Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
Rydian
We’d been walking for what felt like forever; hours stretched into an eternity of stone walls and the steady drip of unseen water. Then, suddenly, the air changed. Colder. Thinner. The scent of fresh pine bleeding through the cracks ahead.
Eirnan raised a hand. We stopped. The faintest thread of moonlight filtered through a fissure in the rock wall, illuminating his gaunt face as he turned to me.
“We’re here,” he whispered.
Through the split, I could see a valley below, washed in silver light. Heliconia’s army spread across it like a plague.
The war camp was vast—tents in rows that went on forever, where they vanished into the darkness, the faint glint of frost-coated armor crawling along the perimeter. The ground itself was layered with snow and ice—a blanket of frozen death if one stayed too long.
Then there was the wind. It whistled keenly through the fissure, whipping through the pines that dotted the hillside.
“Gods,” Slade murmured behind me. “There must be thousands down there.”
“Closer to five,” Eirnan said grimly. “And that’s just the front lines. Who knows how many more monsters she has stashed in those mountains?”
The sight of it stole my breath. I’d known. After years of skirmishes along the Autumn border, the raids along trade routes, the intel from our scouts, I’d known she was building a vast force. But seeing it with my own eyes—here, on the edge of Autumn’s doorstep—was enough to make me pause.
Aurelia stepped forward to see for herself. The moonlight caught the gold in her hair, turning her into something too bright for this cursed place. I wanted to pull her back into the shadows, out of sight, out of danger. But that would be a fool’s move. One I’d already made too many times.
Aurelia was born to march into that nightmare, not hide from it.
And I was born to march beside her.
Her voice was steady as she surveyed the Obsidian ranks. “The barracks in the northeast corner are more heavily guarded than the rest. Do you think that’s where they’re keeping Lesha?”
I scanned until I found the structure in question, noted the posted guards, all armed despite being inside the safety of the camp.
“Or it’s Heliconia’s private quarters,” I said.
“Wouldn’t it make more sense to have hers at the center there?” Slade put in.
Sure enough, in the center of the camp stood a massive tent with guards posted. Same as the tent on the outskirts.
“We need to get closer,” Aurelia said. “To know for sure.”
“I’m not sure that’s wise,” Eirnan warned.
She turned to him. “How close can we get before exiting the caves?”
“See that lower ridge?” He pointed to a spot far below us. It was a lot closer to the edge of the camp, but not on the same side as the tent in question. “We’ll exit there. Any further and the tunnels are blocked from rock slides.”
“That’s where we’ll have to reach when we leave,” Keres pointed out.
I mentally clocked the time it would take to get in, gauging the difference between the Aine prisoner being in the outer tent versus the one in the center.
We’d likely have to split up to search them both.
A doable strategy for infiltration. Getting out would be a different story.
It might not have been impossible if there weren’t five thousand Obsidians between us and a safe retreat.
Aurelia didn’t answer, just kept watching the valley, jaw tight.
I knew that look. The calm before her power tore something apart.
We retreated deeper into the cave, far enough that the light dimmed to nothing but what our torches allowed. Eirnan found a sharpened stone and used it to draw a crude map into the dirt.
“This is the valley,” he said, drawing a boundary. “Their command tents are set here, near the ridge.”
“How do you know that?” Aurelia asked.
“More soldiers in and out of there than anywhere else,” he said with a shrug. “That’s likely where the prisoners are kept. They’d want her within reach of any orders received from their masters.”
Aurelia’s throat worked once before she nodded. “Then that’s where we’ll strike.” She looked at me. “Right?”
I looked down at the map, considering all options. “We want to disrupt their organization, especially for our retreat, so yes, it’s the best place to strike.”
She leaned over the map, her hair falling forward in loose strands. I watched the flicker of torchlight paint her features—focused, resolute, beautiful. My chest tightened at what I could never have.
Eirnan looked at me. “Your shadows could cover the approach.”
I forced myself to focus. “Yes. But they won’t mask sound. We’ll need to move in small groups. Slade, how many do you think you could take with you on a jump?”
“Two, maybe three,” he said.
“All the way to the center?” I asked.
“Sure. But not out again. Not if I’m bringing friends.”
“We’ll help you get out,” Aurelia told him.
“Three teams then,” Thorne said. “One to breach the prison and extract the captive. One to hit their communications. And one to check the center tent.”
“No,” Aurelia said.
“We need to hit their supply lines. Burn everything that slows them down.”
“Thorne and I can take the supplies,” Keres said. “We’re quieter.”
Slade smirked. “You? Quiet? That’ll be the day.”
Her dagger hit the dirt beside his boot with a solid thunk.
“I’m seeing it now,” he said cheerfully. “Very stealthy.”
Aurelia lifted her gaze from the map. “Slade, you and Thorne shadow-walk to the center tent. Just in case Lesha is there.”
“And if Heliconia is inside?” Slade asked.
Aurelia hesitated, and I could see the indecision weighing on her.
I cleared my throat. “Then you get the Hel out of there. We can’t afford a direct altercation. Not until Lesha is safe.”
He nodded.
Aurelia didn’t argue.
“Daegel, take Keres and a small contingent to the barracks on the outskirts,” I told them. “Once you secure the Aine, do what you can against their communications tent, but the priority is getting everyone out safely.”
“Will do,” Daegel said.
Keres studied Aurelia. “You sure?” Keres asked her.
Aurelia nodded. “I’m sure. If Lesha’s there…”
“We’ll get her out,” Keres finished for her.
Aurelia looked at me, swallowing hard, and I knew it was killing her not to be the one rescuing her friend. But I saw it now—what she intended.
“I’m going with you,” I said.
She nodded. “All right.”
“We all meet back at the cave entrance,” I said, though the words tasted wrong. Setting our rendezvous point implied we’d all live long enough to get there.
The others moved off and began preparing—checking blades, restringing bows, murmuring in low voices that didn’t quite mask their nerves.
Eirnan lingered near me. “They’re scared,” he said quietly.
“They should be.”
He gave a tired half-smile. “So are you.”
I didn’t deny it.
The truth was, I wasn’t sure what I feared more—the Obsidian soldiers we’d face or the discord in our own ranks.
The Withered had been fractured too long, their loyalty cracked and patched over by desperation.
The argument yesterday still echoed in the camp’s whispers.
Even now, I could feel their unease pressing at the edges of their resolve.
They would fight, yes. But would they hold the line when Obsidians came for us in legions? When it was their lives or Aurelia’s?
I’d seen what happened to armies that didn’t.
Aurelia must have felt it too. I found her still sitting in the dirt, staring at the map Eirnan had drawn. Her power hummed faintly under her skin, leaking through the cracks of her restraint. It had been doing that for days now, though she hadn’t brought it up.
I sat beside her. “You should rest.”
She didn’t look at me. “Plenty of time for that when I’m in my father’s kingdom.”
Hel. The afterlife.
I exhaled through my nose. “We’ve been through worse.”
“Have we?” she asked softly.
I didn’t answer, but I thought of that rooftop seven years ago. The crack and boom of world-ending magic. The sick belief that she’d been killed.
Her eyes flicked up to meet mine. “They don’t trust me.”
“Some don’t,” I admitted. “Most do.”
“That’s not good enough.”
“They’ll follow when it matters.”
She studied me, like she could read the things I wasn’t saying. “And if they don’t?”
I hesitated. “Then I’ll make them.”
Her brow furrowed. “By force?”
“If necessary.”
“I don’t want that.”
“I don’t either,” I said quietly. “But I’ll do whatever it takes to get you out of here alive.”
Her jaw tightened. “It’s not about me.”
“It will never not be about you,” I said. “Not for me.”
Our gazes held. In her eyes, I saw it. A different future. One where we gave in to the moments we had left. Where we lived as long as possible for our own happiness. Our own hearts. Even if that time would be unbearably short.
It never would have been enough.
Even a thousand years would have been only the beginning of what I felt for her.
Maybe it was useless to try to pretend anything else. Maybe—
Eirnan cleared his throat then.
I looked away.
“My men have their orders. We’ll be ready to move in the hour before sunrise.”
“Thank you,” Aurelia told him. “I know this can’t be an easy request to make. Once the army realizes what’s happening, they’ll send everything they have.”
“We’ll be gone before they can,” Eirnan said with more conviction than I knew any of us felt.
Aurelia looked at him like she wanted to believe it. Maybe she did.
With a nod, he left us alone again.
We sat together, both of us studying the map. Neither one talking about what we intended to do to the enemy camp drawn roughly before us. Or what might be done to us if we failed.
Eventually, the others quieted as soldiers found their bedrolls.
“If something happens to me,” Aurelia began.
“Then it will happen to me too,” I finished.
She didn’t argue. Only nodded and rose.
“Good night, Rydian.”
“Good night, Furious.”
When she was gone, I looked toward the tunnel mouth where a sliver of stars was just barely visible through the crack.
Tomorrow, the valley below would burn.
And whether it was Heliconia’s army or the princess asleep in this cave that struck the match, I knew one truth with terrible clarity: If she fell, I’d burn with her. There’d be nothing left for me in this realm without her in it.