Page 3

Chapter

Three

Liv

Writing my thoughts is stupid. I’m heartbroken. I’m angry. And the people I love always disappear.

W hat had I done?

I curled against the woman’s back as she navigated her racer away. The fog soaked my mind, coating the pain, settling deep. I did everything I could not to think about him . To not think about what I was running from.

We passed groves of trees until there were none, crossing grassy plains until they were a blur of green. Far behind us, we had left the wounded Aspis.

I had half-blinded it. I bested the beast, untrained, in our first match.

I should be celebrating. But instead, I was consumed with guilt.

The feeling sat next to its close friend—grief.

Gone was the anger for the gods, for this world and the curse.

In its place was a leech, sucking the breath from my lungs.

I didn’t know how the ice daggers erupted from my hands. Just as I didn’t know how the fire was made when I transformed. The moment had come and gone so fast.

Now the Aspis was wounded—how long would it take to heal?

The sky ahead was clear as the racer drove toward the rising sun, and I steadied my nerves as green passed beneath us. How much time had passed? The Aethar paid no attention to me as she gripped the racer, taking us away from the family I had made after leaving my old home.

The Guards of the Aspis would search for me. Betrayals, secrets revealed, transformations. The death of the man I cared for and the loss of the closest friend I had ever had. My fingers clung to the woman’s cloak. Drops of rain hit me as I stifled my cries.

“What in the cursed Night is that?” she yelled over the wind.

The sky opened above us, letting loose a torrent of rain like stones thrown from the gods. It forced the racer to the side, taking us off course.

“Dear gods, where did this come from?” I barely heard her over the wind that had picked up.

“We have to find shelter. I can’t navigate.

Ollo better not be flying in this.” The racer slowed, and the woman shifted in her seat and pointed to a small hill with a large tree growing from a rocky overhang.

“We will wait under there until it passes and pray the Aspis can’t find us in a storm. ”

She drove us toward the hill, stopping the racer near the overhang. The tree’s thick branches whipped in the wind. Its roots wove over and around the rock, creating a small cave—the jutting overhang offering a dry shelter underneath, protected from the wind.

I jumped off the racer, standing at the rear, and for the first time, I noted it was made from the same ore the airships were. I had seen its replica in the Last City a lifetime ago.

“Come on. We need to keep hidden if we aren’t moving,” the Aethar said in a detached voice, moving the racer toward the rock.

The sky was a sheet of grey, with no sign of black smoke or beasts overhead. The wind whipped my dark blonde hair around my face as the rain soaked me through. I felt none of it. As water ran down my back, I wondered if the Aspis was okay.

“Are you serious?” the Aethar muttered, not intending for me to hear. She stomped back into the rain, the racer hidden in shadows. Her navy eyes met mine, heavy with disdain—they were the same colour as the lines running down and across her face. “Are you gonna keep me in the rain?”

“I don’t keep you anywhere. Do what you want.” My voice was hollow, even to me.

Her animated face didn’t hide her disapproval, but she hesitated to say anything. “I know you must be disoriented right now. But I did save you. Please don’t waste that effort.” Her hands went to her hips. The blue markings travelled down her thin fingers.

“Are those tattoos?”

She glanced down. “You mean my skin?” She lifted her hand, and an eyebrow went up.

I only nodded. “Wow. No. That’s what I look like.

Now, can you move?” Her expression changed as if remembering who she spoke to.

“I mean, please come out of the rain. I am a friend. I am helping.” Rain collected on her grey cloak, falling from the rim of her hood as she tried to hide her impatience.

I had never met anyone who spoke as this Aethar did. She had a light, feminine voice and would have been imprisoned back home for the sass in her tone. But she feared me—because I was the evil destined to rise.

As I moved toward the overhang, the colour of her wrist caught my eye. Her right arm was damaged. I reached for her, fearing what I saw.

“Don’t!” she hissed. She pulled her arm back, cradling it against her chest and giving me a sour look. “Sorry. I mean, please don’t touch it.”

“Whatever.” I left the torrent of rain and sat on a rock facing the racer. Drops of water fell from my hair, running down my back, and my clothing clung to me. It was damp under the overhang, and there wasn’t much space to keep my distance from the Aethar.

“You almost grabbed my burn, is all,” she explained. “I’m not that scared of you.”

“So you are burnt. I thought that’s what I saw.”

She sat next to me under the roots, facing the rain that surrounded us. The sound would soothe most, but the grey only mirrored how I felt inside.

I turned to the woman, holding her arm to her chest, perched uncomfortably on the rock and grabbed the hem of her cloak.

“No.” She pulled away.

But I saw enough to know the skin of her arm was a seeping wound of blueish-pink welts where it had been burnt away. I had burned so many of the Aethar. The scarred ones—who held me captive—I had burned so thoroughly they reduced to ash. And I had burned the woman’s arm in the process.

Thunder cracked in the sky.

I was a monster.

I put my palm against my chest, feeling a sharp pull. I straightened my back to get a full breath in, though it didn’t help.

I used to hide all of my emotions and trap them in a box inside. But that box shattered when I became the Ikhor. Now, I felt everything.

“What—” The woman stared as the grey darkened, a torrent descending on us. Though I had never seen a hurricane, I believed I was experiencing one.

I couldn’t stop gawking at her arm.

I put my hands on my knees, concentrating on my breathing, holding in the sobs, afraid of what would happen if I let one loose.

“Your bracelet.” She pointed to my crystal bracelet the Oracle had given me—it glowed, pulsing with a soft green-blue. It wasn’t the first time it had done it. I locked eyes with her, worried about what she would say.

Why was I worrying? What was I hiding anymore—that magic crystals glowed around me? That I could hear them humming sometimes? I was the Ikhor. I didn’t have to worry about anyone mistrusting or hating me again. Everyone already did.

“Your earrings, too. Why would you wear a crystal full of magic? Miss … Ikhor … I don’t know what you want me to call you. Are you okay?”

She was a weird woman. I bent over farther, dropping my head between my knees and counted to rid myself of the growing nausea, because the burn on her arm shone wet .

“Hey,” she said. “Hey, look at me. This isn’t your fault.”

I protested, but she stopped me. “Okay, yes, my burns are your fault, but I saw how crazy it was back there. The burning field, I hadn’t expected what I found either.

Don’t let it stress you. You have enough going on adjusting to your new body.

” Her focus shifted to the rain, then back to me.

“My name is Maev, by the way.” Her lips formed a nervous smile, distracting me.

I came from a world where everyone wore masks, hiding their thoughts and feelings lest they gain the Keepers’ attention. No one was as open as Maev.

She had a pointed chin and a straight nose. Grey blue lips on her heart-shaped mouth should have made her look pale and sickly, but her features were ethereal. She was the prettiest woman I had ever seen.

“I am not possessed,” I muttered.

Her round navy eyes were wide and untroubled—she wore her innocence with ease. We may be similar in age—she looked to be in her mid-twenties—but I sensed we would be hard-pressed to find anything in common.

“What do you mean? I saw you transform.”

“The magic appeared … I can feel it, kind of. But I’m still me. I can still remember my life before that moment.”

“The legends say the Ikhor rises. Not just magic inside a girl.”

“Well, the last time it rose was a thousand years ago. The legends have changed. Or something went wrong.”

“Or you haven’t fully transformed,” Maev thought aloud, her mouth popping open when she realized she shouldn’t have said so.

Thunder cracked again, and she held up her hands.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t scare you. I’m glad you’re just a girl.

Honestly, I was scared to travel with you. This will be much easier.”

The sky lightened, and her brows shot up. She nodded as if the storm easing up would soften my mood. “Why don’t you tell me where you’re from? It was Olivia, right? That’s what the Guard called you. I haven’t visited many places in Veydes, but I have studied maps.” She was distracting me.

I counted again, taking in a deep breath. I didn’t know what she was trying to do. She was my enemy. Becoming the Ikhor didn’t mean I would trust an Aethar so quickly.

“I am from the continent Rydavas.” She pointed to herself. How long would the woman keep talking? “That’s where I am taking you, the Northern Rydavian city.”

“Huh?” Was there a city hidden in the Aethar wastelands?

Maev monitored the rain with a curious look. “We will meet up with my brother soon. He’s with the airship, and we will get you away from danger.”

“What do you mean, Rydavian city? And what is Rydavas?”

She rolled her eyes and slumped against the rock behind her. “I knew you Guardian folk were separated from the rest of the world, but this is just sad. You don’t even know our continent’s name?”

“First: I’m not a Guardian. Second: I’m not even from this continent.”

She scoffed, “Uh huh. I know you aren’t Rydavian.”

“And how would you know that?” I asked because I wasn’t certain I was right either.

“You look at me as a Guardian would. With hate,” she huffed.

“Well, you’re an Aethar. All your people do is kill.”

Her lips parted at the insult. “I am not . The stupid name the Southerners adore was gifted to them by the Guardians. And I would like to inform you that I’ve never killed in my life. I nearly did, with the golden Day-leg back there. A horrifying moment for me. On top of it all.”

How did she lie so easily? She wasn’t hiding her thoughts or feelings. She wasn’t masking her emotions.

Who was this woman?

When I didn’t reply, she added, “I’m nothing like the people here. I don’t fight, kill, or even know how to use a sword. I learned how to use my crossbow a few months ago. And the Aspis destroyed it.”

“That’s stupid,” I muttered.

“A little louder, please?” Maev’s mouth twisted into a sneer.

How could she make me feel small with such a simple expression? I stammered before finally spitting out, “It’s stupid. Not to know how to fight? This world is dangerous. How did you survive with the Aethar horde you travelled with?”

“Ugh, gods no.” She folded her arms, wincing at the pain, then put them back softly on her lap. “I don’t associate with that lot. Same continent, different worlds.”

“They called out to you in the burning fields.” They called her Blue One but had said nothing else.

“Well, that’s true—I did run into a few who said they had information on the Ikhor’s whereabouts and that a field was burning from its magic. I told them I would pay them to bring you to me. I was having a hard time pinpointing you on the field.”

“Why were you looking for me?”

Thunder cracked in the sky once more, and Maev straightened, studying the new wave of rain. “Listen,” she said, holding up her palms. “Just calm yourself a bit. I really don’t mean you harm.”