Chapter 46
Chapter
Forty-Six
EVIE
T he force of the fall smacked Kaya’s already-frail body against an inclined shelf in the gorge, covered in dust and debris.
The fractured bridge splashed into the Obsidian River waiting below like a great gaping mouth.
Kaya’s groan rattled my bones. Her hands shot out to grab onto something–anything–for leverage, but they only met loose dirt. The more she moved, the more she slipped down.
“Stop!” I roared.
Kaya stilled, but she still slid lower, shards of rock cascading from underneath her body. I dug the fingers of my left hand into a crevice in the road. My other hand shot out behind me.
Hold her.
Blue tendrils rushed down, forming a webbing under Kaya and cradling her. I sighed in relief as Vexa’s whimpers quieted down.
But no matter how hard I tugged or how much energy the tendrils sucked out of me, I didn’t have the strength to hoist Kaya up.
I hadn’t willed my power properly and I couldn’t risk recasting it and dropping her. But maybe that was the right–
The tendrils flickered with my hesitation. Kaya slipped again.
“Shit, shit, shit, shit,” I muttered and gritted my teeth against the strain.
Adara crouched on the ledge above me, fingers digging into my shoulders to keep me steady. “The civilians ran to find a rope thick and long enough.”
“No time.” I huffed. “Turn me around and lower me.”
“What?” Adara’s voice slashed the air.
“You heard me, general. Now do it.”
With a disapproving grimace, Adara used her strength to hoist me up so that she held onto my legs, lowering herself on the ground on her stomach. Vexa and Leesa each grabbed one of her feet.
Together, they lowered me down into the gorge, face first.
“If you die to save her, I swear to Xamor I’m coming in the afterlife to beat some sense into you,” Adara hissed between stuttered breaths.
I couldn’t reply, my entire energy split between the tendrils and the blood rushing to my head. Looking at the world upside down was more painful than I’d realized.
Slowly, impossibly slowly, I neared Kaya, both hands outstretched. But there were still two good feet between our hands.
“Kaya, listen to me,” I managed. “You need to jump.”
“I–I can’t.” She coughed, face bruised and covered in dirt.
The tendrils flickered again.
“You have to. I’ll catch you. You need to trust me.”
With a nod, Kaya tensed. Through the grace of the gods, her small feet found some temporary anchor between my power and the stone. She propelled herself high enough to grab onto me right as the tendrils vanished. As soon as our hands connected, my muscles and ligaments were pulled to their absolute limit.
Above, Adara grunted.
“I got you,” I cried in relief, despite the pain.
With the strength of us all, Kaya was slowly raised. Thankfully, she had an iron grip on my hand, a familiar spark in her eyes.
The stubbornness of survival.
By the time we finally made it back up to the ledge, the skin on my chest and abdomen had been scraped off and the ligaments in my arms burned. Three civilians rushed back with a thick chord, thirty seconds too late. Kaya would have already been swallowed by the river.
I nodded in gratitude to them all the same.
More civilians exited the workshops, crowding us and screaming at the torn bridge, as we hunkered on the ground.
Kaya barely had time to draw a full breath before Vexa caved to her knees, enveloping her in a desperate hug. Kaya hugged her back just as hard.
“I’m okay,” she muttered, a soft smile on her face. “I’m alright.”
I stared at my palms with dread. My power had failed me.
No, I had failed my power. One moment of doubting myself could have ended Kaya’s life.
My will was better than this.
I had to be better than this.
I nodded at Adara and Leesa. “Keep the crowd away, she needs space.”
And I needed answers.
My blood had hardly settled back into my legs when my heart jolted. My head whipped to the side, staring at the other edge of the ravine, toward the Capital, pulled by an unforeseen force.
The Dragon stopped right on the lip of what had been a bridge, eyes blazing. He sent a tentative tap against my inner walls, even though I could almost smell his urgency.
Even worried out of his brilliant mind, he wouldn’t consciously barge into my thoughts.
This would be the first time in a long while he would access my mind like this.
I lowered the barrier enough to send him the chant rolling in my mind. “I’m alive, I’m alive, I’m alive.”
The bond vibrated stronger than it ever had.
The relief flooding from his end almost knocked the air out of me again.
“What happened?” The ferocity behind his question made my knees shake.
“That’s what I plan to find out. I got this side, you handle that one.”
With a shared nod, the barrier between us stitched back together, and we each went to work. While he growled commands to his warriors and made the few guards who had dared follow them tremble, I gulped my fear down– I’m alive, I’m alive, I’m alive –and crawled toward Kaya, who was still rocking in Vexa’s arms.
She saw me approach and smiled, tapping her guard on the shoulder. Vexa begrudgingly detached herself and rose, but stayed uncomfortably close.
“You pushed me,” I muttered. Adara and Leesa were keeping the civilians–and, surprise, surprise, Lady Isalyth–at bay.
This conversation needed to remain as private as possible.
Only the wind, the Obsidian River below–and Vexa, who refused to budge–could witness it. Just as well, Kaya and her seemed glued at the hip, she probably knew everything already.
“You saved me.” I licked my lips. “Thank you.”
“I might not look it–” Kaya gazed down at the bloody scrapes on her hands and the rips in her dress; good thing she couldn’t see her face right now. Her left cheek was scratched deep and the right one was quickly puffing up. “–but you’re very welcome, Evie. You saved me, too. Thank you .”
“We all did, they pulled us back up.” I licked my lips, forcing the words out. “I’m sorry. I chose the wrong incantation, the wrong intent, my power flickered–”
“It’s alright. You risked your life to reach me.”
“You could have died.”
“But I didn’t.” Her smile was soft, like it had been when we’d first met, no reproach on her beautiful face.
“Kaya…what in Xamor’s name was that?” I asked.
“I believe that was an attempt on your life.”
She picked the worst time to have a sense of humor. Or maybe the fright had fractured the mask she wore as a second skin. “A message from your darling parents, I presume.”
“I don’t think it was meant as a message.” The smile trembled on her face. “I heard them say they want you gone, whatever it takes. They usually keep their schemes away from me, but they’ve become reckless. Desperate. They’re afraid of someone.”
“Me?” I asked incredulously.
“Someone outside the Clan. I don’t know, they don’t even utter this person’s name, like they’re afraid. But I heard them say they waited for The Dragon to return to strike.”
What in the–
It would have been ridiculously easier to kill me while The Dragon was on the battlefield, but Banu and Valuta had waited . Made their lives more difficult and risked his wrath to strike after the entire Blood Brotherhood–and every other Clan–knew he’d returned.
So everyone would know the Capital had been struck and I’d been assassinated under The Dragon’s watch.
Why?
“A perfectly coordinated coincidence,” I whispered and shook my head against all the grim answers swirling in my mind. “How did you know I would be here?”
“My parents knew and I’m a better listener than they realize.” A hint of pride tugged at her smile. “It helps that they sometimes forget I exist.”
“I’m sorry. It hurts when the ones meant to protect you don’t even appreciate you.” May the gods cradle their bones, but my parents hadn't been that great.
She gave me a sad look. “It’s awful. I’m sorry, too.”
“Kaya?” I asked, lowering my gaze. I gulped breath after breath. “I’m sorry for what I said to you the last time.”
“Forgiven.” She sighed. Even that small puff of air sounded delightful. “I’m sorry I kept the truth from you. And for marrying Zandyr.”
She’d accepted my apology just like that. She hadn’t even hesitated.
I nodded. Forgiveness still eluded me.
“I know you did it because of the oath,” I found myself saying. “But it fucking hurt, Kaya. It hurt a lot.”
“I regret what I did,” she said, sounding almost desperate. “But you have to know Zandyr’s heart beats only for you and my heart belongs to another.”
I shook my head, despite a part of me roaring with joy. The howl had come from the deepest recesses of my mind, where such stupid emotions needed to go and die. “It’s not about that.”
Kaya raised her brows.
“Alright, it’s also about that. But…” I siddled closer to her, ripping a strand from my dress. I took one of her hands in mine and wrapped it around the largest wound. The golden fabric instantly soaked her blood up. “You weren’t a mere stranger. You were my friend. Who then married the man I–” I licked my lips. “The man who’d promised me I’d be queen, only for you to take the throne and the crown. Still, the worst part of it was the lie. Hiding the truth, evading the reality, whatever you want to call it, it’s still a lie in some prettier clothes.”
“I truly am sorry, Evie. Nobody wanted to hurt you…you know that, right?”
“I know. But if someone cracks your skull accidentally, even if they truly regret it, it still hurts and you have a cracked skull.”
Kaya nodded, but didn’t say anything else. Neither did I, as I kept ripping fabric and tying it around her wounds.
The scrapes were so deep against Kaya’s beautiful skin. “What were you thinking?”
“Evie, let’s be honest. You’re more important for the Clan’s future than I ever was. Saving you might have been the one important thing I’ve ever done.” Kaya’s smile turned so sad, it pained me. “For the good of the Blood Brotherhood.”
“Don’t say that,” I muttered, checking her arms while Vexa looked at me with a weird mix of gratitude and bitterness.
Kaya shrugged as awkwardly as I’d ever seen her, like her graceful veil had been shattered along with the bridge. “It’s the truth.”
I sighed, looking straight at her. “Kaya, a wise woman told me we’re the masters of our own lives. If you’re unhappy with yours, change it.”
“It’s not that easy.”
“It never is.” I stared at the menacing Phoenix Peak looming in the distance. The alarm bells were ringing hard enough to vibrate the wall. “But, sometimes, we can only free ourselves.”
Kaya sighed. “Now that we survived, the hard part’s coming.”
“What’s that?”
The color drained further from her cheeks. “Facing my parents.”