To the Valley of the Dead
V alerio stood near a pillar. His shoulder leaned heavily against it, and his distracted gaze looked out into the ocean waves as they crashed up the side of the castle. The crown perched above his brow lay at a crooked angle, as though it were about to topple off and fall to the ground, and he would let it.
His melancholy mood was understandable, and Bryson’s chest almost ached for him. She could feel sorry for the prince’s loss without actually being sorry about who had died.
Because staring at him hurt, she turned her attention to the rest of the Resistance instead. There was a brewing tension between all of them that she was sure would bubble over at one point. But right now, they were all gathered together in the throne room in tense silence. The Elementals all sat on the ground in a circle, a map placed on the floor in the center of them.
Shula held a pile of six stones in her hand. She played with them, turning them over in her palms in a distracted movement as she stared down at the map.
“So,” Bryson broke the terse silence. “What do we have to do?”
“We all hold the stones together,” Shula explained. “We concentrate on the Elemental and we drop the stones. They’ll all land on a location and we’ll know which one we have to find next.”
Bryson hummed and stared down at the map of Illyk. It was crumpled along the edges, torn at the corners.
“How will we know which is next?”
“We just know,” Iona said softly. She looked up at Bryson. Her eyes were red-rimmed, as if she hadn’t slept or had been weeping.
Bryson swallowed and wondered how badly she had fought with her mate over what Weylyn had done. A part of Bryson felt the urge to apologize for the unrest they’d caused, but she shook it off.
The king had earned his fate. Nobody else had to agree with what Weylyn had done. Nobody else even had to like her for it. Yes, they’d chosen their side, but still Bryson could feel their turmoil as they sat near her. And still, she felt like maybe she didn’t quite belong with them.
She tried to shake that off.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Let’s do this, then.” She held out her hands, palms up and waited for the others. They all did the same, cupping the undersides of Bryson’s hands. Shula put the stones on Bryson’s palms and closed her hands around them. They shook the stones together, and Bryson concentrated on the Elementals. The ones around her as well as the ones they were destined to find.
They stayed like that, before some instinct that seemed to grip them all had them turning their palms over and letting the stones fall onto the map.
Bryson watched them bounce one by one.
Four stones landed onto the part of the map that marked Dana.
Another further north, landing on the Valley of the Dead.
The sixth seemed to bounce around the map, never settling on a single place for too long.
And then something strange happened.
A light glowed on the map, sending a string from Dana towards the north like it was marking the path they needed to take.
“Where to next?” Julius asked gruffly from above them.
“You can’t see that?” Bryson whispered, staring at it with awe.
“Only we can,” Corvina supplied.
“Where to?” Julius asked again.
“Please tell me it’s not the Valley of the Dead,” Clay whispered as he leaned over Corvina. There was horror in his voice. “Please not the Valley of the fucking Dead.”
“What’s wrong with the Valley of the Dead?” Corvina asked.
“It’s rumored to be the home of all manner of monsters,” Clay said. His gaze swept over them all. “Please tell me we aren’t going there.”
Bryson was not afraid of rumors. She’d lived through monsters in the Unseelie Court, she’d lived through the monster that was the Unseelie Queen herself. She’d lived through iron camps, the death of her family, and the threat of death herself.
She was not afraid.
She looked up at Clay. “We’re going to the Valley of the Dead.”
He let out a curse and stepped back, shoving his hands deep into his pockets. “I am not looking forward to this,” he whispered. “Anyone want to take bets on who the next Elemental is? Earth? Spirit? And maybe who gets their mate next?” He said the words as if he wanted to diffuse the tension that permeated the room.
But nobody laughed.
Nobody responded.
Nobody said a single thing at all.
They just stared at the map and the glowing line that led from Dana towards the Valley of the Dead.
And though there was the feeling of discomfort in her chest, of a premonition that something was going to go terribly wrong, Bryson tilted her chin up.
Predator or prey.
And she vowed that she would never be anyone’s prey ever again.
“Time to go.” She looked up at her mate. “We have another Elemental to find.”