Page 55

Chapter

Forty-One

Liv

Y ou have taken everything from me.

Nuo’s words echoed off the canyon walls as they buried deep inside my heart.

He let go of me, and it stung more than his screaming in my face.

“Nuo …”

Sweat beaded on his forehead, the dry wind blowing his long hair around. He didn’t blink, waiting.

I just gaped at him. My attempts to force his anger before seemed to have worked—he was here, stronger, angrier.

“I’m sorry. I should’ve stayed to explain …”

His face contorted, changing from rage to sorrow to bewilderment, then quickly back to rage.

Maev scrambled away as I faced off with my closest friend, and Bastane stayed near.

“Stop it!” Nuo took a step forward, thrusting a knife in my face. “What’s your goal? What’s on the other side of these canyons? Are you after the gods for more magic?” A single tear streaked down his cheek, past a clenched jaw. He gave a violent shake of his head.

I put my hands up, making him jerk his blade higher. “I didn’t know what I was—I didn’t know. I panicked and left.” I couldn’t look away from him. “I didn’t know what was inside me. I didn’t know what would happen to him .”

He flinched back. “Him?” His eyes narrowed, lips pulling back in a sneer. “You can’t even say his name? He took you with us, protected you. Defended you. Died because of you, and you don’t even say his name.” Nuo grabbed the front of my shirt, pulling me close, his teeth flashing. “ Say it.”

“Stop,” I cried, wishing I could shield myself from his hate.

“Say his fucking name!”

“Nuo,” Bastane interrupted. “Let’s listen?—”

Nuo lifted the knife above his head, its sharp edge aimed at me, and I cowered as his knife shot forward.

A sickening crunch rang in my ears, and darkness surrounded me.

But there was no pain.

I inhaled a cloud of dust as rocks fell around me.

Nuo leaned over me, his hand wrapped around his knife that was embedded in the canyon wall next to my head.

“Why?” I didn’t know exactly what I was asking.

His head was so close it was nearly touching mine. His chestnut hair fell around his face, hiding him from me. “You were supposed to be there,” he whispered, his voice cracking. He let go of my shirt, letting his hand fall.

“What?”

“When he died. You fucking left. You betrayed me. You were supposed to be there.” I reached for him, but he pulled back. “Don’t touch me.” He stepped away, looking down at Maev, who was shaking against a rock.

The tales she had heard of his cruelty weren’t entirely untrue. This version of Nuo was not the one I had known.

“He’s alive, Nuo.” My whisper was so small. But somehow, he heard it.

He inched back, unblinking. “What did you say?” His tone was deadly. A warning.

“I’ve seen him. Brekt is alive.”

Nuo’s skin paled, and Bastane couldn’t pick who to stare at.

My knees threatened to give out as I waited for him to say something.

“How dare you say such a thing to me.” His face contorted, the knife coming up between us again.

I had not expected more anger. “It killed me, too, when he died. I wouldn’t say such a thing to you if I didn’t know it to be true.”

Disbelief creased his forehead. “You knew him what? A couple of months? He’d been at my side my entire life! You have no such claim to the type of pain his fucking death caused me.” He turned his head away, hiding his hurt. “You’re evil knows no limits.”

“What are we doing here?” Bastane raised his hands in frustration. “If you haven’t noticed, something is hunting us all, and Kazhi is having a damned time on her own back there. The Aethar are scattered around every corner. Can we catch up after they’re dead?”

What we were going to do didn’t matter, because that was the moment Kazhi appeared bloody and beaten, panting as she stopped next to Bastane and grabbed onto him for support.

“More Aethar are entering from the west. This open pass is a death trap for them. And the Aspis is flying overhead, looking agitated.”

We were cast into shadows as the Aspis passed, disappearing behind the rock wall.

Bastane grabbed his hair, pushing it from his face. The heat covered the others in sweat, but not Bastane. A Day-leg—one from the sun clan—would be unaffected. His only discomfort was the war he seemed to fight in his own mind. “We need a clear path out of here. We head back to our airship.”

I stood straight, pulling my swords from their casings.

In a flash, the Guards had weapons in their hands, thinking I was attacking.

“Where is my friend, Ollo? He was in the Airship you took down.” I glanced at each of them, my chest slicing in two when I looked at Nuo.

“Gone,” Kazhi said. “We came upon the ship too late. It was being ransacked by a large crew of pirates. We saw them carrying away all manner of things. We lingered another two days waiting for you to come. There were no signs of your friend.”

Maev gave a startled cry at the news, and when she turned to me her face didn’t show sorrow, but hope. Ollo is alive, I imagined her thinking. She had known it, and I would bet he was out there somewhere, needing our help.

“I am getting her out of here.” I pointed a blade toward Maev, who flinched.

“With swords?” Bastane lifted a brow, eyeing my blades. “Not with fire?”

The sword slipped in the weak grip of my right hand, and I winced, knowing the Guards saw. “I can’t control the magic. I never know what will happen.”

Bastane’s other brow went in the air, and he turned his look on Nuo as if to say, See?

“Maev,” I said. She was crouching against a rock, her attention on the Guards. Dust and blood coated the side of her face. “We need to go find Ollo.”

It was the least I could do for all the trouble I had caused her. As much as my heart cried out to stay here with the Guards, I had to help Maev. After everything he had done for me—and as much as I wanted to find Brekt—Ollo had to be first.

She wrapped her arms around her legs, burrowing into herself, but nodded.

A dozen Aethar flooded into the pass, yelling commands to attack.

Kazhi ran forward and took two down while Nuo glared at Maev.

“This is who the Ikhor travels with?” His mouth twisted in distaste before his scowl was on me.

“Guess it doesn’t matter how you burn the world.

Only that it burns, right? Did it feel good to kill all those Guardians? South Aspis was like a home to me.”

“That wasn’t me.”

“And Ouras’s temple? Do you know how many were injured?”

My face heated. “ That wasn’t on purpose.”

Bastane’s sword was in the air, clashing with an Aethar’s as he defended us. He and Kazhi pushed them back, and I was happy to note their weapons weren’t pointed at me—for now.

My heart pounded, knowing the Aether were running at us, but unable to concentrate on them, not when Nuo was standing there.

“So you admit to the Temple of Mountain. But South Aspis wasn’t you? Who else would cause that much destruction?” Nuo stood toe to toe, towering over me.

“I don’t know,” I said, heavy on the sarcasm.

I stumbled as Bastane backed into me, sword against an Aethar’s.

“Can we think of anyone who might like setting fire to their own people for the sake of ridding weak bloodlines?” I waited, knowing he understood who I meant.

“I notice Falizha isn’t here fighting with you, protecting her people. ”

Bastane ducked as the next Aethar swung at him. “She’s got a point there. Falizha said she’d be leaving us here in the canyons. Is it really you, Bones?”

“It is.” Bastane and I shared a moment, where he took me in.

Kazhi was behind Nuo, knives in hand, looking me over. “Perhaps it’s you, but you are not the girl we found in the caves all those months ago.” Kazhi was taking an Aethar to the ground, a knife in their throat.

“No kidding,” I muttered.

I had vowed to never be that girl again. Little did I know I would become the painted image of evil.

“And I am not lying about what I saw. Brekt, he?—”

“Enough!” Nuo raised his sword, facing the Aethar surrounding us, even though Kazhi and Bas were handling them just fine. His wide shoulders, covered in dirt, blocked most of the battle from sight. “Your followers are coming to collect you.”

“They come to kill me as much as you.”

Nuo scoffed but didn’t reply. Why was he not taking me down if he thought I was evil?

Part of him believes me. My heart swelled with the realization.

“Maybe you don’t fully believe me,” I said, walking to his side but not facing him. “But one day you will. I made a promise when I left that burning field that I would come back for you. And that is still my goal.”

“Come back for me ?” He spat, “Like I need you saving me.”

“Not for your sake. For mine. Because despite what you’re going to say next, we were friends.”

There was silence beside me, and everything in me screamed to look at him. To see what was on his face. But I wouldn’t be able to handle it if I saw hatred.

Nuo’s swords lowered, ignoring the fight. “Friends? You stood on that bridge, threatening to kill your friend? You left when Brekt died, because what? You were scared of your friend ? How dare you call me that.”

I lifted a finger, still holding my sword, and pointed it in his face.

“You weren’t listening to me as he was changing.

” I had never spoken to someone with so much anger before.

“You didn’t listen to me when he was changing on that burning field, and yes, I can’t say his name sometimes—it hurts.

But I know he’s in there. Just as I am still in here.

” I tapped my chest. “I tried to tell you it was me back then and that I didn’t know.

You went nuts. And in Danuli? You were chasing me down, saying you were going to kill me again.

What was I supposed to do? So I lied. You needed to hear that. You were looking as bad as I was.”

I stepped in closer to him, but he didn’t budge. My heart raced as I got in his face. I had only been this forward with one other before, and he was the Aspis now.