Page 25

Grayden rubbed down the horses and gave them a bit of water from their stores to try and get them through the next few hours. Selenia and Phillippe rested easily, but Grayden sat at the cave entrance, looking out at the vast expanse before him. Somewhere out there, just beyond the rolling hills of sand, was Renya's birthplace. The place she should have called home, if she had grown up here. He wondered what their lives would be like if she hadn't been taken to the human world. Would they have found each other as soon as they came of age? Would he have been drawn to the Sun Realm, his heart searching for her across this very desert? Perhaps his mother and father would have met Renya before they passed, and given their blessing of their marriage.

It was a nice dream, but there was no use dwelling on it. His parents were dead, and Renya was a prisoner. He sighed, wishing for the thousandth time that Renya was beside him, sharing his sleeping roll. But instead, he stared off at the horizon and drifted off with his back against the hard, rocky wall in front of the cave.

Phillippe shook him awake, and Grayden could instantly feel the heat pulsating from his skin.

“What the hell were you thinking? Falling asleep in the direct sun like that? You're burnt to a crisp.” Phillippe took his water skin and poured some water over Grayden's head, dampening his hair and cooling his sizzling forehead.

“I must have dozed off,” Grayden responded, standing up on stiff legs. “I closed my eyes for just a second.”

Phillippe tried to hide his annoyance. “Look, I know this is hard for you, but you need to focus. You need to concentrate on our end goal here. If you don't drink, sleep, eat and think, you won't be alive long enough to save Renya. Enough is enough. Selenia lost Jurel, and she's handling her grief much better than you are, and your mate is still alive.”

Grayden's face reddened even more. Selenia had every right to be grief-stricken, but it was he who slowed them down.

“Selenia wasn't mated to Jurel, but you're right. That's no excuse. I'm sorry, Phillippe.”

“Don't apologize. Just look after yourself. Focus on what we need to do. We need to find the magical archives as quickly as we can when we get to the Sun Realm castle, and you need to have all of your faculties about you to do that. You know I'm not bookish, and I've spent most of my life outdoors, under the sky. You're the one who was holed up in Father's library.”

Grayden pushed back his hair and nodded his understanding. He was in desperate need of a haircut and a shave. At this point, Renya would hardly recognize him.

He loaded up the horses while Phillippe went to wake Selenia. When she came over to help with her horse, Grayden noticed her eyes were puffy and swollen. She'd obviously been crying, but he didn't need to ask why. He hadn't even fully processed Jurel's death yet, he'd been too focused on getting Renya back. He put his arm around Selenia's shoulder and gave her a slight squeeze. She looked up at him, eyes watering.

“It'll be okay, my dear one,” he said, patting her on the back. She nodded, and then squared her shoulders in resolve.

“Let's go get the answers we need to get Renya back,” she said, her voice filled with a determination that matched his own.

Phillippe was right. The Sun Realm was breathtakingly beautiful, Grayden thought, as they approached the gate into the city. The realm was right at the foot of the desert, but it appeared so suddenly, and so brightly that Grayden thought it was a mirage at first.

A golden, ornate gate towered above, with angelic figures spiraling up the sides of the columns. The entire kingdom was enveloped in a tall, limestone wall protecting the city from the harsh elements of the desert. Spikes made out of gold lined the tops of the walls, and more carvings, some of animals, some of angels, decorated the wall.

“Oh my,” Selenia said, stepping back to take in the magnificent structure in front of them. “That's...really something.”

Grayden was equally impressed. It suddenly hit him that he was outside Renya's lands, her birthright. It was night and day different from his. Everything in the Snow Lands were covered in a soft, delicate blanket of sparkling snow. Here, the gleaming sun bathed everything in a warm glow. They couldn't be more different from each other.

“Well, are we just going to stare, or find a way in?” Phillippe teased, walking directly up to the gate and giving it a big shake.

Unsurprisingly, the gate didn't yield to Phillippe's half-hearted attempt.

“You really thought that would work?” Grayden said, an eyebrow raised in Phillippe's direction.

“You never know,” Phillippe retorted, shrugging his strong and broad shoulders.

Grayden surveyed the gate and surrounding wall. There must be another way in. He started walking the perimeter of the wall, and Phillippe, knowing what his brother was thinking, started in the opposite direction.

Selenia walked back to the horses, leading them over to a small stream that was flowing out of a small gate through the wall.

“Grayden!” she yelled excitedly. “Come here!”

Grayden ran back towards her, instantly alarmed. “What is it?”

“I think I found a way in,” she said, pointing at the gate. It was partly rusted and crumbling.

“Good work, Selenia. Phillippe, come here. We need your strength.”

Within minutes, Phillippe and Grayden had worked the gate off the hinges, allowing for a small passage through the wall.

“I'll go first,” Grayden said, his heart racing with anticipation.

“Selenia in the middle, and I'll go last,” Phillippe agreed as Grayden took off his boots and removed his shirt and then threw them over the wall.