26. Kyros
Chapter twenty-six
Kyros
It’s not but a few moments later that we arrive at the sandy border of Aithne. Somewhere which should feel like returning home only serves as a reminder of the carnage we last saw here. A tainted memory of what should have been a celebration, left stained with the carnage of battle.
My horse, who is clearly not used to walking through portals, rears up, and I pull the reins down gently, running my hand along her neck to comfort her.
Everyone is tense arriving back here. Astraea lets out an exhale and gets close behind me.
She swiftly unsheathes one of her daggers the moment she steps onto this side of the rendered portal; the sight gives me some reassurance that she’s done as I asked.
As we head toward town, I keep my eyes trained forward while continuing to offer calming reassurances to my still uneasy horse.
Ruaan is the one who rendered the portal for us to leave.
I surprised even myself when I didn’t argue with him, but only for the fact that I wished to reserve my magick for a fight if we were to have one upon arrival.
Rendering a portal for this many people and a horse would use a good amount, and given that I just got my magick back… I’m not too keen on wasting any.
I’m not sure what I expected when walking through a portal rendered by someone else, or that I really expected any difference at all.
It was mostly the same, but there was a sense of walking through an endless darkness.
Whereas when I render, I can almost visualize the route through the portal, even if I don’t quite know what is on the other side.
Since that first portal I accidentally rendered, I have known exactly where I would be landing on the other side.
I guess this was close to the feeling of that first time but entirely different from when I flung myself through Astraea’s.
Luckily, Ruaan kept his word and rendered us exactly where we needed to go. Even with our truce, I’m having a difficult time trusting that everything the prince is doing isn’t about some ulterior motive. Given the deceit that he has come to learn of recently.
The air snaps behind us as Colette and Ruaan step through last. As he exits, he snaps his wrist, pulling his magick back toward him, and closes the portal. I give them a quick glance, and the grin on Ruaan’s face has me turning back around just as fast. Still arrogant as fuck.
Aithne would usually be bustling with movement this close after the celebrations around the Shula Morana, but today that’s not the case.
A light breeze blows my hair across my eyes as the ground transitions from sandy earth to a more solid stone-like material that leads to the heart of the city.
My gaze sweeps the bare streets and the doors that are hanging halfway from hinges.
Dark spots stain the ground, the walls, and any and every surface in between—the marks of death where people and creatures have fallen.
Smoke clouds the air, and ash falls like snow, dusting everything in a layer of sorrow.
Something I didn’t know I had in me breaks in that moment.
I don’t realize I’ve stopped moving until Astraea pauses at my side.
I barely notice her small influx of air when she too witnesses the scene.
Ruaan and Colette freeze as well when they reach us.
We stand petrified, nobody making a sound.
Heat floods my veins and assaults the back of my eyes as tingles of raw pain run the length of my spine and wrap it in a vise-like grip, threatening to drop me to my knees.
I take a deep breath and regret it immediately as the scent of death permeates my lungs.
Astraea steps forward first, moving toward the pile of corpses gathered in the small town square.
My hand whips out as I grab her by the wrist.
“Wait,” I growl. Someone had to have put these people here to burn. Ruaan seems to have also realized this as he unsheathes his sword hanging from his hip with a slow hiss of steel. I bar his advance with my arm as we all just look forward at the carnage in front of us.
“I already checked there.” A voice echoes in the distance a moment later. I crane my neck and try to place the voice as he moves closer. “No. I haven’t seen—” His voice is caught in his throat as he turns the corner and comes to a halt as soon as our eyes meet. “Kyros.”
“Thank the fucking divine.” I growl, patting Ruaan on the chest and giving a comforting small squeeze to Astraea’s wrist before releasing her.
“Put the blade away.” My words are for Ruaan, but my eyes never move away from the man in front of me.
His face twists, fat tears building in his eyes before a laughed sob comes from deep in his chest, and he runs for me.
“Beckett,” His name escapes me in a puff of breath as his body slams into mine. His lanky arms wrap around me, soot-covered and blood-stained, but whole. Alive.
“Fuck, I thought I lost you! We lost so many,” Beckett chokes on his words. “S-so many people.” I squeeze my adoptive brother just as hard in return as I close my eyes and prepare to ask the question I have had burning in my mind since the moment I saw the heap of remains left of Aithne.
“I’m so sorry, Beckett.” I know this situation must be harder on him.
Many of these people were more family to him than they were me.
As much as I cared about them, he had a different sort of relationship with most of the community because he worked so closely with Rowan at keeping the town running.
He and Rowan did everything for these people.
I push him out at an arm’s length so I can look into his eyes.
Blotchy red patches cover his face with emotion, but he shakes his head without me even asking the question.
“I haven’t seen Mavros since the battle in the dunes. Zinya was here… but Connard, he recognized her. We didn’t stand a chance. Vil—” His words stop when another person comes rounding the corner.
“Who are you talking to?” Viltarin comes to a sudden stop, his eyes flying wide and jumping between me, Astraea, Ruaan and finally landing on Colette.
“You made it.” The corner of his mouth lifts on one side as he fights a smile from taking over his face.
I get it. How can we show any amount of happiness when there has been so much lost?
The emotion feels displaced. But I know it’s not happiness he really feels because I feel the same.
It's a relief. Relief to know that at least someone else survived.
“Everyone who survived is meeting back at one of the cottages along the skirt of the forest. One of the only buildings that didn’t get tossed by Connard’s men.
” Beckett nods in the direction of said cottage.
He comes to stop at Astraea’s side and wraps an arm around her shoulders.
“I’m glad to see you are stronger than you look.
” He teases her, and she smiles sadly. My lips twitch as I begin to try to voice the question I know I need to ask.
“You said Zinya was here…” My eyes trail away from them and to the mass grave. My heart hammers on my ribs. It’s Viltarin who responds.
“You will get shit for those words and their implication when she finds out.” I pull in a much needed breath with the confirmation that she lives.
“Unfortunately, she’s no longer here in Aithne.
You know Zinya. And since we couldn’t place you or your brother…
No one could keep her from leaving to look.
” Of course not. She would search the ends of the earth for her family.
At the very least, I can take comfort in the fact that she was last seen alive.
She’ll find Mavros. I have to trust that.
Every step feels heavy as we make our way through what is left of the small town I once called home.
The place my adoptive family taught me to keep a lid on my anger.
Taught me the value of family and belonging that Phaedra never could.
Aithne replaced what was stolen from me by Connard, but now he has taken this place too.
He’s yet again taken more lives that have molded me into the man I am today.
Every building has fallen. Belongings strewn about on the ground in front of the dwellings.
Doors kicked in, windows smashed, and the roofs on many of them still burn from the fires that were set to them.
The further we walk, the more my hate grows for the man who sired my twin flame, and all I can do is hope that she forgives me for the monster I will become to end his life.
Up ahead, a few people mill about in front of the least dilapidated cottage, but as I pass one of the crumbling buildings, I slow. What was that? The others pass by me, but I cock my head as I hear it again. A cough.
“Wait, there’s someone here!” I call out.
Dropping the reins of the horse, I run into the building that is at risk of collapsing at any moment.
The cough sounds off again, and this time I know I am closer to the source.
“I’m here to help! Call out. Help me find you!
” I call through the smoke and lingering ash.
Covering my mouth and nose with the sleeve of my tunic, I try to fight for my own breath as I navigate the wreckage.
My eyes burn as the smoke and the blistering heat attacks them, the latter threatening to peel my skin from bone the further I get into what's left of the building.
“H—elp!” A small voice coughs out the broken word, and that’s when I see them. Dropping to my knees, I grind my teeth to lift the large wooden support pole that must have fallen from the fire. Fuck. An animalistic growl pulls from my chest as I work on lifting the heavy lumber.