Chapter 56
Chapter
Fifty-Six
W e didn’t talk the entire way back to Lumnos. The danger wasn’t over, and there was little I dared to say.
Though he was almost drained from shielding the others, Luther pushed his magic into me the way he had in Ignios, allowing me to absorb enough to heal my wounds. My mother sat behind him on Sorae’s back, and while I longed to hold her, I was secretly grateful for the distance.
The darkness I’d succumbed to in battle refused to ebb. Its fangs had sunk deep, and now my resentment toward her festered as a quiet, spreading venom.
The escaped prisoners were, for now at least, out of harm’s reach. The army horses I’d diverted earlier with Faunos magic had caught up with them and allowed them to mount. With the prisoners on horseback and Sorae roasting anyone who followed, the army eventually abandoned their pursuit.
By the time we reached the border, the dark of evening had captured the sky. I tucked away my Crown before its glowing beacon lured any more trouble.
I guided Sorae to land, and the horses slowed to a stop. I was surprised to see so many saddles with a Descended in the back and a mortal taking the reins. It was a wise arrangement —leaving the Descended’s hands free to wield magic, if needed—but one that required more trust in them than most mortals, especially Guardians, were willing to give.
Luther kept watch as my mother and I dismounted along with the group.
“Beyond this point, my gryvern’s escort will do you more harm than good,” I said. “I wish I could do more.”
“You’ve done enough,” Runa cut in. She gave my body a pointed look.
I looked down and balked. My clothes were slashed to ribbons, my skin coated in blood. I’d taken far more blows than I thought. Once I’d given in to the dark call of my fury, I’d barely felt a thing.
Even now, the numbness lingered. The empty abyss within my ribs felt as if it had consumed far more of me than just my magic.
Enness bowed his head. “I can’t thank you enough. We all owe you our lives.”
“Make sure everyone gets home safely, and I’ll consider the debt paid,” I said.
“Don’t worry about us.” Runa said. “Your Prince gave us a map showing the Royal Guard patrols and how to get around them, and a list of safe places to hide.” She grinned, shaking a large, jangling pouch. “And enough gold to bribe our way out of trouble, if we get caught.”
I glanced at him in surprise—not that he’d helped them, but that he’d had the foresight to bring along those kinds of supplies.
“Find a man named Vance in Mortal City,” my mother said. “He’ll help you get home.”
“Do not go to Vance,” I hissed at Enness. “He might help the mortals, but he’s just as likely to kill the rest of you on sight.”
My mother frowned. “You don’t know that.”
“Yes, she does,” Luther rumbled.
“Find Maura at the healers’ center instead. She can get word to me...” I hesitated. Tensed. “...or to a royal named Taran. If we’re not in Lumnos, he’ll get you whatever you need.”
“Where else would we be?” My mother’s gaze narrowed on me, shrewdly picking up that there was something I left unsaid.
I shrugged lightly but didn’t answer. Between her uncanny skill at sniffing out a lie and her ability to read me like a book, silence was my only hope.
“Take care of each other,” I said instead. “I know this arrangement is unusual, but you’re better off together than you would be apart.”
Runa and Enness exchanged a look. I might have been hallucinating from blood loss and exhaustion, but I could have sworn the faintest blush touched their cheeks.
The group mounted and led their horses into the trees. Soft grunts arose from the Descended as the border snapped across their skin and their magic sputtered out. I reached inward and once again released them from the binds of the Forging spell.
A few glanced back at me in confusion. I let the Crown briefly flicker before hiding it back away, and their eyes went wide with understanding.
“You said you’re building an army,” Runa called out. “What if we decide we want to join it after all?”
A true smile brightened my face, and the void inside me eased the smallest bit.
“Go home for now,” I said. “Tell your families you’re safe and hold the ones you love. When you’re ready to fight... come find me.”
Once they were finally out of sight, we returned to Luther and Sorae. He dismounted and rifled in our bags, tossing me a small blade to replace the ones we’d left behind in Fortos and my mother a hooded cloak to stay hidden.
“Maybe we should wait here,” I suggested. “Give our magic a few hours to rebuild.”
“You’ll need more than a few hours,” he said. “And they may have seen us land. If we don’t get airborne soon, they might come looking.”
“And if they do, they’ll find the others,” my mother said. “So let’s get going.”
Her tone had taken on that stubborn, emphatic edge that warned against debate, so I reluctantly nodded. Luther mounted and held out an arm to help my mother.
“Move back,” she said archly. “I’ll be sitting behind my daughter, not you.”
His jaw strained. His icy gaze slid to me for confirmation, and I gave a helpless shrug. My mother’s dislike of Luther bothered me more than I’d expected, but at the moment, I was too anxious to mediate and far too tired to care.
He stiffly slid back to make space. “Diem,” he began, “we should really talk ab—”
“You’re very familiar with my daughter,” she interrupted. “Shouldn’t you address her as ‘Your Majesty’?”
Luther and I both blinked in surprise. I could count on one hand the people brave enough to speak to him that way—and one of them was me.
His brows pulled inward. “Your daughter has permitted me t—”
“ Her Majesty ,” she corrected.
A low, unhappy noise rolled from his throat.
I managed a weak smile despite my mood. “She has a point, Prince. You are so fond of titles.”
His stare dragged to me. “As you wish, Your Majesty. I certainly wouldn’t want to get too familiar with my Queen.” His eyes darkened with the same ravenous focus I’d felt when he’d stripped me bare in Umbros. I could almost feel the rough grip of his hands as he’d stroked them up my thighs, the heat of his tongue against my skin...
A breathy hum slipped past my lips. My mother shot me a sharp-eyed glare, looking almost like she somehow knew where my mind had been.
Behind her, Luther’s mouth curved up. He definitely knew where my mind had been.
I cleared my throat. “Hurry up then, let’s go.”
The second my mother and I were mounted, she began prodding at the slashes in my clothes.
“What happened to your wounds?” she asked. “Even Descended don’t heal this fast.”
“I’m not like most Descended,” I said simply, urging Sorae back into flight. “Something you’ve apparently known for a while.”
She offered no response to that.
“There was something you wanted to discuss?” I called out to Luther, already missing the feeling of being tucked within his arms. I regretted not standing up to my mother—now that he and I were apart, my unease had worsened tenfold.
“If we cannot safely land in Lumnos—”
“We will,” my mother and I said at the same time.
A long beat of silence passed.
“Of course, we’ll do our best,” he began again slowly, “but if we cannot do so safely—”
“We have to,” I said. “I promised Teller.”
“Di— Your Majesty .” His tone was firm. “My magic is low. Yours is gone. The army soldiers already tried to kill us once, and my father seems willing to do the same. If we’re not careful, your brother might never get to reunite with her at all.”
My soul ached at the truth in his words.
I glanced back at him over my shoulder. “I promised him, Luther.”
Pain flashed across his face. If anyone understood how deeply it would wreck me to break my word, it was him.
He reached for me, and my mother shot forward to grab my hand before he could take it. “Let’s try the palace,” she urged, squeezing it tightly. “It’s worth an attempt.”
My focus moved back to Luther. “How long can you hold a shield before your magic drains?”
His throat worked with all the warnings he was holding back. “A minute or two at most. But you—”
“That will have to be enough.” I sat forward and stiffened my back. “I’m not giving up.”
“As you wish, Your Majesty,” he murmured.
Guilt hounded me for brushing him off, but this was something I had to do. After letting my father and brother down so completely, in so many ways, this felt like my chance to finally make it right.
Even in the brisk wind of our flight, tension hung in the air. The moon, always my mischievous nemesis, seemed to be shining brighter than ever, bathing us in a vivid glow that denied any hope of arriving unnoticed.
“Keep your hood low,” I warned my mother when the palace spires came into view. “Don’t let anyone see your face.”
Remis had known my plan to rescue my mother, but Descended hoarded information like they hoarded wealth and power. If he’d kept it from the army soldiers, we just might make it back in one piece.
I aimed first for the coastline. I’d pinned my hopes on Luther sneaking my mother in through the royal dock while Sorae and I created a distraction, but as we passed over the inlet entrance, my heart sank. The usual post of two had increased to twenty, with more lining the canal where it disappeared beneath the ground.
My shoulders sagged. I grudgingly turned Sorae inland, skimming low over the forest canopy and avoiding any roads where sentries might be waiting.
A broken sob sounded from behind me. I looked back in panic to see my mother staring at the ground, her expression torn with sorrow.
In my attempts to stay unseen, I’d unintentionally directed Sorae right over the marshy land that once held our family home. Against the glittering winter snow, the dark circle of charred earth looked more like a sinkhole—one that had swallowed our memories and our joy right along with our home.
“It’s all gone?” she choked out. “His killer destroyed everything? ”
“No,” I said quietly. “I did that.”
I was too much of a coward to look back, or to explain, or do anything beyond locking my focus on the horizon.
The palace loomed larger, and the royal grounds came into view. The pale blanket of frost stopped abruptly at the garden’s edge, almost as if the palace’s heat had melted it away. I squinted, trying to make out more detail—and my blood froze.
The snow hadn’t melted.
It was covered with people . Scores and scores of them, uniformed and armed.
All the soldiers from Mortal City and the entire Royal Guard, together in a legion encircling the palace in a thick, unbroken line.
Sorae let out a thunderous warning howl before I could stop her, and a hundred weapons turned our way, including several large wooden structures laden with boulders and giant metal-tipped bolts ready to shoot us right out of the sky.
I nudged Sorae into a sweeping circle just outside their reach. The dark ring of soldiers rippled as their weapons trailed our path.
“There he is,” I breathed. On the balcony outside my chambers, Teller had run outside, drawn by Sorae’s call. Perthe and Taran emerged not far behind.
“Now,” I said to Sorae. Her wings angled down, and we shot toward him in rapid descent. His eyes grew large, his focus stuck on the woman at my back.
“ Launch! ” a voice shouted from below.
Sorae’s panic burst across the bond. Her right wing dropped, and we banked hard an instant before a bolt grazed its feathered tip.
“Your father really is trying to kill us,” I yelled to Luther, the three of us clutching each other in a fight to stay upright.
But as my eyes scoured the horde, there was no sign of Remis—or Alixe. Near the front, the Fortos commander I’d confronted in Mortal City sat on horseback, shouting orders to the army soldiers and Royal Guard alike.
“Archers ready,” he bellowed.
“Shield up,” I told Luther as I sent a wordless order to Sorae. Her jaws yawed open with a plume of blue flame to send the soldiers scattering.
“ Launch ,” the commander said.
A throng of arrows emerged from the ground. Luther’s hand shot toward them, his shimmering blue dome sparking into place just in time to send them bouncing back to the soil below.
She’s coming, Tel , I thought to myself as the balcony came near. My brother was so close, the honey-brown of his eyes almost visible in the moonlight. Mother is finally coming ho—
A soft whistle flew past my head.
“Archers on the roof,” Luther shouted. His shield rose back into place, but not quick enough.
Agony burst through my shoulder. Instinctively I reached for the pain—and my hand brushed against the end of an arrow’s shaft.
“Diem’s hit,” my mother cried out.
Sorae’s head reared back with a snarl as she sensed my pain. She pulled up and soared for the clouds, leaving Teller behind and the palace growing smaller at our backs.
Luther called out my name, his voice frantic. I felt his broad hand grip my arm, then the hot-cold tingle of his magic absorbing.
I shoved him away. “Save your magic. We’ll need it on the next pass.”
“There can’t be a next pass,” he growled. “It’s time to retreat. We’re too outnumbered.”
“Can’t we land somewhere else?” my mother asked. “I know ten different ways to sneak into the palace.”
I could almost hear the crunch of Luther’s teeth grinding. “You got in because I allowed it,” he bit back as she scoffed. “Alixe will not be so permissive, nor will the army. And Sorae is too large to miss—they’ll spot her wherever she lands.”
“What do you suggest we do instead?” she snapped. “If we cannot land, where can we go?”
“Montios.”
“ Montios? ” I whipped around. “How is that any safer?”
“It isn’t. But the Montios Descended dislike weapons. They prefer to use magic. That gives you an advantage if we’re attacked. If we can find a place there to hide...”
There was something in his expression as he held my gaze. Something loaded, like there was more he wanted to say, but he didn’t dare bring the words to life. I wondered if it was because of my mother—if there was something he didn’t trust her to know.
I glanced down at the soldiers’ lines. With my magic, I could easily take them. Without it, the odds felt nearly insurmountable—unless I was willing to unleash Sorae in all her fury and paint my own realm in dragonfyre and blood.
A chill swept through me. The darkness I’d embraced in battle still loitered, waiting just below the surface to see what I would do.
“Look,” Luther said. “By the entrance.”
At the grandiose doors of the palace foyer, Alixe and Remis were surrounded by a thick pack of Fortos soldiers. Remis looked uncharacteristically flustered, shouting at the soldiers, who were shoving him against the palace walls. Beside him, Alixe was oddly pale. Her eyes kept darting to an area hidden by boxy hedges.
She looked up, and our gazes met. She slowly shook her head and mouthed a single word: Go .
I shoved away the massive pit sinking in my stomach and snapped off the protruding tail of the arrow, tossing it aside.
“Again,” I ordered. “Shield up.”
Luther growled a warning that went unheard. My determination to get to my brother had risen to a shadow I was lost in, unable to see the light beyond.
Sorae swooped across the parapets where the upper row of archers were hiding. Her talons hung low, dragging a gash into the stone. The archers dove to escape her path, providing a small window of respite.
Again we shot toward my brother. His arms strained toward us as if he might pluck us down from the air himself. Arrows and spears clinked against Luther’s shield with an endless, steady patter, a violent hailstorm against a windowpane growing thinner every second. He roared with the effort of maintaining it—his well of power was so near empty, I no longer felt his aura at all.
Sorae’s wings began to tuck as she prepared to land, and I held my breath at our imminent victory.
“Sorae, abort,” Luther shouted suddenly.
“No!” I screamed. “We’re almost there!”
“Diem, they’re launching god—”
His words were cut off by the unmistakable squelch of a blade ripping into flesh. Sorae shrieked, and fiery pain blasted through my side. We slammed against the edge of a palace spire, the gritty stone scraping like sandpaper against my skin. I clutched Sorae’s wing in a desperate effort to keep from falling.
My vision swam with pain, chaos, confusion. Sorae jerked unsteadily through the air. I hung on for dear life with one hand and clawed at my side in search of a wound with the other.
But the pain wasn’t from my body—it was from my bond.
“Sorae’s hurt,” I cried, spying a wooden pole hanging from her soft underbelly.
Luther swore and flattened on his stomach crossways over her back. He shot a fierce glare at my mother. “Grab my legs and hold on tight.”
She nodded and gripped him with both hands. He slowly slid forward until he was draped down Sorae’s side, arms dangling in the air.
Terror raced through my veins. Luther’s life quite literally hung at my mother’s mercy. I snaked my uninjured arm around her waist to steady her, but he was out of my reach, and with my wounded shoulder, I was barely holding on myself.
There was nothing I could do but trust her.
“I’m sorry, girl,” he yelled, “this is going to hurt.”
A sickening sound accompanied the excruciating feeling of flesh ripping near my hip. Sorae and I both cried out, her outstretched wings shuddering in pain.
With some effort, my mother managed to pull Luther upright. He held up a blood-soaked bolt tipped with a point of glittering black.
“Godstone,” I breathed, eyes growing wide.
He nodded grimly. “Thank the Kindred, the toxin isn’t as deadly for gryverns. She’ll heal fine now that it’s out. But if they’d struck her heart...”
Or if they’d aimed any higher , I thought as I realized how close Luther’s leg had been to where Sorae was hit.
“It’s the same weapon the Guardians had in Arboros,” he added, darting a judgmental look at my mother, who stiffened. “Alixe was trying to warn me, but I saw it too late.”
I looked out toward the palace, now a fair distance away. “I think I know where they were hiding it. Sorae can burn it with her fire, then we can try again to—”
“Diem,” my mother said softly. “It’s time to cut our losses.”
“Not without Teller. If I can get close enough to grab his arm, he can come with us, and then—”
“And then what? ” Luther asked. My eyes flashed angrily to him, which he met with his own harsh resolve. “Returning to the palace was risk enough, but at least the consequences were on us alone. If your brother leaves that palace at your side right now...”
My eyes fell closed, my brother’s words replaying in my head. His grief, his betrayal, his raw, vulnerable pain.
I swiveled forward and finally retreated to the numb darkness I’d been flirting with all evening.
For better or worse, my decision was made.
I opened my heart to Sorae across the bond, and she let out a doleful trill at what she found. She arched back toward the palace to obey my orders, though a pulse of protest rippled back forcefully enough to send a tremor through my spine.
My mother grabbed my arm. “Diem, Luther’s right. We can’t go back. It’s too dangerous.”
I didn’t answer. The palace grew nearer, and my lips flattened to a thin, angry line.
At my back, I heard Luther’s quiet sigh, then felt the faint swirl of his nearly depleted godhood. “Shields ready, my Queen.”
“Save your magic, Prince,” I said.
Sorae’s pace abruptly slowed, then stopped just outside the soldiers’ reach.
I met my brother’s gaze. Taran and Perthe gripped his arms as he strained against them to get to me. Even at this distance, I saw the desperation on his face—and when his expression shifted, I knew he saw the plea for forgiveness on mine.
Luther was right. He and I had chosen our fates, and so had my mother. Whatever consequences would come from this, they were ours to bear. If Teller left the palace at our side, he would become our accomplice.
On the run as a fugitive, if I could protect him.
Prison or execution, if I couldn’t.
I knew how badly he wanted our family together. Perhaps he’d be willing to sacrifice the rest of his life for it—but he deserved to make that choice on his own.
“I’m so sorry,” I called out.
“No!” he shouted.
He rammed an elbow into Taran’s ribs, catching him by enough surprise to slip his hold, then twisted until Perthe’s wrist bent unnaturally and he was forced to let go. Both men lunged to stop him, but Teller deftly sidestepped and broke away.
I would have smiled, were my heart not breaking. Teller might be an academic at heart, but he was still a Bellator, through and through.
He ran to the edge of the balcony, shaking his head. “Please don’t go!”
I fought the burning in my throat as I tugged my mother’s hood down to her shoulders and her identity was laid bare. It might condemn me to be a fugitive for life, but I couldn’t leave without letting Teller see that she was alive and well.
Murmurs arose, growing louder and angrier. Troops advanced in our direction. Sorae’s ochre gaze kept a careful watch, edging us further out of range.
I barely noticed. All I could see was my brother’s face and the stream of tears falling down his cheeks. My mother stretched an arm toward him, and he leaned over the balustrade to do the same.
“I love you so much,” she shouted in a wobbling voice. “Be strong, my little scholar.”
“ Please ,” he begged.
I dropped my chin and placed a hand on Sorae’s neck. “Let’s go.”