Chapter 29
Ikar
We follow Endri quietly, taking in our surroundings.
To go from dead, gloamy forest to this—a forest where the branches and trees are twisty, but look healthy, and where there are only small bits of gloam in the shadows—is almost shocking.
There are bright flowers and long, dewy blades of grass, and bushes heavy with dark berries that Rupi stops to peck at, staining her white feathers purple as she hops within the bushes.
I’ve known that nymphs are connected to nature by their type, but I didn’t realize the extent.
I frown, confused. “Are we already within the land of the nymphs?”
Endri laughs and looks over her shoulder with a grin. “Oh no. Wait until you see what’s within. I’m sure they’ve fared better than I.”
“How have you survived this long?” I ask.
Endri drops back a bit to continue the conversation.
“Odella, of course. Her magic has lasted much longer than any other, and she supports those of us who are left. We aren’t far from her, and her magic sustains me, but my tree has been weakening…
It’s time to join the others before it’s too late.
Though without lucent, I guess we all die eventually.
” She spins around in the air and faces us, forcing me to stop abruptly so I don’t crash into her.
“But I told you I can only take you to the entrance. Whether you’re admitted or not is up to Odella. If she denies you, you’ll be killed.”
“All I ask is to get to the entrance,” I remind her.
I just have to hope that Odella will listen before attacking.
I glance at a wide-eyed Vera. She leans closer. “That other route is sounding really good about now.”
“We don’t have time.”
“Better than being killed!” she hisses.
“She’s not going to kill me.”
I hope.
“She doesn’t even know you.”
“She will soon.”
I hear her mutter something about stubborn, cocky, arrogant rulers, and I smirk, which prompts an even deeper frown that tempts me to smile wider. “Just trust me.”
“It would be easier if you weren’t the king,” she whispers, glancing at Endri ahead to make sure she’s not listening.
“Most trust me because I am. Why don’t you? You’d be the plural wife of the shifter king if not for me,” I remind her with a raised brow.
Vera snorts, but it quickly turns into a laugh that warms my chest as the scowl on her face softens. “I admit, I’m grateful you returned”—I see the lighthearted challenge in her eyes before she continues—“but I think I was doing pretty good on my own.”
Now it’s my turn to laugh. “If you consider being stuck beneath the edge of a tent wearing a dress of animal heads doing pretty good, then, yeah, sure.”
She frowns. “I merely needed to get Collette’s head unstuck.”
I shake my head in genuine disbelief. “I still can’t believe you named them.”
“You almost ripped her ear off.”
“Got you out, didn’t I?”
“Barely.”
“Just admit it. I take good care of you.”
She presses her lips together, but I take it as a win that she doesn’t deny it.
“They’re just ahead,” Endri announces.
I quicken my pace, but I can already hear Darvy and Rhosse. I smother a grin as they come into view. Both men are wrapped in smooth branches high above the ground, their feet dangling in the air. But the relief on their faces to see us alive tells me they believed the worst had happened.
“You can let them go; these are my friends,” I tell Endri. She flies up to hover before Rhosse’s face.
“This one took an axe to my beloved tree.” She pokes his shoulder with her other hand fisted on her hip as her wings beat even faster.
Rhosse growls with frustration. “How was I to know it was yours? It came for our weapons.”
“We’ll not do anything to harm your tree or any of the nymphs. Release them,” I say.
Endri glares at him with narrowed eyes, then the tree lowers them to the ground and lets them loose. Darvy stumbles out and groans as he stretches his neck from side to side.
Rhosse eyes Endri with dark eyes. “I’ll be needing my axe back.”
Endri huffs, and suddenly Rhosse’s enchanted axe comes hurtling from the tree branches and lands before his feet with a thud, sharpened edge planted in the ground. He grabs the weapon and inspects it with a critical eye.
“This is Endri. She’s taking us to the nymph entrance,” I inform Darvy and Rhosse. “How far is it, Endri?”
“Less than half a day’s walk and we’ll reach the entrance to see if Odella will grant you entrance… or kill us all for trying.”