A Soul Like Glass (Kingdom of Betrayal #4)

Chapter 39

Chapter 39

A s we fly through the night, I tell Erik everything that’s happened since we were separated, including all of Thaden’s revelations and who Galeia is.

Because I’m sitting behind Erik, I can’t see his reactions, but I can feel every time his body tenses, along with the rumbling vibrations of his surprised growls.

It’s difficult to have a full conversation while the cold wind seems determined to snatch every word from my mouth, but somehow, I answer all of his questions.

Then he answers all of mine.

He tells me about what he heard and saw back at the human city and why he went to the Einherjar. He tells me about the dragon rider Catalina Shield, as well as Rachel’s decision to lead the humans. Also, that the human army is depleted.

Although he speaks openly about all of those things, I sense he’s keeping something back. I’m not sure how to ask him what it is or if I even should.

By the time the first glimmers of sunlight lift the darkness behind us, we’ve fallen silent.

Galeia is asleep. Erik deposited the device she was clinging to safely into a pocket of his coat, where I won’t come into contact with it.

I struggle to keep my eyes open.

I can’t remember the last time I slept, and exhaustion is becoming my enemy.

Just when I’m tempted to reach back for my hammer and draw on my power to keep myself awake, the air changes.

Suddenly, I taste salt on my tongue.

With it comes moisture, a dampness in the air that I’ve never experienced before.

In the distance, I can hear a strange sort of crashing sound. “What is that?”

“I don’t know,” Erik says, sounding wary.

The dragon speaks for the first time. “That is the ocean.”

Ocean?

My eyes widen as a massive expanse of water comes into view. It stretches left to right and westward as far as I can see, a seemingly endless mass of liquid right at the edge of the land.

Directly below us is near-constant forest, but along the way, I’ve made out human villages and outposts. We even spotted several dragons in the distance, but none approached us.

Now, we’re heading toward a large clearing that seems to sit right at the world’s edge. The earth falls away in rocky cliffs while the water crashes into them, sending spray high into the air.

Blackbird can’t fly as fast as Vargo, so he’s still some way behind us, but I can make out Cailey’s form on his back. She doesn’t appear so bright now that the sun is rising behind her.

Vargo angles toward the ground, descending in a rush before pulling up to land.

I stumble from his back while Erik slides down his side, keeping a firm hold of Galeia.

The clearing is vast, but so is the forest that surrounds it. The only structure, situated right before the edge of the cliff, is a black rock that looks from this distance to be several paces wide and as high as my waist. Otherwise, the clearing is bare of anything other than grass.

Blackbird lands behind us, and Cailey slips from his back. She moves more slowly than she did when we left the Einherjar village, leaning for a moment against Blackbird’s side.

“This is your home?” I ask, crossing the distance to her, even though I want nothing more than to slide to the soft grass and fall asleep.

“We’re safe here,” she says, sounding more breathless than I was expecting. “It’s time to rest.”

“Safe from what, exactly?” Given her need to get here in such a hurry, I’m surprised by her suggestion that we should now rest.

“Safe from the blight,” she replies. “We are now as far from it as we can be. Right at land’s edge.”

“But you said?—”

“I’ve bought you time, Asha. Time is what you need. But first, so is sleep. You must be strong for what lies ahead.”

I’m about to demand answers, but her legs buckle, and I find myself catching her instead.

She feels lighter than air. Nearly insubstantial. Her pale hair falls across my arm, and her eyes rise to mine.

“I have no strength during the day,” she whispers. “Please. Help me out of the sun. Accept your need to sleep. Tonight, you will forge your medallion.”

“I’ll… what?”

I can’t see how I can possibly forge anything when I don’t have crimson coal or any metal I could use, but her attention has already turned to the Vargo, who watches us with a grim expression.

“Vargo Vanem,” she says, her voice increasingly weak, “please speak with Graviter Rex. Tell him what you have seen. He will know what must be done.” Her expression hardens despite her apparent exhaustion. “Warn him that if he comes here with rage in his heart, he will only invite his own death. The dragons must come in peace.”

Vargo gives her a solemn nod. “I will do as you ask.”

He immediately rises into the air, the wind from his enormous wings bending the nearby trees and knocking me back a step.

I bump into Erik’s chest. His arms close around me, strong and warm. Somehow, he caught me while also holding on to Galeia. She’s still sound asleep, her head nestled in the crook of his neck.

“Exhaustion only leads to mistakes,” he murmurs, his voice solemn. “The world must be spinning around you right now, Asha. You need to rest before it will stop.”

My eyes burn with his assessment.

In the last day, I found out about Galeia. I learned why Lysander Rex died. I survived the blight—but only because Cailey came for me and… bright saints … I don’t know who or what she is, except that she seems able to demand respect from all supernaturals. If my experiences have taught me anything, it’s that I must question everything. I could be making a terrible mistake by trusting Cailey so easily, and yet…

I have no fear that she will hurt me.

Neither must Erik, or he wouldn’t be supportive of her suggestion that we rest.

I give him a tired nod. “Let’s find a place to sleep.”

The forest is full of trees with such wide trunks that they must be hundreds of years old. Within an hour, we’ve not only found a shaded place to sleep with a thick layer of moss to lie on, but also a fresh water source in the form of a nearby stream.

My stomach grumbles, but my hunger isn’t too bad since I ate before I left Thaden’s village.

I curl up in the shade with Galeia nestled against my chest and Erik at my back, his arm curled around me.

Cailey has already slid to the ground only two paces away, curled up in a bed of moss, and closed her eyes, her chest rising and falling deeply.

Within moments, I’m asleep.

I wake to darkness, jolting upright before I place myself.

I’m still in the clearing beneath the giant trees. Everything is quiet and still. Soft moonlight filters through the gaps in the canopy of leaves overhead, telling me I slept all day.

Galeia is still fast asleep, but she appears to have gravitated toward Cailey. Or maybe Cailey gravitated toward her. Either way, Galeia is now snuggled against Cailey’s side.

I relax a little. She wouldn’t do that if she didn’t trust Cailey.

For a moment, I take them both in. Galeia with her black hair, such a tiny form capable of such destruction, and Cailey, who looks no more than ten years old, with her white hair, also capable of immense power.

They both look so young and so old at the same time.

I reach back before I realize Erik isn’t lying behind me.

A new fear strikes through me before I catch sight of him through the trees.

He’s standing at the edge of the cliff, where the waves crash against the rocks.

Leaving Galeia beside Cailey, I retrieve my hammer and step quietly through the trees out into the open. The glow my power makes is subdued but no less powerful.

It feels as if the more familiar I become with the force within me, the more I can control its visual effects.

To reach Erik, I pass by the rock that sits near the cliff’s edge, getting a closer look at its structure. As I estimated, it sits at my waist height, has both flat and curved sections across the top, and is wide enough that it takes several steps to pass by.

Erik is aware of my approach because he turns slightly in my direction, but he doesn’t say anything.

I settle in beside him, letting the silence sit between us. It’s an unusual sort of non-silence, since it’s filled with the crashing of waves while also, somehow, feeling calm.

He finally speaks, his question low and soft. “What if I was meant to die on that mountain?”

All of my calm flees in an instant. I fight to keep the shock from my voice. “Erik?”

What could possibly make him ask such a thing?

“War is in my blood.” He finally turns fully to me, his gray eyes shadowed and his jaw tense. “You have been my anchor since my family died. What will I do if there is peace?”

I want to tell him that the idea of peace is so far out of our reach that I don’t believe we will ever attain it.

I want to tell him that even if we find peace, darkness will never end. Life will always hold battles for us.

But more than anything, I want him to know that there is no peace for me without him .

Before I can respond, the sound of wings reaches me—too many for either of us to ignore.

Erik spins to the sound, and I do, too, easily making out the thunder of dragons coming our way.

I count ten dragons, all approaching fast.