The fighting started on the third day of the Storm Garden.

  Akari had been traveling alone until then, using her portals to hop between the floating islands. Her armor did its job perfectly; between that and her Master body, she barely felt the cold or the rain.

  This let her focus on the things that mattered. Like finding a kyrin to bond,and searching for the mysterious vault.

  This was the largest of the three War Gardens—a quarter million square miles that covered the better part of North Shoken’s western coast. Most islands floated over the water’s surface, ranging from ten to fifty feet in diameter. Others felt more like tiny nations, too wide to cross in a single day, even with the help of her portals.

  She was walking along a rocky path when the ground shook beneath her feet. After two whole days in this storm, Akari barely noticed it. But then she caught a burst of mana on the northern horizon.

  That wasn’t lightning. That was a

  Other aspects joined the first: wind, ice, and some strange green stone she didn’t recognize.

  “Sounds like a fight,” Glim said.

  “And they didn’t invite me?” Akari split the air with a portal and stepped half a mile to the north. She emerged on top of a rocky ridge with a clear view of the battle below.

  A pair of kyrinshi soared through the cloudy sky. One was definitely her cousin, Zell Kaito. The other looked like one of his retainers—Takara Kenji, judging by his long braided hair that whipped behind him like a banner. They chased two more mana artists who flew with bursts of fire mana. Or were those jetpacks? Hard to tell from this distance.

  Akari’s gaze fell to the valley below, where Sholan and Nari exchanged blows with a trio of figures in green and black armor.

  Her cousin’s techniques were like the storm itself, with enough power to destroy a small city. Nari pulled a tidal wave from the sea, knocking two Kazaru artists from their feet and slamming them into the nearest cliff. Sholan used tendrils of wind mana to yank a third man from the air. She drove him into the stone floor of the valley, hard enough to leave a crater and shake the entire island.

  A Kazaru stone artist pressed his hand to the stone floor, ripping open a canyon to swallow Akari’s cousins. Another man—a jade artist—hurled his green projectiles at the kyrinshi above.

  Mana pooled in Akari’s hands, but she stopped herself from leaping into the fray. Was this a friendly skirmish or a battle to the death? It sure as hell didn’t look friendly, but neither had her duel with Kaito last week.

  More techniques flashed across the battlefield. A bright green spear grazed Kaito’s shoulder, tearing through his flesh with a spray of blood. Pale blue light surrounded the wound an instant later, knitting the muscle and skin back together—the same healing technique he’d used in their duel.

  Meanwhile, Nari and Sholan fought back-to-back on the ground. Water and wind swirled around them like a tornado, catching enemy techniques and hurling them back across the battlefield

  Kenji’s mount let out a battle cry that cut through the storm—a sound between a hawk’s shriek and a dragon’s roar. The creature swooped toward a fallen Kazaru artist, and the rider formed a spear of ice mana in his hand.

  The Kazaru artist dodged the spear at the last second, throwing himself sideways in a desperate roll. Green light flashed between them, then fragments of jade covered Kenji’s left leg. The bright green mana spread like a liquid shell up his head and torso, covering his face in mere seconds.

  Glim said. ‘

  The kyrin banked to the side, wings beating frantically as it sensed the change in weight. Even as Kenji fell, his body didn’t move. His knees remained bent as if he were still riding the kyrin. Even his hands clung to a neck that wasn’t there.

  Time slowed as the green statue slammed into the ground and shattered into a hundred crystal shards. The wind caught the pieces before anyone could react, knocking them off the cliff into the sea below.

  Akari shot a burst of golden spacetime Missiles from both hands, sending them toward her enemies like birds of prey.

  The Missiles sprouted into portals as they closed the distance—more than a dozen feet in diameter.

  Her opponents tried to dodge, but the portals were quicker, striking from every angle at once. Each technique adjusted its path, catching the Kazaru artists like bugs in a net. One moment, they were soaring through the air on their jetpacks. The next, they vanished into her golden rings.

  Akari dismissed the portals once they’d gone, dropping her targets back on North Shoken’s mainland.

  Then all three of her cousins rounded on her.

  Kaito’s blue mount flew toward the ridge. He dismounted in midair, landing ten paces away with enough force to crack the stone beneath his bare feet. Lightning crackled between his fingers, casting harsh shadows across his rain-slicked chest. Nari and Sholan closed in with bursts of storm mana.

  “Wait,” Akari held up her hands. “It’s me—Akari Zeller!” She yanked off her black helmet, letting them see her face. “I came to help.” The rain plastered her hair to her skull, running down her neck and slipping beneath the collar of her armor. She pressed a hand to her glasses to stop them from blowing away.

  “No one asked for your help.” Nari’s landing sent up a spray of water. Her dark hair hung back in a tight knot, and her eyes were chips of black ice.

  “Really?” Akari gave her cousin a frank look. “Tell that to Kenji.”

  “She’s right, Nari-min.” Sholan stepped forward, water dripping from her long black hair in steady streams. “We had no defense for that jade technique.”

  Akari shot Sholan a grateful smile. At least she wasn’t as dumb as the other two.

  Nari’s face darkened as she glanced back at the spot where Kenji had turned to jade. “How did that happen? Only Kazaru Mystics have that technique . . .” She trailed off and shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. We came here to fight—to challenge ourselves.”

  Until now, Kaito had been watching the exchange with crossed arms, but he stepped forward and filled the sudden silence. “Where did you send those Kazarus?”

  “Back on shore.” Akari gestured vaguely toward the east. “They can’t come back to the Garden once they’re gone, right?”

  Nari raised an eyebrow at that, looking mildly impressed. Sholan actually laughed.

  “Fine.” Kaito glanced back at his wife and sister. “Let’s go.”

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  “Wait a second,” Akari hollered after them. “Why don’t we team up?”

  Kaito spun back around. “You want to be one of us?” His voice was loud and clear despite the storm. His tone had a ritualistic quality, as if he’d asked this question a dozen times before.

  “Yes,” Akari replied. One thing was clear after three days in the Storm Garden: she needed help to navigate this place. Even if she found the wild kyrins, she had no clue how to approach them, much less bond one. The same was true for the Arashido. How did you find an underwater cave in a quarter-million square miles of water? Where did you even start?

  “Then take off the armor,” Kaito said. “Surrender yourself to the storm.”

  Nari grinned as if Akari had already failed their test. Sholan looked away as if she couldn’t bear to watch. They all thought she was weak, but they’d underestimated her before.

  Akari’s fingers moved to the clasps of her chest plate, undoing them one at a time. The black armor fell away in segments—first the torso piece, then the shoulder guards and vambraces.

  Each piece clattered to the ground, rolling like discarded trash over the rocky landscape and vanishing off the nearby cliff. Akari could have stored them in her rings, but she didn’t want her cousins to know about those.

  “ of it,” Kaito said after she’d finished.

  Akari glanced down at her cousin’s bare chest and glorified loincloth, then to Sholan with her black combat bra and form-fitting shorts.

  This was gonna suck. But her cousins clearly weren’t straining their mana to stay warm. She’d be fine once she learned their secrets.

  So Akari yanked off her boots and socks, followed by the under layers of her armor. She pulled the thermal shirt over her head, then stepped out of her compression pants. Her outfit matched Sholan’s by the time she’d finished.

  The rain stung like a thousand tiny blades, threatening to rip open her exposed skin. An Artisan would already be dead by now.

  Still, Akari cycled her mana and held Kaito’s gaze, resisting the urge to shiver or cross her arms. She pushed more mana through her channels, but it felt like heating a building with the windows open. How long could she keep this up? And how the hell were they so relaxed?

  Kaito nodded once, then he held out his hand, palm up. “The rings.”

  “What? You guys wear jewelry.” She gestured to his necklace of bones, and the gems and feathers woven into Sholan’s black hair.

  Kaito narrowed his eyes. “I’m not an idiot, Zell-er. I know what those are.”

  Akari twisted the first ring on her right finger, but hesitated before pulling it off. It wasn’t too late to turn back. One set of armor was nothing, but these rings held her food and water. Her clothes, her liquid mana, and her backup pairs of glasses.

  Could she really survive out here without her preparations? She might be a Master now, but even the Mystics feared the Inner Sea. What if she burned through too much mana to stay warm? How could she defend herself from predators or enemies? How could she even get around?

  But Akari had surprised herself before. Besides, she wouldn’t be alone after this. Kaito was offering her a place by their side; she just had to meet him halfway.

  “Promise you’ll be careful with these?” Akari asked as she clutched the rings. Her mother’s watch was in there, and so was her father’s backpack. Those things couldn’t be replaced.

  Kaito’s expression didn’t change. “You either trust us, or you don’t.”

  ‘,’ Glim reminded her. ‘

  She would get it back someday, just not here in the Storm Garden.

  Glim admitted. ‘.’

  Another good point. Akari yearned to be part of a team again, almost as much as she wanted a kyrin and a Veilcord. That didn’t make her weak; it just made her human.

  She held out her hand and passed both rings to Kaito.

  “And the glasses,” he said.

  Akari’s blood froze as she scanned their faces one at a time. “You’re not serious.”

  “Do I look like I’m joking, Zell-er?” Kaito raised his chin. The other two stayed silent, but Sholan clenched her hands at her sides.

  “I’m blind without these.” Akari tried to sound stern, but her voice came out desperate.

  “You’ll learn to see.”

  This was a mistake. Her cousins had lived their whole lives on the Storm Shore, learning to fend for themselves from the time they could walk. Akari was still the best fighter here, but she’d grown up in cities and dueling rings. She couldn’t survive this place if she couldn’t see, and she sure as hell couldn’t fix her eyes overnight.

  , Akari reminded herself. She’d trusted Kalden and Relia back on the Archipelago, and it was the best choice she’d ever made. Without them, she’d still be trapped in those Martial cuffs, and mana arts would be a distant dream.

  She’d trusted the Darklights countless times after that. They’d helped her recover her lost memories, aspect her mana, and become an Aeon. Then Arturo and Zukan had helped her steal the dream tablets and quantum computer from the Artegium. Even Elise had sacrificed herself in the fight against Valeria Zantano.

  Other times, Akari had pushed people away. Either from arrogance or some bullshit defense mechanism. She hadn’t listened to her parents in Last Haven, and that mistake had gotten her mother killed. She’d turned her back on Emberlyn Frostblade and lost her best friend—a mistake that echoed all the way into the Archipelago.

  This journey was about more than power, skill, or knowledge. The greatest breakthroughs happened in moments like this. The times when she faced her greatest fears and reaped the rewards.

  She had to do this.

  Nari let out a long sigh from Kaito’s left. “We don’t have all day, Zell-er. What will it be?”

  “Fine.” Akari raised her shaking hands to the sides of her temples and slid the black frames off her face.

  The world turned to frosted glass, with three figures standing a few paces away. Akari felt a wave of dizziness, and she cycled her mana harder to anchor herself on the stone. The cliff was at least ten paces away, but it felt more like ten inches in that moment.

  Finally, she reached out her hand and passed her glasses to Kaito.

  .

  Kaito accepted the glasses before his blurry form stalked over to the nearby cliff. Then, with a casual flick of his wrist, he threw the glasses and rings into the sea below.

  Akari’s stomach dropped like she’d been shoved off the cliff herself. The world spun around her, suddenly too dark and formless. She kept her face blank and controlled, even as her instincts screamed to dive in the water after them.

  “Kaito!” Sholan’s voice cracked with genuine concern. “She will die like this.”

  “Yes,” Nari replied in a smug voice. “The Storm Garden is no place for Espirians.”

  “She won’t die.” Kaito’s bare feet slapped against the wet stone—three steps, maybe four. Close enough that she could smell the ozone on his skin.

  His hand was warm when it took hers—callused and steady. His other hand pressed gently against her shoulder, turning her several degrees to the left. The gesture was almost tender, completely at odds with what he’d just done.

  Akari was still too shocked to resist. Some desperate part of her clung to hope—this had to be some twisted test, right? . . . that was it. He’d only thrown of the rings. They would all laugh at her panicked expression, then give the other one back.

  Kaito raised Akari’s arm and pointed her finger toward the eastern horizon. “The shore is that way when you’re ready to leave. Fifty miles.”

  As if she needed his help to find the mainland. She’d just sent those Kazarus back there on a one-way trip.

  “I’m not leaving.” Once again, Akari tried to sound strong, but her teeth chattered from the cold, breaking up the words. Her instincts screamed to get down and curl herself into a ball.

  Kaito didn’t reply. She couldn’t even see his expression anymore—just a blur of tan skin and black hair as he stepped away. Sholan and Nari followed.

  Akari took several deep breaths as she waited for the joke to end. They wouldn’t leave her alone, would they? They were. What’s more, she was a valuable asset against their enemies. She’d proven that against Kaito, then again with those Kazaru artists.

  They gained nothing from this. It couldn’t be real.

  But Kaito boarded his mount without another word, and the blue creature stretched out its massive wings.

  “Wait!” Akari shouted. “Don’t leave!” To hell with pride. She’d never been this afraid in her entire life. Not against the Martials, Valeria Zantano, or Storm’s Eye. Not even against Ashur Moonfire in those final moments when he’d broken her spine.

  Akari understood battle—even death. She knew how to dig deeper when the odds were stacked against her. How to keep fighting until her last breath.

  But this was an enemy she couldn’t see or understand, much less fight. The storm was vast and indifferent, and she was naked and blind in its heart. She’d prepared with months’ worth of equipment, but she’d given those preparations away. Given them to a known enemy, no less.

  “How do I find the kyrins?” Akari called after them. “Or the vault?”

  No reply.

  How could she be so stupid? Kalden never would have let this happen.

  The kyrin stretched out its wings with a sound like thunder. Bursts of wind struck her face, followed by a spray of water as it took to the sky.

  Akari’s knees buckled on the stone ridge as she collapsed with a wave of dizziness. Rain drummed against her bare back in an endless rhythm. Wind roared in her ears, drowning everything but her racing heart and ragged breaths. She tried to push herself back up, but her numb fingers slipped against the stone.

  The storm had her now. Not just around her, but inside of her, draining the heat from her core and the mana from her soul.When she looked up again, all three of her cousins were gone.

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