Chapter 45
Chapter
Forty-Five
PIERCE
The strands of a basajaun’s white hair were our only clues. Caught on branches, each glistening strand strengthened our resolve. We would find her. There was no other acceptable option.
“We’re near the Rymar border.” Grayson’s right hand hovered near his dagger’s sheath. His left held Caspian’s reins. His eyes scanned the landscape, but he was looking for threats, not the next strand of hair that might lead us to Haven.
“There!” Teal pointed. Caught on a pine bough, a silvery white strand fluttered in the wind.
“Is that a footprint?” The snow had stopped, and as much as we’d been searching for basajaun hair, we’d also been scanning the ground for traces of the beast’s passage. The indentations in the snow didn’t look fresh, but they were deep enough to follow. Hope flickered in my chest.
Grayson grumbled unhappily. Each step up the mountain took us further from Angelfire.
I understood his reluctance. His was the logical stance. But when it came to Haven, logic had no value, not when a golden-haired woman who slew monsters needed us.
We’d been riding at a walk so as not to miss the strands of basajaun hair, but now that we had footprints to follow, Flynn urged his horse to a trot.
We reached a clearing, and the footprints changed. There were two different sizes.
The large ones headed down the mountain. The new, smaller set seemed to circle the clearing before cutting into the trees.
“It’s Haven. It has to be Haven.” The hope in Flynn’s voice was worrisome.
Flynn was a man ruled by fire. He burned bright, but disappointment or failure could drown him in darkness. Teal was his steadying presence. If we failed to find Haven, it would be Teal who dragged Flynn from the abyss.
We would not fail.
Because if we did, it wouldn’t only be Flynn drowning in darkness.
I respected strength. Physical strength.
Mental strength. My uncle, a weak man who was desperately jealous of his older brother, had betrayed my father and cost me my family.
The weak could not be trusted. They’d trade anything for power.
I’d only met weak women. They traded on their looks or bodies. Unreliable. Grasping. Faithless.
Haven was nothing like that. She was strong.
I was self-aware. I knew I repressed my emotions. No one was better at burying their feelings. Not even Grayson, and he had a bottomless hole in his soul, one so deep that his feelings about his mother could never climb free.
Every moment I spent in Haven’s company kindled emotions I hadn’t allowed myself to feel since my parents’ deaths.
Flynn leaped from his horse, dropping the reins and trusting that the animal would remain with us.
“Where are you going?” Teal yelled at Flynn’s disappearing back.
“These are her footprints. I’m certain.” He didn’t break stride. Instead, he sped up, running through the woods. “Also, the power. Can you feel the power?”
The thrum of the ward that separated Legacia from Rymar beat in time with my pulse.
We dismounted and followed, weaving through the trees.
“There’s a break,” he called.
That was impossible. Legacian magic battled Rymarian, creating an impenetrable barrier between the two countries. Nothing could breach the ward.
“Here!”
We followed his voice.
The ward shimmered. Legacian power. Rymarian power. I saw them both. And I’d been wrong. They didn’t battle. They wove together, closing the border to all. Except Flynn. Flynn extended his arm beyond the ward as if it weren’t there.
“I see her tracks!” He bounded to the Rymarian side.
“Flynn, wait!” Grayson’s order came too late.
Flynn stood in Rymar, grinning at us like a cat who’d caught multiple canaries. “Come on ov—” His back arched as his face contorted in absolute agony.
His body twisted, and he fell to the ground, his back still so arched that only his head and heels touched the snow.
“Flynn!” Teal raced across the border, falling to his knees next to Flynn. He grabbed Flynn’s hand and screamed, a cry seemingly ripped from the depths of his being. Only a man in unspeakable pain could make a sound like that. Worse, the scream didn’t end.
I glanced at Grayson. His face was as white as the snow. He took a step toward them.
“If you cross, the same thing will happen to you,” I warned.
“We can’t leave them like that. We need to pull them back to Legacia.”
They’d each lasted ten seconds before the pain hit them. Ten seconds wasn’t enough time to save them.
Teal’s scream ended. He lay limp on the frozen earth. Flynn lay next to him. Neither moved.
“Teal! Flynn!” Grayson’s voice boomed, loud enough to wake the dead.
“Are they—” I couldn’t finish my sentence.
Instead, I stared at their pale, drawn faces and the way their fingers twined together.
I had a choice. I could do what I always did, push the sudden wave of anguish deep into my soul, or I could howl my pain.
I squeezed my eyes shut, tilted my head toward the heavens, and let grief take over my voice.
The sound wasn’t human. It was pain and torment and misery.
It was desolation and heartbreak and infinite loss.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?”
My eyelids flew open. My voice died.
Flynn, still pale as milk, rested on his elbows and gaped at me.
I gaped back. “You’re alive.”
“And you’re emotionally repressed. Why were you howling like a wounded animal?”
“I thought you were dead.”
He grinned. “Ah, I knew you cared.”
“What happened?” Grayson demanded. “Are you okay?”
Flynn rolled his head, and his grin broadened. “Never better.”
“I mean it, Flynn. Are you okay?”
He pushed himself onto his elbows. “I’m serious. I’ve never felt better. It’s like a restraint has been removed,” he insisted. “Like my power was being regulated, but now … I don’t know, it’s stronger. Freer. Unfettered.”
Flynn’s words hit me like a physical blow. Someone had bound his powers. Our powers, because if they’d bound Flynn, they’d probably bound the rest of us. How long? Since we’d joined the guard? Since childhood? And who else knew? Carron? The king? Were they responsible?
Grayson and I exchanged a look.
Meanwhile, Flynn stared at his right hand, where a jagged white scar ran from the back of his thumb across his wrist—a souvenir from a battle we’d lost. “Their elementals always seemed impossibly strong. They were fighting unbound while we were leashed.”
I was supposedly the strongest water elemental in Legacia, yet I’d consistently struggled against Rymarian mages.
“How many of our people died because we weren’t fighting at full strength?” Flynn’s voice was barely a whisper.
They’d sent us to war with one hand tied behind our backs.
“He’s right.” Teal’s head still rested on the ground.
His right hand still clasped Flynn’s left.
“I can feel the difference in my power. It’s more intense.
” He dragged his free hand across the frozen, snow-covered earth, and green shoots emerged from the snow.
Within seconds, the shoots grew into a bush.
A few seconds after that, the bush was covered in blooming roses. “Flowers in winter. That’s new.”
Flynn pointed his free hand at the break in the ward, and a line of blue fire expanded the opening. “Now it’s big enough for the horses.”
Grayson and I gaped. Flynn had never, ever, had that kind of control.
Flynn, who still held Teal’s hand, rolled his neck a second time. “Who do you think bound our powers?”
“The guard. Who else?” I felt the weight of Grayson’s stare.
The guard was everything to him—his identity, his purpose, his father’s legacy.
Secretly binding our powers didn’t just represent betrayal; it shattered the foundation of everything he believed about duty and honor.
The suggestion had hurt him, but the words needed to be said.
“There has to be another explanation.” His voice was tight, controlled. “Maybe it’s the ward itself. Maybe crossing into enemy territory automatically enhances our abilities.”
“Gray.” Flynn held up his scarred hand. “We’ve been fighting at half power our whole careers.”
“No.” Grayson shook his head sharply. “The guard doesn’t—they wouldn’t—” But even as he spoke, I could see doubt creeping into his eyes.
“How many of our soldiers have died because of this?”
Grayson flinched. “You don’t know that everyone is suppressed—” He stopped mid-sentence, his face going pale.
The argument died on his lips because he knew.
He’d always known something was wrong, had probably made excuses for our failures just like he was doing now.
His shoulders sagged. “Why would they do that?” The question came out broken, barely a whisper.
“To keep us controllable,” Flynn said bluntly.
Grayson’s hands trembled as he braced himself against a tree. Everything he’d built his life on was crumbling, and we could all see him fighting not to acknowledge what was right in front of us.
“Gray—” I started.
“No.” His voice turned savage as he slammed his fist against the tree bark, drawing blood. “I believed in them.”
The silence stretched between us as Grayson stared at his bloodied knuckles. When he finally looked up, his eyes held a fury I’d never seen before. “Why would they do that?” This time the question held the weight of his shattered world.
“To keep us in line,” I replied. Men like Carron didn’t want soldiers more powerful than they were. “What do you think, Teal?”
Teal had his hands, both of them, buried in snow. His face shuttered with concentration.
A sapling exploded from the earth, quickly growing into a tree laden with shiny red apples.
We stood in stunned silence, watching Teal create a mature tree in a matter of minutes.
He stood, plucked an apple from a branch, and bit into the fruit. Juice dribbled down his chin as he grinned at us. “This is—” His grin widened till it split his face. “I could feed hungry people in the winter.”
Or an entire army. How many people had died because we’d been bound?
The anger building in my chest felt foreign. I usually buried such feelings, but this … this felt too big to contain.
On the Rymarian side of the ward, Flynn and Teal stood, shaking the snow off their cloaks.
“Her footprints go that way.” Typical Flynn. He didn’t care about things that didn’t immediately affect him. He didn’t care who’d bound his power, not if it was unbound now. Political machinations were of no interest. Footprints were. “We need to follow them before they disappear.”
“No!” Grayson barked. “We stick together.”
“Then you’d better get over here, because I’m following those prints.”
Grayson’s jaw dropped. Flynn never asserted himself. Never made demands.
Flynn made to follow the prints, and Teal grabbed his arm. “Wait. They watched over us. We’ll watch over them.” He didn’t doubt that we’d follow them. Follow her.
He was right.
I dismounted, gathered the reins for three horses, and stepped past the barrier.
For an instant, nothing happened, then a thousand knives cut into my flesh at the same time. Each blade dipped in acid.
A harsh groan escaped my throat before the pain stole my voice.
Over the course of my life, I’d broken multiple bones and suffered deep stab wounds.
Those injuries were gentle kisses compared to this.
My chest exploded. There was no other way to describe my ribs expanding against an immovable band.
The bones shattered with exertion. The resulting shards sliced deep into my organs.
I stared at the gray sky and prayed for death.
Slowly, the pain receded, leaving me panting on the forest floor.
A face appeared a few inches above me. “Do you feel stronger?”
“Give him some space, Flynn.”
Flynn stuck out his lower lip and refused to move, as if proximity would earn him an answer. “Do you?”
I blinked. Slowly. I breathed in frigid air, warming it in my lungs. I flexed my fingers. And I nodded.
My body might feel weak, but the power that lived in my veins was stronger than ever. With no effort, I collected enough snow to create a leopard, then watched as it slunk through the trees.
“Impressive.” Teal helped me sit.
I stared across the border at Grayson. “They’re right. Someone bound our powers.”
His face was a stony mask as he led Caspian across the border into Rymar. His face remained stony as he writhed on the ground. Somehow, it became even stonier when the pain passed and he realized we were right. His powers were stronger.
We gave him a few minutes to recover and followed him without comment when he mounted Caspian and pursued Haven’s fading footprints.