to join or listen to Ilithya? How many hated Avalkyra Ashfire for what she had done?
A few were not crossed out, though—three total—and Veronyka didn’t know if that was because Val hadn’t approached them yet or if their allegiances were still uncertain.
Why had Val always insisted that all the Phoenix Riders were dead when she clearly knew otherwise? Maybe she suspected Veronyka would badger her to seek them out. Maybe Val didn’t want to acknowledge their existence when they refused to support her.
Veronyka read the list again. Though they were different ages and with varying levels of skill and experience, all three of the Riders who weren’t crossed out had one thing in common: their last-known whereabouts were in Pyra. Though the empire had marched into the province after the Blood War and turned every village and settlement inside out looking for surviving Riders, most animages in hiding today found being outside the empire safer than being within it. Commander Cassian certainly agreed, as did these exiled Riders.
Did they know about the commander and his burgeoning Rider army? Did they care? And if confronted with the choice between him and a resurrected queen, who might they choose?
With a yawn, Veronyka put the list aside, shuffling absently through the remaining documents and letters until she reached the last page.
Her heart leapt into her throat. Her name was on it—she recognized it immediately, even though the paper was upside down. Fully awake again, she rotated the official-looking document, signed and stamped with a wax seal, to see that it was a birth certificate.
Veronyka’s brain stuttered, her vision blurring as she stared and stared but couldn’t seem to see.
Regular people didn’t get birth certificates. They were reserved for those with wealth or position, those who had to worry about lands and rights and inheritance. Those with titles.
And then… just below her name was another name. A surname. These, too, were given only to the empire elite—and only where custom dictated.
Veronyka Ashfire.
Her heart was spasming now, thumping so painfully that Veronyka struggled to swallow. It constricted her airways. It made her head swim.
Underneath her name—was it her name?—was another. A familiar one.
Of course it was that name. The only name in the world that could inspire love, loyalty, and most of all, hatred, from the Feather-Crowned Queen herself.
Pheronia Ashfire.
And next to it was the word “mother.”
Veronyka’s thoughts whirled, running through dates and timelines while her chest heaved, her heart convulsing against her lungs, suffocating her. There was no father listed, no explanation. This wasn’t a story or a letter, meant to charm and inspire. This was a legal document. Cold. Indifferent. It didn’t care that it held the weight of the world in its ink-and-wax edict. It didn’t care that it proved Veronyka’s whole life was a lie.
Below the names was a birth date—not the birth date Veronyka had celebrated her whole life. Yet this date was well known to her, as it was to everyone.
It was the day of the Last Battle in Aura Nova. The end of the Blood War. The end of everything.
And the beginning. Her beginning.
CERTIFICATE OF BIRTH
THIS DOCUMENT CERTIFIES THAT
VERONYKA ASHFIRE
WAS BORN ON THE TWENTY-FIRST DAY OF THE NINTH MOON, 170 AE, IN AURA NOVA, THE GOLDEN EMPIRE
TO
MOTHER: PHERONIA ASHFIRE
FATHER: _____________________
NOTARIZED BY: Cedric, Grand Council Lawmaker
WITNESSED BY: Ilithya, Acolyte of Hael
And make no mistake—in my life with Avalkyra Ashfire,
I learned a great deal. If only some of those hard lessons
could be unlearned. If only they were not necessary.
- CHAPTER 14 - VERONYKA
VERONYKA LURCHED TO HER feet, the sudden movement making her head spin… or maybe it was something else.
Frantic wingbeats brushed against her mind—Xephyra, trying to break through—but Veronyka blocked her out. She tried to calm herself, to breathe, but all she managed were short, shallow inhalations. Her feelings were a tangled mess, as if there was a disconnect between her brain and her body.
The words swam before her vision. Veronyka Ashfire. Veronyka Ashfire.
Val, she said in her mind, seeking out that locked, barred door between them. Suddenly nothing else mattered. Not the dangers of shadow magic, not the work she’d been putting in day after day to keep herself and the people around her safe. Her desperation was a clawed beast inside her.
The word echoed in the emptiness of her mind. The silence was worse somehow. She’d never felt more alone.
Avalkyra Ashfire! she screamed, her heart pumping harder, faster, ratcheting up her bloodstream.
Yes, xe Nyka? came the cool, calm reply. Veronyka had forgotten the way it felt to