Ballad of Whispers (The Sunchosen Chronicles #1)

72. Time

Chapter 72

IRIS

We ran the moment our feet hit the snow.

“How—”

She pulled a chain from around her neck, and I caught a closer glimpse of what hung from it.

An engraving of an ornate G, with a sleeping fox nestled into it.

The Gavalon family signet ring.

A ring with magic that only worked when it was gifted willingly. Passed between generations of family.

Or through a soulbind.

“Always saving me, darling,” she bellowed breathlessly to the sky, smiling.

To Aurora.

Indistinct shouting in the night air had Deyanira diverting us left, vines trailing from her palms. The sheer terror radiating from her dulled the soul-shattering pain in my chest, replacing it with the sharp, immediate edge of fear and resolve.

“Deyanira,” I called over the commotion. “I have to get to my mother.” I let every emotion bleed through my expression—fear, panic, determination. “Please.”

She stopped, something warring in her gaze, before grabbing my arm and vanishing again.

Nausea roiled in my gut, and I couldn’t stop it. The contents of my stomach emptied onto the snow before us.

A howl split the night. Deyanira threw her head back in irritation.

“Fucking Divine, they’re everywhere,” she growled, pulling me along. “Must have every border guarded.”

Another slice of pain cut through my mind. I pushed it down, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other.

“The Incarnates aren’t just underground,” Deyanira explained, our heavy breaths mingling with the whistle of the wind. “Calum—the society he was pushing—we think it’s all connected. My father… I don’t know what his role is, but he’s in their ranks.”

The confirmation spurred no emotion. No surprise, no anger, no fear. The events of the morgue—now a lifetime away—rushed back to me.

“Deyanira,” I grabbed her arm, urgency lacing my tone. “Deyanira, it’s a curse.”

I met her gaze, expecting fear. Instead, she smiled sadly.

“That makes sense,” she nodded slowly.

“But the Tonic works,” I explained. “At least partially. And I think I understand it now—how it works. I think if I?—”

“No.” She shook her head ferociously. “Don’t tell me. You can’t tell me anything they could somehow get out of me.”

“I won’t let them?—”

“No,” she said with such force that I understood.

“Did you know?” I asked, the sound of the blizzard nearly swallowing the words. “Did you all keep what was happening from me?”

“We didn’t know until tonight,” she said with conviction. “Hells we still don’t really know. Aspen and I were dragged to a meeting while you were away. They weren’t forthcoming with information. But Calum and my father were both there, whispering about ‘her.’ About you. And talking about that damn brand.

“My father’s been involved in some fucked-up shit, but I had no idea it was something like this.” She shook her head. “I’d already been forced into Calum’s ‘society,’ but this was my first meeting. If I’d known Gav would take it this far—if I’d thought he’d actually do it…”

“He made his choice,” my voice cracked.

“He made the only choice he knew how to.” Her tone was sharp, unyielding. “If you’d gone, every single one of you would be in their clutches.”

Aspen had known. He knew that going after Theon tonight didn’t mean they would both escape.

We could’ve rallied Ferrin and Nadya and every ally we could still trust, and we still would’ve been vastly outnumbered. There was no overpowering them. Not yet.

“You would have sacrificed yourself for the both of them,” she continued. “Given yourself over for their freedom. Would you not?”

I didn’t answer, nearly tripping over a root.

“He did it himself before you could.”

“And what if they don’t accept his offer?” I croaked.

“They will. They want him almost as much as they want you.” Her pace didn’t slow as we pushed through the roaring wind. “He is an immense asset. His allegiance gives them a majority of the royal line. That, coupled with his power? It’s enough to distract them and get you the fuck out of here. I don’t know if they’ll free Theon, but…”

“Theon…” I sobbed, the crack in my chest deepening. Where was he? What were they doing to him?

“Gavalon won’t let anything happen to him,” she assured me. “He will level the entire palace if that’s what it takes.”

That much was true. I believed it in my bones.

Aspen would not leave without Theon.

Even if Theon somehow managed to escape tonight, Aspen would not.

Every muscle in my body screamed at me to turn around. To go back.

The stark delineation between Vaelithe and Kacidon loomed before us. The icy cold of the life debt spread through my fingertips at the sight of the border, leeching away what little warmth remained. The Grove was just on the other side, the apothecary not far after. If we could just make it there unharmed, we could…

Deyanira stumbled, slipping on a patch of ice. I hooked my arm beneath hers before she could hit the ground.

“They’re after you for some sort of ritual, I think,” she said, panting. “They’re focused on you. They will stop at nothing. And if they don’t already know who you are, they will soon.” She huffed, regaining her footing. “Do not waste the time he bought you.”

Run. I had to run.

I would spend the rest of my life running.

I picked up speed, but as we approached the line, an arrow whistled over our heads.

Deyanira spun. A massive serpent burst from her palm. I threw out golden Threads, but the barrier was too weak. Everything that had happened—the Incarnate, the orbs—I was drained. My reserves an empty well.

“Iris,” she said, grabbing my arm forcefully. She wasn’t moving anymore, her feet planted solidly beneath her. Slate-blue strands whipped around her. “I think you need to listen to him. You need to live.”

I shook my head, trying to pull her over the border with me.

“No,” she whispered, shaking her head. Then she stepped backward. Back toward Kacidon. “ You need to live.”

I immediately realized what she was doing.

The shouts we’d heard—there had to be at least half a dozen people after us. It didn’t matter how long we ran. They would never stop.

Deyanira Leoven and Aspen Gavalon were cut from the same cloth. Family.

“No, Deyanira, you can’t?—”

No more. No one else.

“It’s all right,” she said softly. An uncommon gentleness in her firm voice. She pulled off a glove, holding her hand up in the moonlight.

Dark veins trailed from the tips of her fingers, fading toward her wrist.

No.

“My father is inventive with his punishments, I’ll give him that,” she huffed a laugh. “I should have realized then, what he was doing. That it was all connected.”

“I can fix it. I’ll find a way. I have an id?—”

“No.” Her grip tightened on my shoulders. “No. It’s all right. I’ll get to be with her.” She looked wistfully up at the sky. “You go make them pay, Iris Virlana.”

She gave me a small, sad smile.

“Be free.”

“I thought you didn’t care much for me either way,” I choked, a guttural sob breaking free.

“I don’t,” she said, trying for her usual haughtiness, but it wasn’t there.

No.

I wouldn’t let anyone else do this for me.

“Deyanira, I can’t let you?—”

“I figured.”

Then I was shoved. Over a line I could never cross back over.

Vaelithe.

A wall of earth erupted between us.

“Iris,” she yelled as the barrier closed. “If you ever see my father again…” Her amber eyes gleamed with retribution. With everything stolen from her. With pure, feminine rage. “Kill him.”

I saw it in the set of her jaw as the earth closed, what could have been. What should have been, side by side with Aurora Gavalon.

A queen.

And then she was gone.

“No!” I screamed, clawing at the wall.

I couldn’t leave her. I couldn’t leave any of them.

The life debt burned through me, stealing the air from my lungs. Eating me alive.

There was no other way.

I could never return to Kacidon.