Chapter 21
Chapter 21
“ T he bells are ringing.”
I don’t realize that I spoke my thoughts aloud—hell, I can’t hear much of anything right now—until Erik leans in close, his lips at my ear.
“For years, I forced you to fight monsters,” he says, his voice a low growl. “I won’t compel you to fight them again. You can leave. Find Graviter. Make a medallion. This doesn’t have to be your fight. It’s your choice.”
I turn to him, searching his eyes, trying to read his thoughts because I don’t know why, but I’m certain he was about to end with ‘but’…
All around us, the snow swirls. From within it, the bird’s silhouette appears. It crawls toward us, remaining hunched down on the ground, no doubt trying to stay beneath the worst of the icy tumult.
Erik returns my gaze, his own steady.
“But you will fight,” I say.
I can see it in his eyes. He will choose to battle whatever monster has risen, even if he won’t ask me to do so.
I want to believe that neither of us owes any responsibility to the humans living in that city. They hated me and wanted me dead. They betrayed Erik and tried to kill him. What’s more, they aren’t defenseless. I created weapons that will allow them to fight monsters on their own.
But all he has to do is murmur into my ear, “Maybelle and Kedric.”
They are the names of the human couple who raised Tamra and Gallium, caring for the twins at great risk to themselves.
With a resigned sigh, I murmur back, “Mother Solas and her granddaughter, Rachel.”
Mother Solas was the one who gave me my grandmother’s pin.
Rachel was on my personal guard. Erik placed her there so he could keep an eye on her and protect her from the humans who would like to see the royal line extinguished once and for all.
Rachel called me Lady Silverspun and treated me with rare kindness. I have never wished her harm.
There’s one more name I also say. “Councilor Genova.”
She was the one who asked about Malak’s beginnings.
She was also the one who warned me that I was in danger before I left the city. On my last morning there, when she walked with me in the apple orchard that Malak had created, she asked me: “What does a powerful man do to a woman strong enough to challenge him?”
My answer echoes back to me.
“He destroys her.”
At the time, I believed she was warning me about the Vandawolf’s motives, but now her words remind me of other dangers.
Thaden Kane is out there, and every minute I delay going after him, I risk my siblings’ lives.
But Tamra would never forgive me if something happened to Maybelle and Kedric. Not when I could have kept them safe.
“How long will it take us to reach the city?” I ask Erik.
He grimaces before leaning close again. “Walking, it takes nearly four hours to reach the city’s western side. Running, maybe half that time.”
It’s too much. Whatever monster is about to rise from the ash could decimate the entire city in that time.
I turn my focus back to the bird.
Erik follows my line of sight.
The beast is pressed to the ground in front of us, its face turned up to me, a pleading look in its eyes as if it wants me to make the noise stop.
As soon as it seems to realize it has my attention, it scoots farther forward, aiming its large head for my lap.
I firmly place my palm against its forehead to stop it from knocking me over again. I don’t have a hope of shouting commands at it in the storm, but it pauses, nuzzling up against my palm.
I lean in close to Erik. “Do we have another choice?”
He shakes his head.
Dear saints.
The hardest part will be rising through this storm into what will hopefully be a clear sky above it. Or we might encounter something worse up there.
I suddenly gasp. “My satchel!”
It contains Malak’s tools. I can’t leave them behind. Not because I plan to use them, but because they can’t fall into the wrong hands.
“I’ll get it!” Erik says.
“No, it’s my responsibility.”
“One of us has to get it, and you need to stay here and keep Blackbird calm. He trusts you more than me.”
I arch my eyebrows. Blackbird?
I guess it’s as good a name as any.
But also, “He?”
“He,” Erik says firmly.
It isn’t exactly the most important thing right now, but still, I ask, “How do you know?”
Erik shrugs. “It’s a wolf thing.”
With that, he propels himself forward across the snow, belly-crawling using only his arms so he stays low to the ground.
Within seconds, he’s swallowed up in the storm, leaving me crouched, my heart in my throat with worry for his safety.
Blackbird takes the opportunity to inch forward, pushing his face up to mine, his size dwarfing me and his weight nearly knocking me flat.
He whines in my ear, a worried sound.
You and me both, bird.
Five tense minutes later, Erik reappears through the snow, dragging my satchel at his side.
I reach for him, pulling him close, all my worry rushing away and relief replacing it.
His arms slip around me, even though it’s an incredibly awkward gesture now that we’re both crouching again—and the bird insists on gluing its head to my free side.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Erik says, speaking once more at my ear when my arms lock reflexively around him.
Losing him will never be okay.
I take a deep breath as I nestle into his embrace, preparing myself for our next steps.
“Stay low,” he says, handing me the satchel. “You go first. I don’t want Blackbird to throw me off.”
Slipping out of Erik’s arms and down into the snow, I maneuver my satchel so that I can slip it over my head and carry it across my body. Then I drop into a belly-crawl like Erik did, moving alongside Blackbird’s neck to his wings.
Fae warriors use saddles to ride their thunderbirds. We don’t have that luxury. I’ll need to pull myself up onto Blackbird’s back so that I’m either sitting in front of his wings or behind them. I honestly don’t know which would be safest or best, but his neck looks slender, so I opt for a position behind his wings.
Reaching up as best I can, I hoist myself onto his back, trying to keep low. The wind plucks at my back, and for a moment, I’m fearful that it could rip my hammer right out of the scabbard.
In the next second, Erik slips up behind me, pressing in close behind me. He’s sheltering me, but that also means he’s now taking the worst of the storm.
Blackbird’s body shivers, but he doesn’t try to throw us off.
“Up!” I scream into the wind. “ Up, Blackbird! ”
He pauses.
Then he leaps upward, and all I can do is pray we aren’t headed to our deaths.