Chapter 64 Within Reach #2
Throat raw, chest still heaving, I forced myself to focus on what Endymion said.
One thing was certain—if I’d truly only managed to distance us from the palace by measly hours, then he was right. Even if Lady Time was gracious enough to hold things still until we’d reached safety, valenning was the only option for us to survive if we both continued to decline.
Ignoring how weak I felt emotionally and physically, I sat back on my heels and took in long, slow breaths to center myself.
The truth was, I knew a grand total of six things about valenning.
One, a fae can only valen two others at a time.
Two, a High Lord can sense the power when a foreigner uses it close, or within their borders.
Three, the valenner has to be in contact with the valennee.
Four, that the valenner has to know the place they are going.
Five, wards cannot be crossed.
Last—and most importantly—six, I had no fucken clue how to do it.
Closing my eyes, I focused on Endymion’s instructions and slipped back to the memory of Tarrin face down in a bed of discarded leaves, barely clinging to life.
The tang of blood.
The instant panic when I realized who it was.
Luca’s desperate whinnies on the summer side.
The chill air.
Every vivid detail assaulted my senses, my instincts clawing at me to banish the memory. Anchoring myself deeper despite my quivering body, I tilted my head back and bathed in the details at least a dozen time before I gained control over the memory.
Once grounded, I erased any trace of Tarrin from the memory, like a wave washing away a footprint.
Now able to focus clearly, I took in my surroundings.
The sky was gray, threatening rain—the same rain I’d ultimately leveraged to keep Tarrin alive.
Shaking that thought as the image of him tried to flicker back to life, I noted the soft, squishy feeling of moss underfoot.
Slowly, I turned in a circle. The scent.
The colors. The cool air. The soft breeze.
The rustling creatures. I cataloged every detail, even the mirage of the Autumn Court that looked as if it continued past the border.
Staying there, I searched through the threads of elemental power as if there’d be one for valenning, only I couldn’t find it. I’d thought it would work similar conjuring water, but instead of pulling millions of microscopic droplets together, I’d pull the thread between the two places.
I was wrong.
It could’ve been minutes or hours that passed as I held firm to the image of where I wanted to go. I’d tried taking my shoes off to ground to the Mother. Had pulled at all the threads—which was not my best idea. I’d even resorted to systematically plucking individual strands.
Nothing.
All I’d managed to do was expend what little energy I’d had to begin with until I could no longer stay upright.
Giving in, I rested my head on Endymion’s chest and closed my eyes.
I’d prayed to every divine force I knew, which eventually devolved into me continually whispering please, until sleep finally claimed me.
I noted the deep ache of my body before the light wind rustled the leaves as if in greeting. I smiled, allowing the familiar soft clatter to wash over me. Though, while I sank into the familiar sound, something in the back of my mind prickled.
The cool air of nightfall plucked at my exposed skin, pulling a shiver from me.
Wait.
Sound.
Night.
Chill.
I sat up so fast that my head spun as I willed my eyes to focus. Breath held, I watched as a leaf plucked by the gentle breeze swayed to and fro until it settled atop its kin under the cloudy, midnight sky.
“Fuck,” I said, scrambling to my feet. This was bad. Very bad. Lady Time had released her grip, and we were still in the Autumn Court. “Fuck,” I cursed again, looking around wildly for Endymion.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I spotted him about ten paces off, face down. “What in Lumnara?”
I moved toward him, but my feet faltered as an unsettling sense of déjà vu came over me.
We were there.
We’d made it.
We were at the border.
Hope and desperation over me as I sprang into action. Grace be damned, I grabbed Endymion by the wrists and tugged hard knowing full well that the surge of adrenaline coursing through my veins was the only thing propelling me forward.
Breathless from the effort, it’d taken to drag him about twenty paces, I freed my hands and wiped my brow before kneeling, needing to catch my breath before continuing.
I smiled at familiar shimmer of border, and heart skipping a beat, I brought my hands up to the only obstacle between us and safety.
With a deep breath, I settled into the part of me that was the essence of all things.
Then, at long last, I pressed my palms against the border.
I gasped as it gave way so suddenly that I fell forward, catching myself on the rough, drought-stricken ground that had been deprived of life from unrelenting summer.
The hot sun on my skin was a balm like I’d never experienced before, and I almost wept in relief.
“Going somewhere?” Even heat of summer wasn’t enough to stop his voice from filling my veins with ice, and it took everything in me to brace for what came next. To brace for Wymond.
I was so close. So. Fucken. Close. All I had to do was pull my legs through and I would be home. Safe. Free.
But Endymion lay helplessly to my left, no part of him in the Summer Court—and as I took him in, I raged at the thought of Wymond taking anyone else from me.
Standing up with every last ember of fight I had left, I held the border open and faced the Autumn High Lord.
“Home,” I answered in a lethal tone.
He smirked, then shot tendrils of dark magic toward me.
I braced, made to call for my magic, but his Death Thrall came up short.
Looking down, I realized I stood on desert.
I was in the Summer Court, and his magic couldn’t reach me.
Realizing his error, he redirected it toward Endymion.
I threw my hands out, and a shield of glittering white locked into place, blocking his attack.
Gods, I reveled at the look of shock on his smug face.
“Not so easy when your prey isn’t poisoned, is it, High Lord?” His honorific dripped with disdain, and a hate for him coiled deep in my soul like a serpent deep in my soul, poised to kill—and for the first time ever, I let it strike.
A blast of white-hot power erupted from me, the force of it so strong that I stumbled back a few steps before finding my footing; and stars did it feel good to let the spark fly free in search for her quarry. So good, in fact, that I cared very little about how I began to sway.
Standing was no small feat as I dug deeper. A scream tore from me as the horrors of what this fae had done called for vengeance, which was now the only thing fueling my ebbing body.
Endymion forced to confess our bond.
More power.
The fates robbing me of slicing Wymond’s throat.
More power.
Kaelun, looking down at me as he dissolved into nothing.
More power.
Tell Addy that I love her.
Tears streamed down my face, my throat raw as wave after wave of undiluted magic rolled off of me.
Lost in release, I didn’t register the firm hands holding me up.
“You can stop, Nyleeria,” Caius’ voice said, “you’re home.”
A guttural sound escaped me as I understood the meaning of his words, and then my body finally gave way.