Chapter 20 #2
With every hoofbeat, my hatred for the man in that trundling vehicle rises.
I want to bring Tira his head for what he did to Kit.
I want to burn him alive for the way he murdered those solari children.
In this moment, no punishment is too cruel or gruesome.
My horse is fast, as if fueled by my rage, and we gain on the carriage until I’m almost level with the window.
The figure inside leans forward, his face turning. Caledon’s dark, cold eyes meet mine.
I don’t hesitate, throwing my magic out toward him. It’s a hungry hand sweeping toward his center, searching out the light that keeps him alive, looking to strangle it out of existence.
I can end this now, in this moment. I just have to fight hard enough.
But what I find inside Caledon chills me to my core.
It’s just…nothingness. An edgeless, bottomless void. I see for the first time the black hole Respen described to me as the source of Caledon’s power—a vast, desolate space that can only consume rather than create. And somewhere, beyond it, is his inner flame.
I push my magic out across the void, trying to find that spark, but the blackness swallows my power, extinguishing it before it can find its target.
I grit my teeth, putting more force behind it, drawing on the deep wells of my magic to pour power into Caledon.
The void devours every last scrap before I get anywhere near the other side.
“Pull back, Ana. This is too much.”
Leon must feel my battle across the mooring. I was so focused on Caledon, I’d lost all awareness of our connection. Now his voice sends a jolt through me, jerking me back to reality.
The horse is still galloping beneath me, the carriage rattling just out of reach, and Caledon’s cold, black gaze stares out at me, but I can’t hear a thing.
My ears are muffled, only the distant rush of blood sounding in them, and I know what’s coming next.
I’ve almost drained myself dry, and soon I’ll have to pay the price.
Darkness dances at the edge of my vision, and I know with an odd certainty I’m about to faint.
Caledon smiles at me—a manic, sickening grin—and I briefly wonder what’s so funny.
Something sharp slices into my back, and I arch out of the saddle, screaming.
I have a brief second to register that my right foot has dislodged from its stirrup, then I’m falling toward the earth.
When I come back to consciousness, I’m aware of my whole body aching, a searing pain shooting through my back.
Slowly, I blink open my eyes. Faint sounds of battle start to filter back through as I stare up at the sky forming above me, and I realize I haven’t been out for more than a few seconds.
Footsteps crunch nearby, and I glance over to see the red-headed bearer holding a shard of her diamond mineral, lifting it above my chest.
A blur of black slams into her, pulling her from my vision. There’s a shriek and a gurgle, then Leon’s bending over me, no less beautiful for the splatter of blood across his face. He gently lifts my head, examining me.
“My love, tell me where you’re hurt.”
“The carriage,” I croak.
He shakes his head. “I’m sorry, it’s gone. But what’s important right now is making sure you’re okay.”
He’s wrong, of course. The most important thing is leaving us behind in that carriage, but I don’t have the strength to argue right now. Slowly, he lifts me up off the ground, stopping when I hiss at the pain in my back.
“Hold still,” he orders. “If you broke something when you fell from that horse—”
“No, it’s not that. That bearer cut me with something.”
He nods, turning me around.
“Yes, thank the gods, it’s just a stab wound.”
“Just?” I protest.
“As long as I bind it tight, you’ll survive until we get you to a healer,” he replies.
I kneel in the dirt as he rips material from his shirt sleeve and uses it as a bandage around my torso. I look around as he works, relief flooding through me as I count off our four friends, all alive. Tira hobbles toward me, a bloody rag tied to her own arm, and smiles grimly at me.
“At least I was looking my guy in the face when he got me,” she says, chuckling hoarsely when I make a rude gesture at her.
We drag ourselves back to the shore as the fae gather up horses for us.
I know we need to move quickly—Caledon is likely to send reinforcements to this spot soon—but we’re all exhausted down to our bones.
The riverboat is nothing but a dark shape under the water, and the smugglers are long gone.
My eyes fall on a body in the river, his red robes billowing in the lapping water. It’s one of the aquari I killed.
I look around at the others I’ve slain. Some of them are so young, their smooth faces and wide eyes making them look like children.
And Caledon brought them to this riverbank to die for his greed.
I don’t feel guilty—if I hadn’t killed them, they would’ve drowned us all—but I do feel incredibly sad.
The fae return with the horses.
“Come on,” Stratton urges. “Let’s get lost before Caledon decides he wants to take us on after all.”
“That coward,” Tira spits. “He’s clearly terrified of us. He made a run for it as soon as he could.”
I think of the grin Caledon gave me from the carriage and shake my head.
“He’s not afraid. We just didn’t register as anything important enough to stick around for. He’d already gotten what he wanted.”
“So today proved he’s not willing to risk his life to take yours,” Phaia says. “But you’re still a threat to him.”
“I wish that were true,” I reply, remembering that vast void I found inside him. It could swallow up everything I have before I even made Caledon flinch.
“He has no reason to fear me,” I say. “It doesn’t matter how much power I have. I can’t kill him.”