Page 45

Bria

I curl into my cloak and slow the horse when I reach the outer limits of the forest where the earth opens up before me, seeming to soak up moonlight across the grassy expanse.

It glints off boulders and rocks that stipple across the land, leaving a trail from the mountains through the foothills and forest, and down into this scrubland.

The chill of winter is still present, though the snowy ground ended in the foothills of the Kaanos.

Many of the remote villages in the Gravenear Territory had been wiped out by King Braddock over the years.

Too small to hold their own, their loved ones were either killed or ripped from them and taken back to Easthallow.

And those who remain are said to be ruthless nomads.

Many work for the Crown as bounty hunters, even.

Seeking out people like me. Meaning this might not be the safest area, but so far it appears quiet.

As much as I want to push the horse to get through these open areas quickly, I have enough knowledge to slow.

The stallion needs to carry me for three days and we rode hard through the forest to get to this place.

I can’t wear him down in the first few hours of the trip or we’ll never make it there.

My body already aches from the riding but going hard in the beginning had its purpose.

I was putting space between Evander and me.

If he follows, he will need to take the same breaks as me, need to rest himself and his own horse.

He’s a far better rider and has spent more time in the area outside of the northern camp.

I need to be careful, smart, and fast if I expect to keep my distance or he’s bound to catch up.

And I am not about to let that happen.

I may not have all the details of his time in the capital, but I have enough.

Quinn told me how his father broke his mother down, forcing him to watch as he tortured her until she eventually caved to serve in the Crown.

Because like me, Olaphina was gifted. I don’t know what happened to her.

Evander rarely speaks of her and never said if she still lives.

He never said what his father made her do to serve Vaohr.

But I think she must have perished, given the way his face falls whenever he mentions her.

And Evander. What Aamon did to him was debatably worse—assigning him to travel Azudora with the high priestess, seeking out those with magic so she could use them back at the capital.

Ev oversaw returning them to the castle and settling them in the dungeons.

Quinn spoke of interrogations once, and I gather he was also the one who questioned them, who coaxed information out of them in whatever way he needed to.

To find more people with gifts for the priests to use.

Given how the king and Aamon treat those with magic and the people harboring them, I would assume Evander has a great deal of blood on his hands.

He’s alluded to it without saying just how many people he tortured and killed.

But it’s for those reasons I don’t want him to go back there, to relive the suffering of witnessing his mother tortured, the terror of what would happen to her if he did not obey his father.

Having to kill innocent people and do who knows what else to them.

Quinn told me of the dungeons but never the specifics of what happened when those with magic were brought there.

Neither had Evander. They never wanted me to know, never wanted to fuel the nightmares further.

That puts me at a disadvantage now , I think, given that’s where I’m headed.

The shadows are my only option right now, my only way in.

They’re how I slipped past the guards at the outskirts of the northern camp, curling the shadows around me until I was nothing more than a whisper in the darkness, quietly riding out of the confines and into the night.

Cloaking like that took a good deal of energy and without Silas to pull from, I need to conserve during this trip.

Only use magic when necessary. Because to rescue Nimai, I might need to cloak for an extended period—through the capital and into the castle with no idea how long it will take me to find her and get her out.

I have time though. I have time to figure it out. I will get my sister, even if it means I die trying.

Breathing in the crisp feel of the breeze, I try to soak in the freedom of being out of the camp.

I let my hood fall, leaving my unbound hair streaming in the moonlight.

This newfound feeling of being alive is consuming me.

I may have bucked the rules as a child, but not nearly as much since finding out I was part of the prophecy.

And now, letting Evander in, letting my walls come down and truly being with him, has set something free inside me.

My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner so that I could have had more time with him.

Those thoughts are sweet while they last.

In an instant, my world flips upside down.

All thoughts of Evander and Nimai and freedom rush away as the cold, hard ground rises to meet me.

My feet slide from the stirrups when the arrow hits me, piercing straight through the worn leather armor across my shoulder with tremendous force and sending pain radiating through me.

Foolish. It was foolish of me to not be paying more attention to my surroundings , I realize as my body is thrown from the horse, the arrow firmly lodged in my shoulder.

There’s no way whoever shot me knows who I am, knows what I can do. I used no magic when I entered the scrubland, so these people are out for blood. Or worse. My body crashes to the ground, knocking the wind from my lungs, my head snapping back and slamming on something hard.