Esmera disagreed with Tauram. A marriage that her daughter's arm was twisted into was a loss, especially when her groom would be a god. He'd whisk her away to some unearthly realm where the divine dwelled. Would they even be able to be a part of her life after he had taken her?

Esmera looked to Nuredir, who, unlike Tauram, wasn't at all moved by her unshed tears. "Will you at least let her grow up with us?"

Most parents lost their children to marriage, college, or adulthood by the age of eighteen. If that was when Nuredir would claim their daughter, all wouldn't be lost. Esmera would have eighteen wonderful years to love and cherish and nurture her.

"With pleasure." Nuredir waved a dismissive hand. "I have no interest in raising a child."

"That's an interesting sentiment from a man who's bartering his way to a wife." Esmera narrowed her eyes. It was one thing for him to force his way into her daughter's life but another for him to try to control it. "Is it not inevitable that she will someday give you children?"

Too late, Esmera bit her tongue. As much as it irked her to think of sharing family with this insufferable god, no good could come from voicing her feelings.

The truth was, she needed Nuredir's help, or this daughter he and Esmera both wanted, albeit for different reasons, would never come to exist.

"Possible, yes. Inevitable, no." Nuredir's lovely eyes glinted in wicked amusement.

Esmera wished she could claw them out and return them to the earth they had come from, but she somehow managed to contain herself in the fists she clenched at her sides.

"Breathe, Esmera." Tauram's voice was little more than a breath, but Esmera heard it as if it was a whisper he traced along her skin.

She obeyed him and exhaled as he spoke the words she couldn't bear to say to Nuredir.

"We agree that you may have our daughter as your wife after her eighteenth birthday and not a moment before."

Nuredir laughed softly. "There is no need for those terms. If I was the kind of god who would take a woman without her parents' blessing and before she is of age, I would've done just that."

It was a courtesy on his part to ask for Esmera and Tauram's permission. Esmera repeated that thought in her mind even as she wanted nothing better than to tell him exactly what she thought of him.

Nuredir was more powerful than Esmera and Tauram combined. He would have their daughter whether or not they wanted him to.

"I also want to be allowed to see her after she is married to you," Esmera blurted out. She was aware that her request was vague. Did that mean every week? Once yearly? Only on special occasions? Even so, she feared that to ask for anything more would anger the god and get him to withdraw all the concessions he had already made.

He was a god. There was no greater reminder of his power.

Nuredir cocked his head. "You drive a hard bargain, Lady Esmera."

"Do we have a deal or not?" Tauram's voice was like a knife as he cut to the chase.

"We do indeed." Nuredir turned to his sister who still watched the exchange with a tight mouth.

Zaha shook her head at him, as disheartened as she deserved to be after leading Esmera into an ambush. Her white eyes glowed, as brilliant as headlights until they dulled once again. "It is done, and I stand as witness to the agreement until the end of time."

Her words were so final that Esmera's throat closed, and fresh new tears rose into her eyes. She had really done it. She had bartered her daughter away. A whimper escaped her, and it was Anjarah who squeezed her shoulders even though she said nothing.

It was better that she didn't. No words could console Esmera or change this situation.

"Now for your part of the bargain." There was an impatient edge to Tauram's voice that Esmera had never heard before. Then again, he had never before been a throneless king who traded away his unborn daughter.

"Patience, Prince Tauram." Nuredir flashed them a grin right before the room exploded in dust.

Esmera clung to Tauram, terrified that they had somehow aggravated the god and were being forced to pay for it with their lives when the heat of Nuredir's workshop turned to the coldness of a dead home.

She dared to open her eyes, expecting to find her lashes and the rest of her coated in dirt, but she was as spotless as she had been when she first set foot in Nuredir's lair. She blinked when she found herself in the Finnaaz vault, which was also exactly as it had been when she last saw it. A small part of her had expected and feared that Nuredir wouldn't uphold his end of the bargain, but it seemed he intended to after all.

Tauram still held Esmera, while Anjarah stood on her other side, blinking away her disorientation.

As if he owned the place, which, as a god, he probably believed he did, Nuredir strode forward. His commanding presence filled the chamber, as did the sound of his heavy footsteps.

He lowered himself to his knees, which brought him down to Esmera's height. With thick, earth-smeared fingers, he sifted through the nearest pile of rubble, examining a few jagged shards of terracotta before dusting his brown pants and standing.

He smoothed over the stained white apron covering his brown tunic. "So, the good news is, repairing the army won't be as much work as creating it from scratch. The bad news is that your brother destroyed it so thoroughly that it will take some work." Nuredir shot Esmera a look as though it was she who had forced Givan to the point of committing his desperate, final act.

Esmera didn't flinch under the god's accusing gaze. She'd had to face so many things she had feared since arriving at the Finnaaz Estate just hours ago. It had drained her of any feeling, any wit that might've inspired a retort.

Fortunately, Tauram came to her rescue. "Then perhaps it's best if you commence the task now." The prince invited Nuredir to do just that with a gesture of his hand.

Nuredir gazed at the mortals for a moment. Smirking for a reason only he knew, the god wove between the mounds of terracotta chunks. Starting at the back of the formation, he stopped at the first pile. His face turned solemn as he knelt behind it, burying his hand among the earthen shards and mumbling, "I implore you to rebuild yourself."

The terracotta soldier reformed as if thousands of invisible hands were putting him back together, his face grim and his spear as ready for battle as a warrior should be. Nuredir made his way through the lines of soldiers.

He had reached the halfway mark when Esmera needed to sit down. Tauram and Anjarah joined her minutes later. Together, they watched as Nuredir resurrected the last warrior at the front of the formation. He stood and straightened his weary back before returning to Esmera.

"My part is done." He tried to wipe the sweat from his brow as discreetly as possible, but Esmera still noticed, and the little reminder that he was still a person softened the harsh retort she had in mind for him.

"Thank you," was all she said, managing to dredge up a smile for him. She stood, and, gazing at the army who faced her in anticipation of her call to war, she realised she had overlooked something very important. "So, how exactly do I activate the army?"

Nuredir blinked at Esmera before narrowing his eyes. "You know how to do that. Playing foolish is not a good look, Lady Esmera."

Her brow furrowed. "No, I don't know, or I wouldn't be asking you." The snark had crept back into her words, triggered by Nuredir's infuriating manner.

"You do know. You have heard your father say it before. His familiar definitely said it when you visited her. I heard her myself."

Esmera folded her arms over her chest. "How long have you been spying on us?"

"Don't flatter yourself." Nuredir smirked. "I live in the earth. It wasn't so much me spying on you as you trespassing into my territory."

Esmera gritted her teeth. She was already regretting promising her daughter to him. Her only consolation was that she'd had no choice.

He had said Lord Hudion had said it, as had Hira. Esmera closed her eyes and cast her mind back, replaying the last words they had spoken until their voices overlapped in her mind, giving her the answer she wanted.

She opened her eyes, resting them on the Finnaaz army so that there could be no mistake about who her command was directed at. "Avenge me."

The soldiers straightened to attention, their eyes trained on Nuredir as they raised their swords and aimed their spears at the god who had created them.

Nuredir raised his hands in a glib assertion of innocence. "I know you see me as your enemy right now, but how about you don't kill me?"

"Maybe you should stop tempting me, then."

Tauram laughed under his breath beside Esmera, but Nuredir only gazed at her, either without a retort for once or choosing not to torment Esmera with it.

"If you want to deactivate the army, simply say 'at ease'."

Esmera glowered, but she didn't think it was a good idea to destroy the god her daughter was supposed to marry, who also happened to be the only being in existence who could help her wield this army she knew so little about.

She conceded to Nuredir, but not without a glare. "At ease."

The soldiers lowered their weapons before rescinding their declaration of war against their creator and freezing back into statues.

"Thank you." Nuredir's broad shoulders relaxed.

It amused Esmera more than it should've to see how afraid he was of the weapon he had created.

It took Nuredir only a moment to regain his composure, and to Esmera's surprise, he had something useful instead of cynical to offer her. "Now, it's important that you visualise your enemy before summoning the army so that they know who to attack when they appear."

"Understood." Esmera nodded. "Thank you," she said, her tight voice refusing to yield to gratitude.

Nuredir gave her a small smile that was so infuriatingly self-satisfied she wanted to set her army on him again just to see it disappear. "I'll see you when I collect my bride. I hope she's as feisty as you are, Lady Esmera. It has been a pleasure."

With his vow that felt more like a threat, Nuredir vanished in an explosion of dust. On instinct, the mortals shielded their eyes against the non-existent dirt particles before staring at the spot where the god had just stood, unable to comprehend everything they had endured in his presence.

Tauram was the first to compose himself enough to speak. "We should go. There are many preparations to be made for the next part of our mission."

He gestured for Esmera to lead the way out of the vault while Anjarah fell in behind them.

"What's next?" she asked as they exited the vault doors, leaving them to stand open like the arms of a mother waiting to welcome her child home, not knowing they would never return.

"We've finally recovered the Finnaaz weapon, the one thing we need to defeat Ruagu." The words didn't give Esmera the relief she thought it would because of the price she had to pay for it, but she put the thought out of her mind.

She had years to come to terms with Nuredir's price. For now, she had more urgent matters to focus on.

"All thanks to some brilliant teamwork." Esmera heard the satisfaction in Tauram's voice as he started up the stairs after her. "Now, for the biggest part: dethroning Ruagu."

"And when are you planning on doing that?" The shards of a broken tile cracked under Anjarah's feet as she followed.

"Tomorrow is the day." Tauram spoke like a true king, decisive, unwavering.

They arrived at the top of the stairs, where a sunny spotlight fell through the hole in the roof to illuminate Esmera where she stood on the ground floor of the house she had been born in.

Esmera's stomach lurched.

Tauram was right. The week Jilhari had given them to depose Ruagu was nearly at its end, but Esmera didn't feel as ready to face him as she would've liked to, as she had imagined she'd be after the days she had spent in Milatanur.

But she had to be for the sake of the faceless voices and nameless faces that needed her to protect them from the gods' wrath.

"So, what's the plan? Just to barge into the palace and hope for the best?" Just from the sound of Anjarah's voice, Esmera could imagine her scrunching her face in concern. She turned to see that she was right.

"Of course not." Tauram sounded affronted by the insinuation that he hadn't given this coup any thought, and the look he gave Anjarah confirmed that.

Esmera led them out into the garden. Under the watercolour beauty of the twilit sky, it seemed somehow grimmer, darker with the death and violence that had happened within its fences. Esmera shuddered to think of her family buried at the cemetery at the far end of the ground, dead, cold, rotting even as their legacy saw itself resurrected.

"I will call Ghallia when I return to the cottage. She will need to ensure Ruagu is at the palace tomorrow and keep the heartstone out of his hands until we attack."

Esmera stopped and spun to face her friends, unable to contain her curiosity. "What's a heartstone?"

They stopped at the bottom of the yard, where the gate they had entered through stood ajar. All Esmera could see ahead was mist and mountains, but she was sure that somewhere among them, Lundas could see Tauram's cottage or at least a route they could teleport along that would finally take them to it.

"It's what it sounds like, Esmera." Tauram turned to her. "Nuredir moulds our hearts from sand and earth before we are born, but when we die, they become stones that the god Munasha collects and protects. That's where all the magic in Milatanur comes from."

Esmera stared at him, fascinated. "So that means that as time goes on, more hearts accumulate, and Milatanur's magic becomes stronger, doesn't it?"

"Theoretically, yes, but we don't have any proof of that." Tauram lowered his eyes to the ground. "What we do know is, if a heartstone is in the possession of a living mortal, it amplifies their power unlike anything else. It has always been an item wielded by the ruler of Milatanur, which has never been a bad thing until now." His gaze turned distant, remorseful from his mistakes of the past.

Esmera took his arm to remind him that she was here to help him undo it, as an ally, a friend, whatever he needed her to be. "Ruagu is too strong with it. For us to defeat him, we have to separate him from it, right?" asked Esmera. "That's why you need Ghallia to help us.

"Right." Tauram gave her a soft, pleased smile. It reminded her how far she had come since she first arrived in Milatanur, a place she had hardly believed existed even after she laid eyes on it for herself.

Lundas purred at their feet as he swiped a paw at Tauram's leg, impatient to be on his way. The prince rested a hand on Esmera and Anjarah's shoulders while the clouded leopard bounded in circles around them.

They appeared on a rocky outcrop from which Esmera could just make out m Tauram's cottage through the mist. Also through the haziness hanging around them, the steep drop into the valley was visible. Esmera stumbled away from it, right into Tauram's spontaneous embrace.

"I've got you, okay?"

She met his eyes that froze her in place, that stoppered her words in her throat so all she could do was nod. With a smile that made her feel like Tauram knew exactly what was going on in her head, he nodded at Lundas. With another lap, the prince's familiar had taken them to the little mountain house they called home.

Belaren was awaiting them on the balcony when they arrived, clad in a dark red shirt that shone against his deep brown skin. The tigers embroidered on it seemed to growl as he strolled towards them, giving Tauram and then Esmera a cursory glance before his eyes settled on Anjarah. "How did it go?"

"As well as we had hoped it would." Tauram was the one who answered. "I'm calling Ghallia now. Prepare for the attack." He set his jaw, so unlike the artist who had taken Esmera to his studio because her posing for him to paint would mean her not exerting her exhausted ears that she didn't believe he could be that person.

But he was. He was a passionate artist and a dutiful king, a kind friend and a loving brother. He was so much more than a drunkard husband who only loved his wife when he wanted her, so much more than the wife who let him get away with it, and that was what made him so mesmerising to Esmera.

"This ends tomorrow." Tauram let out a breath.

Belaren nodded, the gesture as firm as his belief in the cause. Anjarah just swallowed and looked at her feet.

Belaren nudged her. "Everything okay?"

She looked up, pasting on a smile. "Yes. I'm just worried about tomorrow, that's all. We have a massive task ahead of us." Her voice trembled.

Her fear made Esmera feel less alone because she shared that sense of doom whenever she thought about what awaited them tomorrow, but they couldn't let it drag them down. They had to soar above it together, birds following each other through the sky to warmer lands.

Belaren drew Anjarah to him the way Esmera wished Tauram would do to her. "We're a team, Jara. Ruagu won't be ready for us. We'll be fine."

Anjarah raised her eyes from the ground and turned her shaky smile on him.

Belaren kissed her forehead before pulling away and grinning down at her. "Ready to go?"

"Go where?" asked Tauram, looking between his friends.

Belaren's arm slid around Anjarah's shoulders. He pulled her snugly to his side. "I'm taking my girlfriend to dinner. Don't wait up for me."

Tauram rolled his eyes. "Many things I could do tonight have crossed my mind, and that was not one of them."

"Touché." Belaren made a face at the prince as he used his favourite retort against him.

Even Esmera couldn't resist a little grin as Belaren led Anjarah away.

The other woman's smile shook and then crumbled a moment before she stepped inside the cottage. Esmera's smile turned into a frown as she looked after them. Anjarah had said she was okay, but she didn't seem to be. What was really bothering her?

She was gone before Esmera could ask her about it, and all she could do was hope that Belaren could comfort her whatever the concern on her mind was.

Esmera didn't get to dwell on what was preoccupying Anjarah for too long, however, before Tauram was distracting her with his voice even though he kept his hands away from her as he had promised to.

"So, Lady Esmera, what are the chances of you joining me for dinner?"

She turned to him, rolling her eyes. First, he had said he didn't want to touch her, and now he was asking to spend time with her as if he didn't know where that could lead. Maybe he didn't know what he wanted, but Esmera didn't have the same problem.

"I'd say they're quite high if you play your cards right, Your Highness."

"Meaning?" Tauram smirked, and Esmera's lonely, sad heart fluttered.

"My answer is yes if you have litchi juice."

Gods, what was she saying? She should be resting well tonight, maybe practising her auditory abilities in case she needed them in the battle against Ruagu, not entertaining a prince who had told her in no uncertain terms that he considered her off-limits until he had reclaimed his throne and defeated its usurper. Even worse, she shouldn't be so excited at the thought, but she couldn't take back her words.

Tauram laughed softly. "I'm sure we have some remaining litchi juice in the fridge. Let's go look."

He took Esmera by the shoulders and steered her inside, out of view of the mountains that kept watch over their home on all sides, from the stars that bound them together.