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We’d given her a horse of her own, and maybe that was foolish, but I didn’t think she’d run. We were her source of sustenance in a territory she didn’t know, and she’d been trying to help.

In a way, Vale sat between us as a reminder that we were not the same five naive trainees leaving Palerman. It was not the same dawn breaking around us, air heavy with the unknown. Cursed blood in my veins and a veil over my eyes, searching for one last adventure and justice, blind to the unraveling threads of the world around me.

Now, my eyes were open.

Leaving Damenal was different than Palerman. That had been where we’d grown. Endless, blissful nights and long days beneath the sun. A war and the people we’d suffered beside.

Damenal was the city we’d claimed; where we restarted our lives and transformed into more than warriors; where I suffered the deepest losses of my short life but also reveled in the most addictive highs; where I said goodbyes to some loves and hello to others.

The city I’d always dreamed of became so much more. The Bond on the back of my neck prickled as we walked away, getting farther from its purpose. How would it feel when we were gone?

An instinct nagged at me that I was leaving something important behind.

A true home.

I only hoped I’d see it again soon, free of curses and war and death.

Chapter Eight

Malakai

“Why did you choose us?” Dax rode up beside me when Barrett went ahead to scout the path.

We were traveling along the eastern side of the mountains, cutting south. If all went to plan, we’d reach the first outpost at the border of the Mystique and Bodymelder Territories in a few days and spend a couple nights there to assist however we could. The stations were mainly responsible for shepherding supplies between territories and the border camp.

From there, we’d stop at villages in Bodymelder Territory to move supplies, hopefully reaching the main camp within a few weeks. The battles surrounded the southern border of the mountains, and Lyria had stationed our troops in the range, using the natural valleys as upper ground. We’d kept the Engrossians and Mindshapers out of the mountains so far.

I’d made the journey down from Damenal in near silence, and dammit, I thought I might get to stay that way. I should’ve known better with these two as my companions. Though Dax was much quieter than Barrett, calm countenance tempering the former heir’s wild tendencies, he was just as observant. Neither relented when it came to intruding on my thoughts and feelings.

“I didn’t choose you.”

“You sort of did,” Dax said, laughing at my unamused scowl. “Fine, if you didn’t choose us…why did you choose the war? I’d have thought…”

He didn’t need to finish what he thought. I knew it didn’t make sense. Why I—the former heir to the Mystiques, the boy who had been tortured by the Engrossians, the man who refused the Undertaking—would want to be anywhere near a battlefield.

Still, I looked over my shoulder at the jagged peaks of the Mystique Mountain Range cutting into clouds streaked fuchsia and pale pink as the sun set on our first day of travel, and felt…empty.

“There’s nothing there for me anymore.”

“You could have gone with your friends, though.”

“If you really wish to be rid of me, Dax, you’ll have to try harder.” I nudged my mare, Ombratta, so she quickened her step, sticking to our shelter between the mountains and trees.

Dax laughed. “So, he does have a bite. Barrett said as much, but I’d yet to see it.”

“I like you better than him,” I said.

“Most do.”

“Hey!” Barrett’s offended scoff echoed from ahead, the prince having circled back.

Dax waved him off. “But truly, Malakai, why didn’t you go with them?”

I’d asked myself the same question, but when Ophelia shared that note, nothing stirred inside of me. No sense of urgency, no hint of excitement at the challenge. Not even a sense of relief at one of her precious tokens being located.

Though happy for her…I felt nothing. Numb and fucking void. An emptiness I’d grown accustomed to.

It wasn’t something I wanted to discuss.