Chapter 26 Odessa
Twenty-Six
Odessa
It was a dream.
Ransom rode Aurinda straight for me, his silver eyes locked on mine. He stretched out an arm, like he was going to pick me up and together, we’d ascend to the shades.
Finally. He’d found me.
And I could be done with this fight.
Tears spilled down my cheeks. I sank to my knees, my sword lowering.
And then it was gone. As Aurinda bounded over Freya’s dead body, Ransom snatched the weapon from my hands.
I jolted.
Not a dream.
Be real. Please be real.
I snapped back to reality as he brought my sword across the bariwolf’s throat. The monster was close enough that blood sprayed over Freya’s body.
Green blood.
The monster collapsed, sliding on the dirt.
“Run, Cross,” Ransom shouted, turning Aurinda around.
I pushed to my feet and leaped over Freya’s legs as another growl sounded behind me, coming from the trees. But I didn’t look back, my eyes locked on Ransom, my heart in my throat, as I raced for Aurinda.
His eyes widened as he looked past me, and then, with a snarl, he urged Aurinda to sprint, both of them breezing past me, my sword raised in the air.
I whirled as a massive wolf jumped for him, trying to knock him out of the saddle.
Ransom kicked it away before its jaws could sink into his thigh. He sent the beast sprawling, making sure those spines didn’t get anywhere near Aurinda. In a fluid leap, he flew out of the saddle and was already running when his feet hit the ground.
The bariwolf reared up on its hind legs, but before it could strike, Ransom ran the sword the length of the beast’s underbelly. The monster gurgled and lunged, not realizing it was already dead as its organs began to spill from its open abdomen. A heartbeat later, it collapsed by Ransom’s boots.
He turned in a slow circle, scanning the trees for another beast. His grizzur-hide vest was coated in blood. His chest heaved as he breathed. When he finally looked to me, it was with swirling, silver eyes.
In a blink, they turned my favorite shade of moss green.
A sob escaped my lips.
And then we were running.
We collided, my arms looping around his shoulders as he hauled me off my feet. My legs wrapped around his hips. One of his hands cupped the back of my head as he buried his nose in my hair.
“You found me,” I sobbed into the crook of his neck, breathing in his scent. Leather and wind and earth and spice and Ransom.
He was alive.
“You found me.”
“I found you,” he breathed, dropping to his knees.
Tears spilled down my cheeks as the crying turned to laughter, and I leaned away, cupping his face in my hands. “Took you long enough.”
His smile was a thousand glittering stars. A hundred dazzling sunsets. “Sorry to keep you waiting, wife.”
I laughed again and crushed my lips to his, kissing him for all the days we’d spent apart.
For the doubts that had tormented me since Ellder.
I poured every emotion into the kiss, the worry and joy and heartache, and as his soft lips moved against mine, as our tongues tangled, the fear began to subside.
He broke the kiss, his eyes closing as he dropped his forehead to mine. “Shades, I missed you.”
Weeks of terror vanished at the sound of his voice. Finally, we’d be safe. Finally, we were together.
A shout tore us apart. Hooves pounded on the ground, and Aurinda shifted behind us, a warning that someone was approaching.
Ransom kissed me again, hard and firm. A kiss that would linger, even after we moved apart.
I shifted, about to stand. To put some space between us so that whoever was riding this way wouldn’t find me on his lap.
Except before I could push to my feet, Ransom’s arms banded around my waist, trapping me in place.
“They’ll see us.”
“That’s okay.” He pushed the curls from my face. “No more pretending.”
No more lies. No more hidden crowns.
No more Guardian.
This was Zavier Ransom Wolfe.
My husband.
He’d lost so much in Ellder. His warriors. His cousin and best friend. His mother. And now his anonymity.
There was so much to talk about, so much to say. But it would have to wait.
I gave him a soft smile and pressed my hand to his heart. “If you’re sure.”
“I’m sure.” He kissed my temple, then looked over my shoulder.
I twisted, following his gaze.
Thora rode straight toward us, drawing her horse to a stop beside Freya. Her eyes were hard, her ax in one hand, its blade coated in blood. She glared down at Ransom, her lip curling. “You.”
They knew each other? That shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did.
“Fuck.” Ransom gave me a flat look. “Only you would get tangled up with the Mavins.”
“Hey.” I frowned. “If not for them, I’d be dead.”
“If not for them, I would have caught up to you in Laine,” he grumbled and lifted me off his lap, helping me stand.
My legs were wobbly now that the shock of the bariwolf attack was beginning to fade. I swayed on my feet, like this cursed forest was sucking the life out of my body through the soles of my boots.
Ransom looped an arm around my waist, lending me his strength as he turned his attention to Thora. “Where is Evie?”
She looked him up and down before her gaze dropped to his hand splayed across my hip. As far as she knew, the Guardian was not my husband. When she looked at me, there was an accusation in her fiery eyes.
Something else we’d deal with later.
“Jodhi has her,” I said as the sound of more riders echoed through the trees.
Golding and Dair rode toward us, both breathing heavily but alive.
“Find Jodhi,” Thora ordered.
Dair nodded and, with a parting look to Golding, galloped away.
“Mathias,” Golding breathed, shaking his head.
The two Mavins shared a look, a silent conversation.
“To bloody blades.” Golding dipped his chin and rode off in the same direction as Dair.
“That was the largest pack of bariwolves I’ve ever seen,” Thora said. “And they all had Lyssa.”
Ransom’s body went rigid.
Damn it, Thora. She’d delivered that statement like a punch to the gut. Probably the goal.
“I, um, told her about the infection.”
“You don’t say,” he grumbled.
“It’s spread too far.” I looked up at him, pleading with him to understand. “We can’t fight it alone.”
His irises shifted colors into the hard, stony hazel that meant we’d be discussing it later. “Did either of you see a wolf with only one eye?”
My jaw dropped. Was that why this pack was so big? Was that why he and Zavier hadn’t been able to track the one-eyed wolf in Turah? Because it had come to Genesis instead?
“I didn’t notice,” Thora said. “I was too busy trying to keep them from eating the Sparrow.”
“Do you really think it’s here?” I asked.
“Maybe.”
“What does a one-eyed bariwolf have to do with this?” Thora asked.
“Later,” Ransom said. “How many in this pack?”
“I can’t be sure,” she said.
“At one point, I counted twenty-one.” I closed my eyes and leaned into his chest.
Was this my fault? Was I the reason for this enormous pack?
If not for the Mavins, if Ransom hadn’t come, if Evie and I had been out here alone…
I shuddered at the thought.
“It’s all right,” Ransom murmured. “I found you.”
He wrapped me in his arms, holding me tight. I could feel the strength in his embrace, hear the steady beat of his heart. But a part of me was certain that when I looked up, he’d be gone.
That this was a dream and I’d wake up in the shades.
Ransom dropped his arms before I was ready. He looked over his shoulder at the sound of riders. A strangled noise came from his throat before he took off running.
Jodhi galloped toward us with Evie in front of him on his saddle.
Sobs racked her body while her face was buried in Faze’s fur.
Jodhi tapped her shoulder so she’d look up.
She blinked, staring at Ransom like she wasn’t sure he was real, either. But when it sank in, the corners of her mouth turned down and her little body collapsed forward.
She would have fallen if not for Jodhi.
He kept her in the saddle, taking Faze by the scruff of his neck, until Ransom was close. Then Jodhi let Evie go so she could crash into Ranse’s arms.
Safe. Now, she was safe.
He held her to his chest and closed his eyes as he rested a cheek on her hair.
Evie’s legs and arms wrapped around him as she cried, harder than any other time she’d broken down on this journey. All her grief, all her sorrow, she gave to Ransom.
Because like me, she knew he could carry the load.
My hand came to my heart as it pinched, tears filling my eyes, too.
Faze squirmed free from Jodhi’s grip, dropping to the ground on all fours. He gave the Mavin a hiss, then bounded beneath the horse to Ransom’s legs, winding around his ankles.
I sniffled and wiped away the tears as Ransom turned and carried Evie to me.
He murmured something in her ear as they walked, Faze trotting close behind.
Jodhi rode ahead of them, coming to a stop beside Thora.
“Thank you,” I told him.
He gave me a single nod, then looked at Thora.
“I won’t bury Mathias in this place.” Her voice was empty and cold. “Continue ahead. I’ll catch up.”
Jodhi stayed silent as she left to collect their friend’s body.
“I’m sorry. About Mathias.”
“So am I.” He kept his gaze on Thora’s back.
“Dess.” Evie ran for me the moment Ransom set her down.
I dropped to a knee, arms wide open, as she crashed into my chest. Thank you, Ama.
Ransom walked to us, bending to kiss both of our heads. Then he went to Freya’s body, carefully taking off my saddlebags.
I didn’t want to leave her body here in this skeleton forest, but I didn’t want to risk the bariwolves coming back if there were others nearby.
“Is Freya…” Evie couldn’t finish her sentence.
“She’s in the shades.”
She nodded and started crying again, burying her face in my shoulder as Ransom moved our things to Aurinda. When it was loaded, he came over and picked up Evie, lifting her into his saddle.
“We should go in case there are other wolves,” Jodhi said, still not looking at me.
“What about Golding and Dair?”
“Gone.”
I opened my mouth, about to ask why they’d leave, but another question came to mind. “What will happen to Mathias’s mother and sister if he’s not alive to pay his debt?”
“If we’re lucky, Golding and Dair will get to them before Salem finds out Mathias is dead.” Jodhi finally looked at me. “Any other questions, doll?”
Yes, but that was not an invitation to ask.
He pulled on his horse’s reins to turn it around.
As he rode away, I took one last look at my pretty blue roan.
It was a lifetime ago that I met her on the shores of Turah. We’d come so far together. From Treow to Ellder to Ravalli. From a burning fortress to a watery cave.
This horse had saved my life. Without her…
I tilted my face to the sky, knowing that she’d found her way to Arabella. That in the Goddess of Love’s shade, she would feel no more pain.
A sob broke free as Ransom’s arm slid around my shoulders.
“Damn it.” I sniffled, trying to pull myself together, but the frayed pieces were beginning to unravel. “I really loved that horse.”
Ransom took my face in his hands, his thumbs catching my tears. “Can you keep going?”
“Yes.” I nodded, still crying.
Yes, I’d keep going. Just like Freya, I’d keep going even when I so desperately wanted to stop.
He kissed my forehead. “There’s my queen.”