Swiftcurrent Creek But in a much more real sense, I had no idea what to do.

Akavir was struck a moment—these years he had thought Arielle dead. The assumption of it had been the only possibility to him, after he felt he had devoured valleys and land seeking his lost daughter, only to fall into the water and be swept away.

The catalyst of the end of his life, despite the breath he still drew.

He stared at Lilitu—his carefully guarded features open as overwhelming emotion was cast over him—relief, anger, sadness, worry—relief again. Arielle was alive, but she still was not home. He had never heard of a pack called Ursus—and what struck him as mostly odd was that the girls had found one another—and then split apart once more?

He swallowed thickly. He could question his daughter to the moon and back, and he would still not have all the answers he needed. In the end, it came down to the horrifying nature that their family had been wrenched apart, and no amount of seeking answers would remedy the time missed.

They could only go from here—wherever that path might lead. “Yeah, baby,” he crooned, moving to press his forehead against hers softly for assurance. “Of course you’re still my daughter.”

Did she know something, as well, in what Ibis had led on to before her death?


"When you're ready... You always have a home here. We don't have any princes, but I'd be damned if you weren't treated like the princess you are."