Page 58 of Eluvonia (Rift of Ages #1)

AERIS

T he wind rushes past us, tugging at my hair as we soar in silence over the endless expanse of the sea.

The rhythmic beat of Kaida’s wings echoes in the stillness, but my mind barely registers it.

The world feels muted, its edges dulled by the weight crushing my chest. The roar of the waves below is a faint murmur in my ears, drowned out by the haunting replay of Declan’s final roar.

The moment he disappeared beneath the waves is seared into my mind, an image I can’t escape.

My fingers clutch at Kaida’s scales, but my grip is weak, as if my body has forgotten how to hold on.

By the time the cliffs rise in the distance, their jagged edges framed by the moonlight, my mind is still adrift.

Kaida lands with a grunt, the impact reverberating through his massive frame as he folds his wings.

I slide off his back, my legs trembling beneath me.

The grass is soft underfoot, and the ground feels foreign, like I don’t belong here—not without him .

Kaida shifts behind me, the sound of cracking bones and stretching muscles marking his return to human form.

I don’t turn around. I slip his clothes out of my satchel and toss it toward him without a word.

The silence between us stretches, thick and oppressive.

My feet carry me to the edge of the cliff, where the sea stretches out endlessly below.

I stare at the waves, the ethereal glow from the full moon reflecting off the surface.

I search, desperate, hoping for a glimmer of gold in the distance.

But there’s nothing. No glow. No massive, familiar form breaking through the horizon.

Just the waves, unyielding and indifferent.

Tears slide down my face, hot and relentless, as the truth sinks deeper into my bones. Declan is gone . My chest heaves with shallow breaths, my throat tightening until it feels like I can’t breathe. I’m drowning, not in the sea but in the unbearable emptiness he left behind.

Footsteps crunch softly behind me, and I know it’s Kaida. His presence, usually steadying, sparks something volatile within me. My sorrow twists, turning into something hot and demanding, something I can’t contain.

I whirl around, my fists clenched at my sides.

“We shouldn’t have left him!” The words burst out of me, sharp and raw.

My voice cracks, but I don’t care. I storm toward Kaida, my feet pounding against the ground as tears blur my vision.

“Why did you turn away? We could have helped him! We could have saved him!”

My fists connect with his chest, weak and trembling, but I strike again and again, each hit a futile attempt to fight the unbearable reality pressing down on me. Tears spill over, running down my face in hot rivers.

“Why, Kai?” My voice breaks on a sob as my strength falters.

My hands drop to my sides, trembling. “Why did you turn away? Why did you leave him?” The words come out in fragments, choked by the sobs racking my body.

I bury my face against his chest, my fingers clutching at his tunic like it’s the only thing keeping me grounded.

Kaida doesn’t stop me. He doesn’t move to block my fists or push me away. He stands there, silent, letting me pour out every ounce of my grief and rage against him. But his silence only fuels the storm inside me.

A thought strikes me, sharp and devastating.

I pull back just enough to meet his gaze, my eyes wide and frantic.

“We did this,” I whisper, the words trembling on my lips.

“We did this!” My voice rises into a scream, my hands shaking as I press them against his chest. “We chose him to be sacrificed! This is our cost for meeting with the Ymiral, this is our fault!”

Kaida’s hands come up, gripping my arms firmly but not unkindly. His blue eyes meet mine, shining with unshed tears. “You can’t know that, Aeris,” he says softly, his voice steady but laced with pain.

I shake my head violently, my hair whipping around my face. “I do know! We did this! I did this!” My voice cracks as I sob out the words. “His death is my fault!”

Kaida pulls me against him, his arms wrapping around me tightly as my body trembles with uncontrollable sobs. His chin rests gently on top of my head, and he murmurs, “It’s not your fault, Aeris. It’s not your fault.”

The air is thick with the salt of the sea, and I bury my face in Kaida’s chest, my fingers gripping his tunic like it’s the only thing keeping me from shattering completely.

The fabric grows damp with my tears, but Kaida doesn’t let go.

He holds me, steady and unyielding, as the world around us drowns in darkness.

The sky is an endless expanse of ink, speckled with the cold light of distant stars. The ocean below stretches out like a vast, black abyss, its surface reflecting nothing but the moonlight—a pale, ghostly glow that doesn’t comfort me.

After what feels like an eternity, I feel Kaida move, his head lifting to look toward the rising moon.

I turn my head to follow his gaze, my cheek still pressed against his chest. The horizon is shrouded in shadows, the pale light of the moon barely enough to reveal the endless stretch of the sea.

It should be beautiful, but all I feel is the weight of our loss.

“How can we do this without him?” I ask, my voice barely a whisper, as though speaking the question aloud might make it even more real. The words hang in the air, heavy and unanswered, suffocating in the silence.

Kaida stays quiet for a moment, his chest rising and falling beneath me, each breath steady and deep, but filled with a quiet kind of pain.

Finally, he speaks, his voice low but resolute.

“Day by day,” he says. “He wanted us to save Eluvonia, Aeris. That’s what we’ll do.

We’ll go through the portal to Vryngard.

We’ll find Julien. We’ll stop this war so no more blood will be shed. No more lives lost.”

I sniff, the sound sharp in the stillness.

I nod against his chest, the motion small, hesitant, but there.

Kaida pulls back just enough to look down at me, his hands gently wiping the tears from my cheeks.

His touch is warm, grounding in the dark, his presence the only thing that makes sense in this chaotic world.

“I know it’s hard,” he says softly. “But we’ll live each day for him.

We’ll smile for him… love for him.” His voice catches on the last words, the quiet tremble betraying the weight of ev erything we’ve lost. I see the shimmer of tears in his eyes, and for a moment, I’m reminded that he, too, carries the same burden.

I look up at him, my throat tightening, and I nod again, more firmly this time, as if my very being could promise it. “For him,” I whisper, the words tasting like a vow.

Kaida pulls me into another embrace, his arms strong and comforting, his shadows wrapping around us like a shield against the weight of the world.

We stand there, silently watching the night unfold, the ocean stretching endlessly before us, vast and unforgiving.

The waves crash relentlessly against the rocks below, their steady rhythm a cruel contrast to the turmoil inside me.

The sky is a deep, unyielding black, and the sea seems to swallow every last trace of light.

But as Kaida holds me, his presence steady and grounding, I cling to the faintest flicker of hope—the hope that we can honor Declan’s sacrifice and somehow, find a way to save what’s left of our broken world.

The sun is long gone, replaced by a blanket of stars that glimmer faintly overhead, like tiny pinpricks in the dark fabric of the sky.

Kaida’s warmth lingers beside me as we pull away from each other, the air between us heavy with everything unspoken.

Without a word, we start westward, his footsteps steady, mine dragging as if the weight of the world is tied to my ankles.

We walk in silence. The only sounds are the soft rustle of the grass beneath our feet and the occasional sigh of the wind, carrying with it the faint scent of salt from the distant sea.

Hills rise and fall in the darkness like gentle waves, and I force myself to keep moving, one foot in front of the other, because stopping would mean thinking.

Thinking would mean remembering. And remembering…

Well, that’s a luxury I can’t afford right now.

The earth evens out, giving way to a field of wildflowers that seem almost otherworldly in the starlight.

Petals of deep indigo, soft lilac, and pale gold sway gently in the breeze, brushing against my legs as we pass.

It should be beautiful. I should care. But instead, I feel…

hollow. Like a shell that’s been cracked open and emptied, leaving nothing behind but the brittle edges.

“You’re quiet,” Kaida murmurs after what feels like hours. His voice is low, gruff, but there’s something softer underneath—concern, maybe.

I glance at him, my lips twitching in what might be an attempt at a smile but ends up as more of a grimace. “What do you want me to say? Got any good Dragon jokes? Because I’m fresh out.”

Kaida doesn’t laugh, but his lips curve ever so slightly. “Not really my thing.”

“Figures.” I kick at a stray rock, watching it tumble ahead of us before vanishing into the dark. “Let me know if you think of any.”

The field stretches on, endless and quiet, until a soft blue glow in the distance catches my attention. It’s faint at first, like a tiny star on the horizon, but as we walk, it grows brighter, more defined. I squint, shading my eyes out of habit even though the glow isn’t strong enough to blind me.

“Is that the portal?” I ask, breaking the silence. My voice sounds foreign to my own ears, thin and strained.

Kaida grunts in response, which I’ve come to understand as his version of “yes.” Classic Kaida—why use words when monosyllabic noises will do ?

As we draw closer, the glow resolves into a swirling mass of light and energy, suspended in the air like a living thing.

The portal is massive, easily three times Kaida’s height, its edges crackling with streaks of electric blue and silver.

It hums softly, the sound low and almost hypnotic, like the purring of some great beast. The center is a churning vortex of color, deep blues and violets mingling with flashes of white.

It’s both beautiful and intimidating—the kind of thing that makes you feel small just by standing near it.

I stop a few paces away, craning my neck to take it all in. “What exactly is Vryngard?” I ask, my voice hushed, as if speaking too loudly might disturb the portal.

Kaida steps up beside me, his gaze fixed on the swirling energy. “Think endless mountains. Raging storms. It’s home to harpies and stone giants.”

I glance at him, one brow arched. “Charming.”

Kaida chuckles, the sound low and brief, before he reaches out to take my hand. His fingers are warm, calloused, grounding. “Ready?” he asks.

I nod, though the tightness in my chest says otherwise. “As I’ll ever be.”

Together, we step through the portal. The moment my foot crosses the threshold, the world tilts.

Colors blur and shift, swirling around us in a chaotic dance of light and shadow.

There’s a sensation of falling, though my feet never leave the ground, and a strange warmth spreads through me, like sunlight filtering through a dense canopy.

My grip on Kaida’s hand tightens, and I swear I feel him squeeze back, just once.

But then—everything stops.

A pulse of cold seizes the air around us, sharp and suffocating.The ground beneath me shudders unexpectedly, like it’s alive, and I stumble, my breath catching in my throat.

I look at Kaida, his expression frozen, eyes wide with something I can’t quite read. His grip on my hand is suddenly too tight, his knuckles white.

“What’s happening?” I gasp, my voice sounding distant, swallowed by the strange, heavy atmosphere.

Kaida doesn’t answer. Instead, his gaze flickers to something behind me, his muscles tensing. A low growl rumbles in his chest, and I spin, barely catching a glimpse of the shadow moving toward us—too fast, too dark, too… wrong.

Before I can react, a voice cuts through the tension, icy and twisted, like the shriek of metal scraping against stone.

“Welcome to Vryngard.”