A Soul Like Glass (Kingdom of Betrayal #4)

Chapter 48

Chapter 48

C oncord ducks and weaves, narrowly avoiding the flames.

I can’t tell where they came from—the ground or the sky—or even if we were the intended target, but in the next moment, we’re surrounded by chaos.

Flames shoot across the air in front of us, followed by a barrage of icy air that’s sharp enough to strip the skin off my face. To avoid the ice and fire, Concord has dipped closer to the ground, from which vines whip upward, wrapping around my left leg.

I transform my medallion in an instant, the long blade slicing through the vine and freeing me before the rope can tug me down.

Concord shrieks, her cry full of fear. She will have been trained to fight against dragons, not other thunderbirds.

The internal conflict she must be feeling right now, seeing the thunderbirds fighting each other, must be immense.

I lean low over her neck. “Focus on staying alive. Get us through this so you can return to Elowynn and help her.”

She dips again, veers to the left, evades another shot of fire, and then a series of daggers made from ice before we shoot through the chaos and into the clear air beyond.

Concord doesn’t pause, beating her wings and picking up speed, racing away through the air as fast as she can.

I can’t look back.

The darkness is ahead of us—and so is the mountain ridge that Tamra described, which appears to be the only safe path through the storm now.

My heart sinks to see the rows of white tents all lined up across the plain so dangerously close to the edge of the wasteland. A wall of darkness rises up behind them, no farther than two hundred paces away from the back row.

There’s practically nothing between those fae and death. No ridge, no barrier.

All it will take is a single fae death… Hell, even a trail of dead apple seeds… and the darkness will breach the gap.

The dust storms alone will kill the rest of the fae in those tents.

My blood boils at how recklessly Karasi is risking her people’s lives in the name of power.

While Concord flies bravely on, my chest fills with the coppery scent of death, and a moment later, the sunlight vanishes.

We’re flying beneath crimson clouds.

Far across the valley to the right of the ridge, the dust storms rage, enormous tornados spinning across the ground and crashing into the mountains on either side.

Enormous beasts battle each other in the middle of the plain, the flow of ash across their bodies so thick that it looks like water rushing over them—and then through them when they smash to pieces.

I focus on the way ahead, urging Concord closer to the ground, where Tamra said the dragons had burned everything away. It should be safer there.

Sweat builds across my brow, and I fight against the panic rising within me. It’s a nameless panic fed by the whisper of the wind and the scent of death that enters my chest with every breath.

Finally, I make out the curve of the mountain’s ridge ahead, the circle of cliffs that protect the village that shelters within them.

“Concord,” I say, “don’t land. Fly low to the garden that sits in the shadow of the rock ledge. I will jump off your back. Turn as quickly as you can and return to Elowynn.”

She makes a low, keening sound. I don’t know how to interpret it other than I hear sadness in it.

“Thank you,” I say, pressing my face to her neck. “For helping me.”

There isn’t time for more. The garden appears below me, and I jump, calling on my power to ease my landing so I don’t break anything.

I expect the clearing to be filled with people, but it’s deserted, which worries me until I make out the lights in the village down the incline.

It’s barely past dawn. The village must still be waking up.

Thaden’s cottage, situated close by on my left, is also dark.

Concord banks swiftly overhead, turning back the way we came and in the next moment, she’s gone.

I’ve landed next to a patch of green vegetables circled by a row of herbs, and my boot must have crushed some of them when I landed, because their fragrance rises into the air.

I take it in. This fresh scent. Along with the soft hum of sounds in the distance. Sounds of life that have persevered despite the threat of darkness looming over it.

A soft, clanging sound reaches me, and I follow it along the path at the side of the clearing, entering the long tunnel that Thaden took me through when he first brought me to Galeia.

His forge is located within this tunnel, and the clanging sound draws me to him.

He’s standing at his anvil on the other side of the forge, tapping at a small piece of silver, shaping what must be intended to be a cog or maybe a hinge. A very small fire burns in what looks like a specially designed box next to him, emitting only the barest amount of smoke.

I allow myself a moment to appreciate how hard he has worked to help the people around him—all without relying on his power.

His concentration must be intense because he doesn’t notice my presence until I’ve taken a step inside.

His head shoots up before he spins to me, his bronzed eyes widening.

“Asha!” He puts down his tools and hurries toward me. “You’re okay!” Then he looks past me. “Galeia?”

I hold up my hands, a placating gesture. “She’s safe. She’s well. She’s… healed.”

My gesture shows him that I’m wearing a medallion, and it stops him in his tracks.

All of the tension leaves his shoulders. “You helped her.”

“I did.”

“Thank you.” He gives me a small smile that contrasts sharply with the fierce physical traits of the dragon whose soul he claimed. But his smile fades as he refocuses on me, suddenly searching my eyes. “Asha?”

My voice is a strained whisper. “I know how to stop it.”

His hands drop to his sides, and his broad shoulders seem to grow heavy again. The way he looks at me tells me he knows what it will cost.

His gaze lowers to the floor before he takes a deep breath and looks me in the eye again. “I will never forget what you said to me when we first met. You told me you wouldn’t hurt me because you only kill monsters.”

I exhale quietly, attempting a smile. “And you asked me: What if I am one?”

He nods.

Then, without hesitation, he crosses the room, picks up the toolbox I left on the pedestal there, and brings it back to me. “My hammer and medallions are inside. I put them away after you left.”

“Thank you.” It is the smallest thing I could say after everything that has led us to this point. All the threads connecting our destinies that had been weaving years before we were even born.

I force myself to turn away, preparing to leave, but he stops me.

“Asha, wait. There’s one more device.”

I pause, sharply aware that the device that currently rests within Thaden’s chest is also constructed from dark metal.

So, too, is Galeia’s heart.

I have already chosen not to take her heart. It wasn’t even a question in my mind. She can’t live without it. Removing it would kill her.

I have to believe that Malak’s tools and Thaden’s tools and all the dark magic those tools contain will be enough for me to create the object that will banish the darkness.

But as for the device in Thaden’s chest…

He’s suddenly right behind me, his presence as powerful as fire. “Will you make me human?”

My eyes widen at his request. “What?” I turn back to him, unable to keep the disbelief from my voice. “You would give away all of your power, all of the dragon’s strength, never to use it again?”

He’s quiet for a moment. “Real power is overcoming the past. Strength is finding my purpose. I don’t need magic or a dragon’s soul to do either of those.”

I consider him carefully, even more afraid of his request than I was of healing Galeia. She is a child with a brain and body that will develop with her nature, but Thaden is a fully grown man with entrenched beliefs and decades of memories.

His voice lowers. “Even if I didn’t believe with my whole heart that I am meant to be human, there’s no other path that keeps Tamra and the people of this village safe. Graviter Rex believes I killed his son, and I can’t tell him otherwise. Once the darkness is gone, he will be able to come for me. I will go out to meet him, try to lead him away, but I fear for my people.”

Thaden catches his breath, and I understand his concern.

A fire dragon’s rage is without constraint.

“If you strip me of my power,” he continues, “Graviter Rex may consider justice served.”

I take another moment, thinking it through. “I don’t know what you looked like,” I say, as if his appearance is my biggest concern.

“I think you do,” he says, his lips pressing into a grim line. “Milena told me how much I looked like my father.”

Oh, I remember Malak well.

Black hair, inky-blue eyes, pale skin, and high cheekbones. But the chill that I would feel when I was in his presence… I’ve never felt that around Thaden.

“With one distinct difference,” he continues. “My skin was light brown like my mother’s.”

Slowly, he begins removing the tunic he’s wearing. Then he points to a spot right beneath his left pectoral muscle. “This is where I drove the device into my heart. I expect removing it will be just as painful, so I’m going to back up and brace against the wall.”

He does as he says, even though I haven’t agreed to anything, and there he waits.

I make a decision.

It’s formed from instinct alone, but I have to trust myself and the power that Erik allowed me to access. I need to trust this medallion that I forged from a hammer made of his deep light, a forging in which I poured every part of myself.

“You are not your father, Thaden,” I say, placing the toolbox on the floor and striding toward him, drawing on my power in a flash, a surge so strong that the moment I press my left hand to his heart, he jolts.

His fists slam back against the rock wall, his teeth visibly gritted.

With a swift wrench, I pull the device from his heart, fully aware that it’s slicing through flesh and bone and causing him unbearable pain.

But I also sense he needs to feel it.

He needs to know that it’s gone and that all the grief that came with it is finally over.

The dragon device slices through his skin and drops to the floor, but I’m already pouring my hopes for him through my metal.

Heal. And be human.

Be all the things that humans can be. Loving and kind like Maybelle and Kedric. Intelligent and loyal like Rachel. Compassionate and strong like Mother Solas. Talented and resilient like Genova?—

Genova .

My eyes widen as a very real possibility occurs to me.

Genova was the one who walked me through Malak’s orchard. She pointed to the dark cottage and asked me what must have happened within its walls to turn Malak into such a monster.

She was a midwife for the Blacksmiths and the one who told me about the baby Milena took away. The baby who was Thaden.

I may never know if she is Thaden’s mother, but oh, he is so much like her in so many ways. Smart, loyal, thoughtful, strong.

As I pour my power into his heart and body, the dragon scales vanish from his skin while his body shape remains the same, tall and broad-shouldered. His bronzed eyes shift from amber and yellow to green and finally inky-dark blue. His hair color changes at the same quick rate, the strands becoming black, and his skin transforms to light brown.

Now that the device is gone from his body, he doesn’t appear to experience any pain. All of the tension leaves his face, his jaw unclenches, and his shoulders relax.

The reversion to his previous appearance happens so easily and seamlessly that I’m under no illusion that it’s entirely because of my power. His body knew what it was before he forced the dragon’s soul to merge with his, and it must have been ready to change back.

The changes happen smoothly until he’s standing in front of me, wholly changed. But also… the same.

Even though his coloring is different, he is still Thaden.

Quickly, I do a final check of the wound across the location of his heart, keeping my left hand pressed to him for another few seconds until his skin fully heals.

His heart resumes beating normally, a strong thump-thump before he slumps forward, and I catch him, lowering us both to the floor.

His head comes to rest on my shoulder, and his breathing deepens. Erik slept for hours after I made him whole, and it occurs to me that I probably didn’t think this through. I should have ensured we returned to Thaden’s cottage first.

“It’s okay,” he murmurs in my ear as if he reads my regret. “This is where I wanted to be. In my forge, where I found my purpose. I’ll just sit here a while. I’ll be fine.” His forehead creases. “Hopefully, Tamra won’t get a fright when she sees me.”

And then he says, “She’s a good person. The best person. Maybe even the family I didn’t think I would ever have. I’ll keep her safe. I promise.”

I ease him back into a sitting position, giving him a small smile as I take a final look at his new appearance.

I don’t know how Milena could say he looked like Malak.

Every part of Thaden’s features, from his dark eyes to his jaw and even the crease in his forehead, all are alive with feeling.

“Asha,” he says, reaching for me, even though his hand doesn’t make it halfway up before he has to lower it. “When you come back from this, will you do something else for me?”

I’m not returning from this. I nearly say so, and then I stop.

He knows.

The solemn tilt of his head and the way his lips press together, the sadness in his expression, tells me so.

“Whatever it is, ask me when I come back,” I whisper.

Scooping up a pair of tongs from the workbench, I deposit the dragon device into the toolbox and hold the box close as I hurry away.

Back along the corridor to the little chamber that sent me into the darkness last time.

Before I step into it, I upend the pouch I was carrying into the toolbox, too, the wolf device that was used on Erik clanking softly as it hits the others.

I count the pieces. They’re all there now.

Malak’s hammer and medallions. Thaden’s hammer and medallions. And all the devices that brought so much pain.

Along with them is my grandmother’s pin. A single bright spot amid the pieces of dark metal.

Taking a deep breath, I cut my finger on the blade at the side of the chamber and let the darkness take me.