2. Chapter 2
Chapter 2
T heir pace had slowed slightly as dawn began to leak through the trees, the muddy browns and oranges of the leaves turning golden and amber in the sunlight.
The blessed sunlight. When the first dapples of it hit Aurelia’s skin, she nearly wept with relief, but nausea rose up in its place, making her run for the nearest tree and empty the contents of her stomach—what little was left in it. Cold sweat dampened her brow as she tried to think of anything besides the pale color of Asher’s face, his head cradled in her lap. The stench of the First Brother’s burning flesh as she’d set him aflame with her lightning. The mangled mouth of the demon prince as his words seeped into her skull . . .
Quiet footsteps sounded behind her. Wiping her mouth, she glanced up to see Ven leaning against the rough grey bark of the pine.
“I’m fine,” she murmured, but no sooner had the words left her mouth and another wave of nausea hit her, sending her doubling over again.
Callused hands scraped against her neck as he pulled back the loose strands of her hair from her face.
“It’s a normal response to what you’ve witnessed. There’s no need to be ashamed.” Ven’s voice rumbled through her chest as she heaved. “I did the same after my first battle.”
A weak croak was all she could muster, her hands braced on her knees and her head still swimming as a somber weight pressed down on her chest.
“The others?” A pathetic attempt at a question, but it was all she could manage with the bone-deep weariness that had settled into her body.
He shook his head, errant strands of his dark hair escaping from where they'd been tied at the nape of his neck. “I sent Nira and the rest of the Wraiths back before everything went to shit—Karro and I were the only ones remaining when we felt something stifle our magick.”
A small relief then. The others may have made it back to Ravenstone safely. It explained that terrible shift she’d felt when she’d been trapped in the library with the First Brother, as if the world had been tilted off its axis.
He had cast a spell trying to open rifts along the wards that would let demons flood the Crescent Valley, leaving death and destruction in their wake. But instead, magick had been snuffed out beyond the wardlines. Had he cast the spell knowingly, or had it just been another lie fed to him by the King of the Void?
It hardly mattered now.
They were trapped in the in-between, without the use of their power. Which meant if they wanted to make it back to the safety of the Blood Kingdom, they would have to find their way back on foot. And even though they had a small reprieve from the danger that had hounded them through the night, they were a long way off from safe.
Tears stung her eyes, but there was no time for them now. No place for them here.
They followed the sloping hills of the Shades as the sun arched over the sky. The journey back to Ravenstone would take them nearly ten days on foot covering as much ground as possible while the light kept them safe.
It was chilled in the Grey Wood, but winter hadn’t descended further down in the Shades just yet. Edible berries and plants were still plentiful, and they stopped to take their fill where they could. She could recognize the poisonous shadeberries on sight, but the others that grew further up in the hills weren’t familiar to her. Thankfully Ven and Karro were well-versed in the wilderness that spanned the in-between.
Small animals had been easy to find this far up into the foothills. Ven taught her how to make a snare and how to build a fire so that the smoke wouldn’t be seen, he and Karro making it look easy to survive with nothing but the clothes on their backs. It was the first time she’d truly been without the comforts she’d grown accustomed to. But survival made anything tolerable.
The furry tails of ground squirrels jostled over Karro’s shoulder where he’d strung them. She didn’t dare speak of the gnawing hunger that had little to do with filling her belly. But she knew if she felt spent, Ven and Karro must be fighting off their thirst as well.
Venom burned through her calf with each step, the boots she wore rubbing at her heels. Her thighs burned with the constant uphill walking, but the pain was a blessed distraction from the thoughts that hounded her steps, swirling through her mind until they were near deafening.
It was too quiet now. Too calm.
Everything that had happened in the previous days had kept her so focused on survival, on finding the lost relic and protecting her home, that there hadn’t been energy for anything else. But now—there was too much of nothing .
If she had just stayed in the human realm . . .
The mere thought felt impossible, as if something visceral inside of her would not have allowed her to stay.
Her eyes drifted to the roughly hewn male beside her, her heartbeat picking up. Did Ven still think of the promise that he made to her in Eisenea as she had every night since? Or had everything between them been erased with her decision to go back?
The sound of rumbling water filled the clearing just beyond the copse of trees, and sunlight glittered on the surface of the river.
The water was clear and cold as Aurelia splashed handful after handful onto her face and neck, submerging her hands into the river to rinse the acrid stench of demon blood from her skin, washing the taste of ash and bile from her mouth.
“We’ll follow the river from here.” Ven knelt beside her at the river’s edge, beads of clear water dripping at the nape of his neck, clinging to his black hair. Grey grime sloughed off his bronze skin as he cupped his large hands and dipped them into the water over and over again, the movements efficient and practiced.
“Why the river?” she asked.
Karro drank a handful of water, wiping his mouth across the sleeve of his shadowskin. “Because there is ancient magick in the waters. A remnant of a dead kingdom that the demons still fear.”
Aurelia drank deeply, not realizing how parched her throat had become until she’d taken her first mouthful and gulped it down greedily. Setting her foot onto a rock, she scooped up a handful of water, pouring it over the deep scratches across her leg. She was healing quickly, but the cold still stung.
Ven stilled beside her in that unnerving way of his, watching her. The sharp angles of his face were just as striking as they’d always been, making her breath hitch and her pulse thrum as crimson eyes studied her.
“How did you leave?” he quietly asked, a sharp edge to his words.
“I don’t know,” she admitted, not daring to meet his gaze. “I just—did.” The memory of passing through the mirror sent a fresh wave of goosebumps across her skin.
There hadn’t been much thought in those final moments as she left the Capitol. Only instinct. She’d watched Cog fly above the wardlines, completely unaffected by them and she wondered if maybe she could do the same. Something pulling at her, tugging at her, to go back through the mirror.
“ Why did you leave, Aurelia.”
His gaze branded her as she studiously picked the rocks and dirt from her skin, choosing to focus on the sharp sting of the demon venom making its way out of her system.
“It was too dangerous to stay,” she finally offered.
It was a half-truth. She’d needed to get the ring out of the Capitol. She’d needed to get herself as far away from her family as possible—what remained of her family. But neither of those things pushed her feet through that mirror.
“The human realm is sealed. Safe. ” He bit off the last word like a curse, catching her off guard.
“I know,” she ground out. “Thank you.” She didn’t give it begrudgingly. Countless innocent lives had been saved thanks to the Wraiths and the Allokin spellmasters.
“I’m not looking for gratitude.” Ven rubbed the caked grime from his skin like it was an affront. “I told you before we parted ways that we would find a way for you to stay. I held up my end of the bargain—I ordered Lanthius to seal the wards as you requested.” His gaze was searing now, anger leaking through his words. “If you’d stayed there, at least you would have been safe .”
Karro suddenly found the forest behind them very interesting, slipping away quietly as he threw an apologetic glance over his shoulder toward Aurelia and disappeared behind a cluster of trees.
Fine. She could use a good fight. She’d take anger over whatever this nauseating feeling of betrayal was that lingered in her gut, twisting and coiling around her until she could barely breathe.
She whirled to face him fully. The early morning light gilded him; a flawless, beautiful creature beside her. His nostrils flared slightly at the prospect of a battle, but his mouth remained a thin line, the muscles at his jaw working.
“You were supposed to protect Lanthius while he sealed the wards, and then fucking leave ,” she spat venomously, standing to her full height and trying to hide the wince at the sharp pain in her calf. “ That was your end of the bargain.”
Ven shook his head with a humorless rumble that sounded more growl than laughter. He tilted his chin slightly to meet her eyes, his forearm still resting on his thigh where he sat on the bank, allowing her the small courtesy of towering over him for a moment.
Something like desperation tinged his voice as he pressed her again, “What happened, Aurelia?”
The words were spoken so softly, so gently, that the anger leaked out of her like spilled wine. Her breath ragged as she saw the emotion that darkened his eyes.
Images flashed through her mind. The same ones that replayed over and over again.
Asher’s green eyes staring lifelessly up at her. The look on Bastien’s face when she’d shown him a small glimmer of her magick. I can fix you. The First Brother wreathed in flames as she'd watched him die . . .
She was a monster. And what was worse—
She didn’t regret a moment of it.
Silence stretched between them, the rush of the rapids near deafening.
“I realized—I don’t belong there anymore,” she finally answered. Because the truth was; she was much too dangerous to exist in her old life.
Her fingernails bit into her palms where her fists were balled tightly at her sides, bracing for an argument about who should have stayed, who should have left. About all the things that should have gone differently and everything they were powerless to change.
But instead, Ven silently shucked off his jacket, the black shadowskin peeling away from his body and daring her to look. He lifted the heavy silver chain over his head, tucking it away. And when the shirt underneath peeled off, too, she still didn’t take her eyes from his. A silent competition now, and she’d be damned if she lost.
When his jeweled dagger appeared in his hand, she focused on the tight line of his mouth, swallowing hard as he gripped the shirt tightly, his knuckles turning pale. With a flick of his wrist, he sliced through the cloth, his gaze never straying from her face.
He knelt in front of her, the action sending a lick of fire down her spine. The muscles rippled across his shoulders as his warm, callused hands gripped her calf and her eyes dropped to the black ink etched into his skin. The language tattooed down his spine that she knew to be the Wraith’s prayer to their goddess. The dashes that spiraled down his arm, marking every enemy slain.
Then he wrapped the wide strip of cloth around her injury with such tenderness that it threatened to extinguish the fury that he’d coaxed from her mere moments before.
“Why did you stay?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
“I just—couldn’t go,” he answered, tying off the strip of cloth. “And Karro refused to leave me,” he added.
A stubborn grunt in response came from behind her, and Karro emerged from wherever he’d been hiding, mumbling something under this breath that sounded a lot like, suicidal bastard, as he clapped her on the shoulder affectionately. “Glad he did, too.”