I could do it—

"No, you didn't." Karter sounded sure of it. Her face was filled with...

"It was awe, Superman, not horror. You're reaching for anguish when there isn't any. She was proud of you. Impressed, even. Everyone in that room was. Look again."

Tameka's eyes sparkled, Korac's brows shot up, Tumu nodded with high regard—

All was as you said. They were impressed. Not eyes glistening with concerned tears. Or face drawn tight in confusion. Or nodding solemnly. Each of them hid smiles beneath their respect.

"That's right. So what happened next?"

I clapped to change the subject. "Let's discuss where we are in the lineup right now. I'm eighteen, Korac is twenty-one, and Nox is twenty-two. Umbra was educating Nox on how to ascend to the throne as King. Mother was... very ill. Korac was sneaking off to meet his friend Ementa on the secret continent of nacre slaves, whose evolution far surpassed ours. Meanwhile, I was in my lab. I was surrounded by Valkyrie sleeping in stasis, while I constantly worked to restore the Icari to something close to standard intelligence, speed, and living without the inclusion of our excessive appetites."

Korac looked pained as he admitted, "I wished I'd taken you to see the cities Ementa's people had made... All that technology..."

My smile was meant to ease him as I shook my head. "I don't hold it against you. I only learned of the secret civilization six months ago, and it's senseless to mourn something which was gone before I could miss it. Especially given how little I'd left the lab or gave you the opportunity to share. Still, every gift you returned with, I kept. With this new contextual lens, I can study them properly as artifacts of a lost people. Thank you."

Iuo muttered, "There's a trace of a blush."

Korac, a little drunk, clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes. Where he couldn't see, Sagan gave Iuo the most adorable wink.

I gestured at the Lamian King Elect. "Since you drew attention to yourself, why don't you read the next entry?"

"Sure thing, Wingmaster." He slipped into his bipedal form and stretched before approaching the ladder. "Which one?"

"Volume three hundred and ten. Pages twenty-one through thirty-six."

Iuo read on.

Nox and I argued that day about how to acquire ore from Thailea. I was certain diplomacy could prevail. Nox seemed positive they wouldn't relinquish even a sample of the precious material from Thailean tombs. Not without a fight.

I struggled to see his side, as was the way with us after Mon3. Every day he slipped further into father's shadow. Every day I lost him more.

Instead of arguing with him further, I focused on Korac, who entered my lab with a feather in his step. I wondered absently who the lucky girl was this time? Was I jealous? Why did his usual promiscuity suddenly bother me?

But I knew. Of course, I knew. My heart rate elevated at the sight of him. The very air smelled different when he was around, and I couldn't get enough of it.

I should rectify what was between us immediately.

In the meantime, I used my blood, a sample of Thailean ore, the Mon3 gas, and L. Capra's unstable mineral to create Many Feet II. I'd never seen Korac smile so broadly, and I welcomed sharing the experience with him. But Nox...

"How did you accomplish this?"

As soon as he asked, I knew it wasn't an idle curiosity, and eventually I got the entire truth out of him. Father, Korac, and Nox had selected a planet—Even thinking of it as 'selection' infuriated me.

How could someone choose to steal a planet? Already populated with a sentient race?! And then dare to ask me to help by creating hybrids?!

I told them exactly how I felt. "We will not sacrifice another race for ours, Nox."

A light shone in his black eyes before he said, "And with your help, sacrifice is unnecessary."

I dreaded his proposal, but listened to the entire thing. Create a hybrid race using the biological traits superior in the Icari but absent of their weaknesses. No starvation. No deadly reaction to certain solar radiations.

Earth.

Humans.

Iuo finished the entry and set his black and blue eyes on me. The entire room gazed on. This was such a pivotal point for all the Verses.

It starts with him and ends with her.

You shift which leg you want your weight on, curled on the floor, staring at your notebook. Those black Sharpie painted fingernails push through your hair in a frustrated gesture as you blow the air from your cheeks.

Talk to me, Rayne.

"I think I am 'her.'"

No. Why? Silence has confirmed the saying is older than—

"It feels right, Xelan."

Not superman. This causes me some concern, and I dread your answer to my next question.

Do you think the 'him' they refer to is Nox?

Both versions of you tilt your head, considering. Eventually, little you says, "No." Then preteen you says, "But I don't think it means you either."

Little you notices me shiver from the chill of the lingering question.

Who?

Let's continue.

Sagan spoke up. "This is where you told Korac you thought Nox was becoming a monster like your father."

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Her husband gave her a side squeeze.

I nodded. "Yes. At this point in the entry, I'd been working for eight days, ten hours, and forty-eight minutes without sleep."

Tameka went still beside me, and I pressed my hand into her back, comforting her.

Pehton and Sagan didn't seem concerned about it, and I knew what they were tag-teaming me for as the Lyrik confirmed, "And it took some convincing to get you into bed that night. Right?"

I couldn't help it. I stole one out of Korac's playbook and pinched the bridge of my nose, chuckling.

Korac gave me a casual shrug, as if to ask, "Who can blame them?"

Iuo must have read ahead in the journal because he looked up from it and winked at me.

Everyone was against me.

That same night, Korac tried to seduce me for the first time, and I persuaded him to talk until we fell asleep. But the girls all want the details of the flirting and kissing. Well, all of them except Tameka. She looked fine with the abbreviated version.

"Ladies. Please. It was only the first night me and Korac held each other. We spent the entire evening talking about how we would spoil Many Feet II."

Sagan pouted.

Pehton took a sip of her drink, snorting into it, "Sure."

Iuo confirmed, "It's true. The next entry is about Colita, and then..." He went ahead a few volumes, and I wished he hadn't.

The look on his face...

Little you asks, "Is it time?"

Yes, Rayne. It's time.

Korac lowered his gaze and kept it on the floor.

Tameka took my hand and held it with her warmth.

I wished I could hug Pax for this, but I'm glad he wasn't in my study to hear about the day Nox and I sent our parents to Eternity.

"Read, Iuo. Please."

"I'm writing this entry after several days have passed. I couldn't bring myself to write until now.

"When Korac was helping me load Vittle seedlings into the cold frames, Colita came to collect us at mother's behest."

I swallowed, unable to stop the rise of emotions as a close friend read one of the worst moments of my life.

Korac went to mother's bedside first.

While he was in there, Nox stood sentinel at the door. But me? Wearing a rut in the stone, I paced, wringing out the answer to Savis' illness in my hands. Repeatedly, I whispered to Elden's nacre shard, asking for strength. I could do this. I could figure out a last-minute solution to prolong her life. None of my tests on mother had ever produced a disease known to Icarean kind. Instead, it presented as more of an allergic reaction. Any other examinations, she refused, finding them too invasive.

Well, not today. Today, I would—

Korac emerged with tears streaking his composed mask.

I shattered.

Nothing—Not a damned thing—would give me more comfort in that moment than Korac holding me, but Nox was standing right there. I feared my brother's interference with my relationship or jealousy or—

I couldn't turn off the voice in my head that said, "Don't let him know."

So, Korac coolly announced, "She wants to see Xelan," and stepped by me, offering only a nod to conceal the pain in his eyes.

I was so completely alone in this, and it was all my fault—

Nox crushed me in an embrace. I mean, 'broke my rib' crushed me. My big brother held me while I cried over a loss I couldn't prevent.

That was it.

I could forgive Nox for all of it. We could move on from Mon3 and Gale, united as brothers once more. All thanks to mother, reuniting us in her last hour.

But when I pulled away, there was an anxiety tightening the corners of Nox's eyes. It had nothing to do with loss. Before I could ask about it, mother weakly called me through the door and I didn't waste another moment.

I sat on the edge of her bed and took her reaching hand in mine. Kissing her paper-white knuckles was like kissing frost, cold and delicate. The drapes filled her room as if they were wraiths preparing to carry her away.

"Mother, let me save you. Let me try another test. Or stasis, even—"

"Your father did this to me."

I believed her instantly, but... "How?"

Savis' voice was so small as she said, "Poison, son. For millennia. Since forever."

White hot rage blinded me and filled my veins with enough warmth to thaw her frozen fingers. I'd never known such fury. "I will kill him for this."

And I meant right at that moment. I stood, but Savis pulled me back. "Wait. Son, do not let your brother stop you."

"Why would Nox stop me—No."

Savis gave the weakest of nods to confirm my budding suspicions.

Not fully aware of it, my fists kept clenching and I was tightening my jaw. I could barely talk through it. "Speak clearly, mother. I want no regrets."

A cobalt tear squeezed from the corners of her iridescent eyes. "He was not accomplice to it, but he knew and did nothing to stop it for fear of your father's retaliation. Please, have mercy on your brother."

I kissed her knuckles and placed her hand gently back to rest on her bed. This would be my last time laying eyes upon her on this plane. I knew it, and I vowed to her, "Before you reach Eternity, you will already be avenged."

"I love you, my son. You are everything I hoped you would be."

I kept my promise. Without more than a look at Nox and a considering glance at Korac, I flew off to find Umbra.

The bastard had stolen my mother, raped her when she was just a girl, and forced her to serve his abuse for her entire life. Savis, the daughter of Elden, deserved a better death. I couldn't give her that, but I could give her the next best thing.

Retribution.

Umbra was in his tower, an empty place he deemed off limits for his time to meditate. Even Amolot wasn't allowed in there. I alighted in the window, intending to barrel into him and skin his murderous hide—

My father was on his knees with his head in his hands. Only then did I notice I was drenched in rain and lightning streaked across the red sky. It was my first storm, and I couldn't give it a second thought. I could only think about my reason for flying here.

"Umbra."

With each of his sobs, lightning branched through the sky. He said into his hands, "She refused me. Even on her deathbed she refused to speak to me—"

I climbed out of the window, accusing, "Because you are without any goodness, you venomous monster. Let her find peace without more of your poison—"

"LEAVE ME!" Tears and spittle sprayed out of Umbra's mouth. Every vein and muscle in his body strained with the shout. Grief was plain on his face. "GO!"

I heard footsteps on the stairs leading to the tower, and I knew it had to be—

Korac appeared in the doorway. I stepped around the mess that was the King of Cinder to tell my best friend to, "Guard the door."

"My Prince, perhaps—"

"It was an order." I closed it on the distress that was naked on Korac's face and hated myself, but I wanted no one to witness this premeditated crime. "Umbra, stand and face me."

He let out a toxic laugh. "So this is it. You would be my executioner. Well go on, son. Put me out of my fucking misery, never mind you will lose all the protection I ever afforded you—The blockade I made of my life will dissolve, and then when the shit rolls in, you will come to better understand me, boy." On the final note, he stood and faced me.

It was the first time I'd noticed the wrinkles carving deltas on his face, gathering near his eyes and mouth. His scars, stretched and faded like worn leather, were hidden beneath a thinning black curtain of hair streaked with gray. The King of Cinder had lost weight in recent months, leaving his harnesses to hang loosely from his shoulders and ribs.

Even evil aged.

Knowing this would be quick, I shook my head. "I will never understand a monster like you." Faster than he could see, I rushed him, twisted him around, and folded him in half, breaking his back. I nearly broke him in two, but I wanted him to suffer a while in his debilitated state. Letting him fall to the floor, I nudged him with my boot and called him, "Lower than dirt."

The rain stopped.

I paused there in my storytelling to assess the room.

Matt surprised me by raising his hand.

"Yes?"

Nothing in his eyes or demeanor gave away the nature of his question. So when he asked, "What was it like killing your own father?" I nearly failed to disguise my initial shock.

People shifted uncomfortably, but some scrutinized my response with unveiled judgment—

"Curiosity. Concern. Love."

Rayne—

"I know, Superman. Trust me."

If I remembered correctly, Matt was never concerned with the wellbeing of his parents, unlike the rest of the Shadow who were beside themselves after the Invasion. No, Matt wasn't bothered in the least. So I gathered his question was a personal one, and I endeavored to answer it with some sensitivity and honesty.

"I thought the anger would go away. It didn't. I thought this resentment, threatening to burn a hole through me, would cool and ease—It just kept flaring. All I accomplished in killing Umbra was my mother's agenda and crowning Nox, King of Cinder."

Twenty-One held up his drink in a toast, and I couldn't fathom why. Then Bones mirrored him. Karter. Para. Lucas—All the Icari in the room. Our converted P.O.W. said, "We thank you for delivering us from chaos's reign and into a peace unlike one we'd ever known."

"I'll drink to that," Korac toasted this time with water and met my eyes as he did so. "To Umbra's fall."

Karter held up her drink. "To Lady Savis in Eternity."

Para repeated, "To Lady Savis."

It never occurred to me what the regime changeover from Umbra to Nox was like for the Icarean race. I was caught in the eye of this confusing storm, and my mother's lies only contributed to the debris. To me, Nox stood in Umbra's shadow, and Korac, blinded by hero worship, couldn't see it.