Chapter 25
Twenty-Five
Hayle
Panic slipped into my sleeping mind seconds before my door slammed open and Zier Tarrin stood there, looking pale. “Is she here?”
I sat up in bed, looking around. “Who?”
But I knew. She was missing. I could feel it in my chest.
“Check the other rooms,” I shouted at Zier, as I flew out of bed, calling for Braxus and Alucius. They were at my feet in seconds. “Avalon is gone. See if she’s still in the hall. Hurry.” I had a bad, bad feeling.
Vox appeared in my doorway, looking dishevelled, Lierick behind him. “She’s gone?” he asked, and I nodded.
“I can tell, here.” I tapped my chest. “She’s not close by.”
Zier reappeared, looking panicked. Vox wrapped him in air and threw him up against the wall. “What the fuck did you do?” he growled, and Zier grunted back.
“Nothing! I told her that I couldn’t be part of whatever this is, and she asked me to take her to bed for just one night. I don’t know if she was trying to get me out of her system, or if she just wanted one night of normalcy, or… I don’t know! I would never, ever hurt her.”
I believed him, but something had obviously happened. Vox, he was a little less trusting. He held Zier up there as he looked at me. “She seemed all right last night, right? Normal at dinner?”
I nodded. She’d been perfect, as always.
Lierick frowned and walked over to my desk.
Opening the drawer, he removed Ivan Vylan’s journal, the book on tals and A Future History of Ebrus.
Lierick flicked open A Future History, flicking to the back.
His face went pale, then green, as he read, his eyes bouncing frantically across the page.
He snapped it shut. “She’s gone to destroy the tal of Ebretha herself. The last time went… badly.”
“Badly how?” I demanded, already pulling on my sword. We were going to get her back, right fucking now.
He let out a shaky breath and buried his head in his hands. “I was overtaken by the power. I refused to destroy it. Stanlus appeared, almost killed her before I could release the statue, and then Stanlus shot me in the face.”
I cursed. Vox let out a growl, dropping Zier back to the ground. The guy glared at Vox, but he was shaking his head. “I knew it would be a problem. That level of power is addictive.”
“Where the fuck were we?” I asked Lierick, and he shrugged helplessly.
“At the Conclave. The Future History only documents the things she sees and knows. We didn’t have time to… reconnect, before she reset.”
It didn’t make sense, but I’d worry about that later. First, I had to go to Fortaare. I was going to get my Soul Tie back, and then I was going to seal our bond so I could talk inside her head.
I hadn’t told her about the sealing of our bond. I’d wanted it to be done not as a last-ditch effort to maintain a connection, but in a moment of happiness, of joy, of celebration without worry. Once again, my insistence that I knew best had endangered Avie’s life.
Barking an order at the first guard I saw to get my father, I sprinted down to Lucio’s room. I didn’t knock, but maybe I should have. In the center of Lucio’s bed was the girl from the Twelfth, Acacia, and without a word of a lie, on her left was Shay Vylan.
I opened, closed, and reopened my mouth again. “Avalon is gone.”
Acacia sat up in bed, seemingly uncaring her tits were out. “Gone where?”
Lucio growled, and I looked up at the ceiling. “Fortaare. She’s gone to do something heroic, and doesn’t trust us enough to have her back.”
Shay groaned. “Fucking Ninth. Get out—we’re coming with you.”
Honestly, I couldn’t get out of that room fast enough. I couldn’t wait to tell Avie that one of her besties had somehow bagged both seconds. I was impressed. I’d tell her all about it, after I was done spanking her into next week for sneaking out of here without me.
Within twenty minutes, my father had been informed about what had happened, including Avie’s reasoning, and he’d given me a contingent of Third Line men to march to Fortaare.
Even now, stealth would be better than brute force, but if it came down to it, I wanted to have muscle at my back, in case I had to fight my way to her.
There was no way I was leaving her in the hands of Feodore Vylan. No fucking way.
We ran the whole way to Fortaare, but when we arrived, my feet skidded to a stop. Fortaare was on fire.
No, scratch that, just the gates to Fortaare were on fire, and there was already fighting.
I could see Vylan’s guards, their uniforms silhouetted in the glow of the flames.
But their combatants? They were a random assortment of people, and I couldn’t pick who they were fighting for.
Some fought like professionals, making me wonder if they were former Dawn Army.
Others looked like dock workers and people from the tent city on the outskirts of Fortaare.
“What the fuck?” Vox breathed, and he looked over at Lierick, who had his face screwed up in confusion.
“They’re fighting for themselves. Someone riled them up about the injustice in Fortaare, of the way their daughters were plucked from their homes, their food stolen, their money taxed. It’s a proper revolution of the First Line, but I can’t figure out who instigated it. I don’t think it was Avie.”
Yeah, I couldn’t imagine Avie inciting this level of violence, but maybe these people hadn’t needed much of a push.
Vox let out a long breath. “No fucking way.” He pointed toward the fray.
There, swinging a sword in a way that told me he didn’t care if he lived or died, was Malak Trenton. He was fighting one of Vylan’s guards, and that was a good enough line in the sand for me.
“Against the guards! Fight your way in,” I yelled to the soldiers at my back. They whooped; the Third Line were nothing if not brawlers, and we’d been sitting on our hands for far too long.
Malak turned as Lucio dived into the fray in front of him, his eyes almost comically confused until he spotted us.
He fought his way toward us, even as someone attacked Vox, who laid the guy out with a simple turn.
If this was the best of Feodore Vylan’s guard, then maybe we wouldn’t need the Second Line army to take them out.
Malak appeared in front of us, blood spattered across his face, his eyes alight with violence. “She said you’d come, but I’m glad it was now. They almost had us on the back foot.”
Fear gripped me again.
“You’ve seen Avalon?” Zier barked, reaching for Malak.
He nodded, looking around. “We should talk somewhere quieter. The Baron has spies everywhere.” Leading us into a building that was miraculously not on fire, he closed the door.
“Met her at the sewage reservoir. I was sneaking in to kill the Baron as he slept. She said there were better ways to help Ebrus than committing suicide at the hands of Feodore Vylan.” His matter-of-fact statement was tempered with a soft laugh.
Vox raised an eyebrow. “She’s right. You wouldn’t have even made it into the palace, let alone to his bedroom.”
Malak nodded. “So she said. She said you guys would be behind her, but couldn’t come where she’s going. That it was dangerous; she said you would know why.” He looked at Lierick, who looked ashamed.
Vox laid a gentle hand on his shoulder, shaking his head. “If Avalon thinks we’re going to wait around for her to die, she doesn’t know us very well.”
Malak laughed. “She said you’d probably say that too. She said you’d know when it was safe to find her. That you just had to wait.”
I nodded, but there was no way I was waiting. If she was in the Hall of Ebrus, I was going to be right behind her, even if I had to tear Fortaare to shreds first.
“Malak!” someone shouted, and we all rushed from the building. More First Line guards had appeared, and one face in particular sent rage flooding through my veins.
Stanlus. I fucking hated that piece of shit, and today was his reckoning.
I rolled my neck and looked over at Vox. “Let’s end this.”
Avalon had lit the match, but I was going to burn this place down.
Stepping into the battle, I let the Spryrix free. He roared to the surface, ready to murder his enemies and retrieve his mate. But first, there was a blood bag he was desperate to have between his teeth.