Page 21

Emja began, “Little—”

“If there are survivors who need us, why are we standing here bickering like children?” Hana lapsed between Emja and Usui. She pointed to the rising sun in the distance. “It’ll be midnight at both capitals the moment that’s high in the sky. Let’s open two egresses. One to Matriaza and one to Morduaine. Now.”

CHAPTERSIX

VÉA

The children stayed with Heylel and Alastair, Sanvi’s son. Even if I was wrong, even if Lux was full of shite and the damage was minimal, it was still more damage than I wanted their innocent eyes to see.

I went to Morduaine, and Nix went to Matriaza. Hana came with me, despite Matriaza being her home world, because we needed someone who held power over death on each world. Their ability to sense a soul meant we could seek out life. El went with the team to Matriaza for the same reason.

But when we landed in the courtyard just outside the castle, the castle where I was born, where I’d met Nix for the first time, where I’d become a woman, I shattered.

The field I stood upon once harbored clover and wildflowers. Thousands of honeybees and butterflies had claimed this patch long ago. I’d never seen it barren.

Now it was. The grass was scorched in some places, only mud from the downpour in others.

The forest straight ahead, my favorite place to walk for as long as I could remember, was almost indistinguishable. We called those trees the rainbow forest because that was how they looked. Every limb was covered in leaves that glowed a million different hues. Standing in my chamber, looking out over it when I was a girl, I always felt as though I was gazing upon a work of art. The blues, and the greens, and the pinks, and the purples, all different shades, merging as one like a painting, was the most beautiful sight in the universe.

And now it was only dead branches.

I only knew it was once the rainbow forest because of its proximity to the castle.

It still stood high. That made sense, I supposed. It was made of Elvan ore—the strongest substance known to man.

But it was all that looked the same.

Lightning still flashed through the sky, rain slamming from the clouds like it was angry. It felt like nature itself was furious. She had every right to be. I didn’t blame her; I wanted to explode with pain and fury just as badly.

But when one of those bolts of golden energy from the sky shot down, just on the other side of the castle, I raised a hand. With gritted teeth, I focused on Nix’s ability to manipulate lightning, and I sucked it into my palm like a straw.

In the distance, as another strike lit up the sky, I did the same thing, absorbing every bit of energy before it could cause any more damage.

Beside me, Venark, my brother, lifted his hands at his sides. The rain slowed as he thrusted the dark clouds over the ocean. Warm, blue sunlight crept through the cracks in the sky, bringing instant warmth to the field.

Once it was gone, for a moment, we all stood there. No one spoke a word. We were all in a dumbfounded state of shock.

Morduaine was the most beautiful land of all the worlds I’d visited. Colors were everywhere. Green leaves, purple trees, multicolored drakens in the orange sky, and a sun so blue it was almost white.

It was the way of my people. Nothing mattered more to us than our land. On a profound, almost intimate level, we existed within and among nature herself. Everything about the way we lived involved honoring the soil, and the water, and the air. We treated our world with the utmost respect.

Now, our world was gray and black.

No matter how hard I looked, there was no color.

“Why would he do this?” Hana whispered at my side. “I don’t… How could he do this?”

Because in all the centuries he’d lived, no matter how far he’d come, Lux would always be a whiny child. He had no grasp on his temper. I’d thought that had changed, that he’d matured, but evidently, I was wrong. Funny how even at my nearly half a million years old, I could still be naive.

Or perhaps it wasn’t only a temper problem, but a long festering need for vengeance. Nix and I both loved this land more than we loved any other material object. Whether Lux would admit it or not, we all held onto resentment from those early years when he forced me to marry him so I could save Morduaine.

Maybe that was what this was. His vengeance for what I’d done.

I knew it hadn’t been hisplanto destroy my homeland, but the opportunity was right there. He had a good enough excuse, didn’t he?The queens, they turned on us. I had to kill them. Oops, killed everyone else along the way. And, oh, don’t forget about the land itself. I ruined that too.

If Lux was good at anything, it was vengeance. I knew he’d never admit it, but he’d never convince me otherwise.

“I don’t think you want me to answer that.”