Page 44

CHAPTER

FORTY-THREE

Oralia

“No.”

Aelestor’s voice boomed through the entrance hall, but I paid it no mind. Not when Mecrucio looked uncertain. When his loyalty to his king weighed so heavily on his heart.

“It is the only way,” I pushed.

“It is not,” Sidero argued. “We can wait—”

“We do not have time to wait ,” I cut across them. “It is only a matter of time before the trickle of soldiers becomes a flood, and Infernis needs her king.”

“Oralia…” Aelestor stepped between Mecrucio and me, leaning down until we were eye to eye. “Ren will resurrect, but it takes time.”

“Yes, but how much time? You cannot guarantee—”

His hands closed over my shoulders, squeezing tight. “Nothing is guaranteed in this world except if you cross the border, you will die.”

I shook my head. “No, I will not die. I cannot.”

A bitter smile crossed his face. “It is more certain than his resurrection. Give it time, another day even, to see if he will—”

I stepped around Aelestor, pinning Mecrucio with a look. “Smuggle me into Aethera. That is an order from your queen.”

Mecrucio blinked at me, indecision warring across his features. Aelestor blew out a breath, knuckles bleached white as he clenched them into fists. We did not have time for this argument. Soon, Samarah would be on her way to find me—or else Horace or Thorne. Dimitri and Drystan were down with the warriors who guarded Infernis, but they might seek me out as well.

It had to be now.

“Yes, myhn lathira ,” Mecrucio replied, though his voice was tight.

I extended my arm for him to take. We would shadow-walk to the river so we would not be stopped. Vakarys would shepherd us across, bound as she was by the magic of this world to provide crossing to anyone on shore.

“Oralia, do not do this,” Sidero pleaded.

I shook off their hand on the arm I extended toward Mecrucio. “I will not sit idly by and wait for Ren to revive. I will do what I can to ensure his survival.”

“I am coming with you,” Aelestor growled.

“No, it is better—”

“It was not an offer,” he cut across me, hand closing over my arm.

All right. Perhaps this was a battle I would not fight, not with our limited time. I refused to look at Sidero, knowing the disapproval in their expression might sway me. Instead, I nodded to Mecrucio, who took my arm hesitantly.

“You have a way to get us in without detection?”

“Yes, through the side door of the keep. It is usually unguarded in the daylight hours.”

Which meant we would have to get through the fields without being seen as it was day, but Aethera would be too heavily guarded at night.

“I will send his wings first,” I told Sidero, chancing a glance over my shoulder.

Their face was stricken, shoulders bunched toward their ears.

I swallowed back the fear curling in my gut, refusing the thought trickling through my mind asking if I was making a mistake. “We will be back before nightfall.”

I gathered the shadows around us and stepped into the dark.

* * *

Water lapped at the boat, around the bodies of the water shepherds hugging close to the bow. The mist was thick here, so dense I could barely see my hand in front of my face, similar to the day Ren had taken me back to Aethera. The last day I had been me, really.

“Vakarys,” I called.

“Yes, myhn lathira?” the skeletal woman rasped.

I could barely make out her form in the mist, lit as she was by the blue flame of the lamp. “Have you been taking the soldiers across the river? The warriors from Aethera who seek to invade our shores?”

Mecrucio and Aelestor turned as well, and I wondered if they too were trying to make out her face beneath the cowl and the mist.

“No, Your Grace, I have taken none who were not meant for this land or granted favor by the king.”

With a frown, I looked down at the water shepherds, the bits of flesh and hair dragging in the water as they guided the boat. Any who touched the water were dragged to the bottom, cursed for the rest of their existence to guide this vessel.

“Then how are they getting across?” The question was more for myself than her, but Vakarys gave a small wheeze, shifting her weight to push the staff into the water.

“As I told Lord Horace, there are small sections of the river one might cross by foot. But those are heavily guarded by the king’s magic. One must have his favor to cross, and even then, the river is guarded by our warriors. Whoever is letting them through has ample knowledge of this realm and its inner workings.”

There were only a few who had such knowledge. Dimitri to be certain, though he could not leave these shores as a soul. Thorne and Horace would, but they never left Infernis. The boat slid smoothly to a stop on the opposite shore, Aelestor stepped out first, offering me a hand on my elbow as I stepped off the boat.

“Thank you, Vakarys.”

She placed a hand over the hole in her chest where her heart used to be. “Of course, myhn lathira .”

Mecrucio was the last to disembark, leading us through the forest until the mist thinned and the sunlight streamed through the trees. The warmth of it was like a heavy blanket over my skin. I craved the cool mist and dark of my kingdom and wondered if I would ever seek out the sun after this was through.

I did not think I would ever be able to stomach the sight of it again.

“We will go around to the east,” Mecrucio murmured, gesturing toward a winding path. “Pull up your cowls and stay close.”

With each step toward the golden castle, my magic roiled, as if it was pulling me back to Infernis. My heart tugged in my chest, but I took a breath, pulled up the cowl of my cloak, and rounded my shoulders as we stepped into the field. There were a few trees here that provided cover as we made a serpentine path toward the door I’d first escaped out of.

This had been the path I’d taken when Ren had found me. The memory made my throat burn as we walked the route in reverse. Wildflowers swayed in the breeze, the scent now reminding me more of blood than sweetness. I wondered if I were to look for it, if I could find Ren’s and my blood within the field. Perhaps it had helped the flowers grow.

We ducked from one apple tree to another, skirted the edge of a vegetable patch, and found the side of the palace. The sun was so high in the sky, heat radiated off the gold in waves, as if it, too, warmed this world.

“Quickly.” Mecrucio darted to the door and opened it.

I curled my hand around Aelestor’s fabric-covered arm where we were ducked behind a wide tree, gathered the shadows around us, and stepped through to appear within the doorway on the opposite side. Mecrucio jumped but only gestured to us to continue. The three of us had grown up in this castle. Though by the time I was born, both men were well into prime, but we knew this palace like the back of our hands.

It was easy to slip through the hallways to the library. Almost too easy, not even a servant in sight nor a guard like the last time I’d been here.

“Where is everyone?” I whispered, tugging the gold handle of the library open.

Mecrucio did not answer as we crept into the one place I’d once thought of as my sanctuary. There, above the gilded mantel, were Ren’s wings, as they’d been for the last three centuries.

Quiet. Too quiet.

“I do not like this,” Aelestor breathed, hovering at my back, though he was turned to the room as I approached the hearth.

Metal zinged as Aelestor unsheathed his weapon so close to me, his shoulders brushed the back of my head.

With a frown, I reached out, fingertips sliding over the gold frame. “The ward Typhon placed upon his wings is gone…” I’d thought I’d have to break through it and had been preparing to fight my way through the ward to the wings.

“Quickly, let’s do this and go home,” Aelestor pressed, reaching back to place a hand on my hip as if there were invisible enemies looming over us.

I took a breath, shadows pooling at my fingers before sliding beneath the glass until the wings became invisible through the dark power. Closing my eyes, I focused on Thorne’s rooms, the space beside the table, and forced Ren’s wings through the in-between. It was the same magic he’d used to transport Drystan, Aelestor, and me.

Magic rushed through my ears like the wind. It was a wonder Ren had managed this, strung up with cables and bleeding. This was infinitely harder than shadow-walking, and every part of me wanted to move with the wings, to follow them home.

“Mecrucio, come. We’re leaving.”

Footsteps echoed through the room.

The hand wrapped around my hip tightened painfully and I stiffened, eyes flying open. The wings were gone, in their place only the white backing they’d been pinned to, and Aelestor was pushing me farther behind him.

“You bastard,” he spat through his teeth.

I turned, eyes widening at the sight of gleaming gold armor filling the library. Everywhere I looked were gilded soldiers, some coming from the entrance, others slipping from between the stacks. We were surrounded, and the scent of kratus resin was so thick in the air I wondered how I had not scented it before.

There, in the midst of it all, Mecrucio smiled sadly at us with a hand pressed to his heart as his chin dipped. “My apologies, myhn lathira .”

Before I could so much as call my magic forward, metal whirled through the air and the first bolt struck Aelestor straight through the heart. My shadows rose, but the next bolt pierced my shoulder, a dark metal chain tugging me forward. The shadows flickered, strengthening again before the next flew and the next…and the next until I was pierced through each limb as Ren had been.

Aelestor screamed. His eyes were not fixed on the bolt through his chest but on me. I jerked, a sickening pop echoing through the room as my shoulder dislocated, and I fell to my knees beside him. His scream was dying out, replaced by his lips moving again and again in the same pattern.

A name whispered as each tendril of his magic leached away, as his veins blackened and the resin pumped through his system. Blood tinged with the poison dribbled out the corner of his mouth, and with each breath, more fell until it pooled beneath him.

My throat burned as I tried to reach for him only to be stopped by the chains. Each of his breaths was agony made audible, and a slice across my heart for the god I’d grown to trust with my life. A sob wrenched out of my throat before I could call it back.

“I will care for Josette,” I rasped, holding his gaze since I could not hold him in death, leaning down enough to press my brow to his. “I swear this to you, my friend.”

Merely a hollow, rattling breath, then a sigh of relief, before Aelestor’s eyes, the whites tinged a sickening gray, slid from mine to the ceiling, and I was wrenched away. I hated that I had enough magic to feel his power leaving his body and yet not enough to save him. Hated that I could sense his soul hovering around me for a heartbeat before he slipped away and yet could not comfort him in this final moment.

My eyes stung with tears I did not want to shed in front of these monsters, and yet I dug my heels into the rug as they jerked me upright and tried to pull me forward.

“Aelestor Thyella, your soul is set free from this mortal casing. Cast off your sorrow, for now, is the time of reckoning.” My voice caught on the last words, and I found myself repeating them as I looked up at Mecrucio, who stared back with wide eyes.

“For now is the time of reckoning.”