Chapter 39
KORYN
Hours had passed for me, but only minutes had ticked by for those waiting outside the Peace Gate.
My head ached from crying, my skin felt papery and dry, my chest carved out of emotion. I was left with a deadened feeling of emptiness. More than anything, I wanted to curl up beneath a warm coverlet and sleep. Instead, I had to stand in the cold and wait for Garrick.
He will be fine, I told myself. He will survive this.
But he had his own crime to make peace with in those tunnels beneath the mountain.
I understood Alize’s ramblings, now. Her crime from the Justice Gate was also her worst memory.
I’d seen it at the Memory Gate. She’d tried to smother her infant brother Edmund in his crib.
Her garbled words revealed why. She’d thought death a better alternative than growing up under their father’s thumb.
It was a heinous crime. I understood it.
But she’d found her way out of the caves, so she must have found a way to forgive herself.
Would Garrick be able to face his crime? Or would he remain lost below the mountains forever?
Please, let him want to live more than he wants to punish himself. I didn’t direct the prayer. But I was sure that one god in particular heard it. Whether he’d do anything about it remained to be seen.
I wrapped my arms around myself beneath the cloak that Garrick had draped over my shoulders before entering the Peace Gate. Its size swallowed me, the hem bunching on the ground, but it smelled of him. I inhaled deeply, trying to re-center myself.
Tomin had fallen back into line with Varian. Alize stood on her own two legs again, but she remained close to Edmund’s side. My coven sisters also stood side by side, though the casual closeness of siblings eluded them. Then there were Maura and the king.
Her wild array of dark curls brushed her chin as she lifted it in—defiance?
I gripped my own arms tighter. Maura’s mouth moved, but I could not make out the words, nor hear them at this distance.
The group of observers had moved closer, leaving the horses tethered beneath the evergreens.
Ready to intercept Garrick and me if we tried to run, now that we were so close to completing another gate.
They did not know how tied we were to Balar Shan. That was good, I told myself. Maura did not suspect that I knew about the talisman.
But the king… there was something wrong. His posture was always perfect, but now it was just a little bit more rigid. The familiar line of his jaw was hard. There. The movement was so tiny it would have been imperceptible to a human. His jaw ticked.
His tells were similar to Garrick’s. Their shared lineage betrayed him. The fae king was angry—with Maura. I had to know why. I could not get any closer without raising suspicion. They would see me and cease exchanging their already limited words. But I was not alone.
Isa…
I thought you hated nicknames?
I need your help.
My familiar perked up immediately. Who am I eating?
Isanara.
I have had my eye on the half-sister. I’ve never eaten a fae. Do you think she tastes like her magic? What flavor is wind?
I doubt it tastes as good as amorite, I said. Though I also doubted Isanara had ever tasted the rarest gem in Velora. The only one I’d seen in decades was the singular stud that pierced Garrick’s ear. But I don’t need you to eat someone.
She swiveled her head side to side to show her agitation.
Someday, I promised.
She blinked her citrine eyes at me expectantly.
I need to know what Maura and the king are saying.
Isanara’s head snapped immediately in their direction.
I forced my hand to stay tucked into the cloak, rather than smacking my own head in frustration. Or hers. Not that I would ever dare.
Subtle.
But Isanara made no attempt to hide her interest. Her tail whipped around in excitement. Behind us, I heard Varian and Tomin take a step back.
Isanara flared her wings wide, drawing the attention of every person in the area. I understood her strategy. She could not sneak up on anyone. She was too conspicuous. She was a fucking dragon.
Do they know of our connection? She asked.
No, I said. No one in the Midnight Coven has ever been chosen by a familiar.
Isanara shook her head at that, scales shimmering. Preening.
A moment later she shot into the sky. She soared overhead for a minute before circling low, then again, until she landed between me and where Maura and the king stood. To everyone watching, she was putting herself between her witch and the nearest threat.
But I knew that her hearing was even keener than the witches or fae. Even from several yards away, she would hear every word the pair uttered.
They aren’t talking anymore.
I could see that. They were both watching her. Give them a minute to realize you aren’t going to try to eat them.
Not today, at least, she conceded.
I couldn’t keep staring. My familiar had staked her territory in the expanse of rocky ground between us. She guarded me. I had to watch the gate.
The heavy iron did not move. Garrick would survive. He had to. If something happened to him, I would know. The Lifebind… I pulled my hand out of his cloak, suddenly desperate to see it.
It gleamed on my pale skin, the same deep blue ink as ever. Please, forgive yourself, I silently begged him. You can do this. Think of me, waiting for you here. Think of your mother. Think of the Dark God—
I choked on the thought.
Garrick had told me very clearly when we were trapped in the cave-in in Balar Shan.
I could have whatever relationship with the Dark God that I wanted, but his heart would stay guarded.
I understood, I truly did. After the loss of Alair, he could not stand to give his heart to another man.
Alair… my chest ached anew. Garrick and I had grieved together, but that did not erase the loss.
It was new for me. I may have begrudgingly forgiven myself for what I’d done to Rylynn.
But it was only one of hundreds of sins.
Maybe thousands. Four hundred years was a long time.
The king accuses her of wasting time.
Isanara’s voice dragged me back to the present. What else?
Stop talking and let me listen.
My blood thrummed in my veins, propelled by the Dark God’s power, the rush of it filling my ears until I worried I would not be able to hear Isanara when she spoke again.
You have had many opportunities.
Power is not predictable. Much like magic. We shall succeed. Power—that must have been Maura. Isanara was repeating their conversation directly.
Only one gate remains, witch. You are almost out of time.
I shivered. It was not the term of endearment that Garrick murmured when he kissed me.
Did the king know about the talisman? That could not be it.
The talisman was the key to Maura setting herself and all witches above the fae and their king.
But the talisman was not Maura’s only goal.
Auri had admitted that Isanara was the reason they’d taken us from the gates.
We’d only returned when the wrath of the gods coalesced to try to kill us.
First, the fire in Garrick’s room, then the cave-in.
Apparently, Alize had nearly been impaled on a broken bedpost, only to find herself tumbling down a staircase that disintegrated beneath her feet a few days later.
The gods’ message was clear—fulfill your oath to the Seven Gates.
But their presence, waiting for us, meant that we would not be allowed to proceed to the final gate. Their purpose in kidnapping us had not yet been fulfilled.
There will be no more mistakes, Your Majesty. Isanara’s voice reeked with loathing as she recounted Maura’s words.
But if there was any more to the exchange, we did not get to hear it.
The iron gate groaned and swung open. All conversation halted; all attention shifted. A sweep of shimmering lavender wings, and Isanara was back at my side, fangs bared for whatever might come.
Garrick the Red walked out of the Peace Gate, where both Alize and I had stumbled. His steps were steady, his shoulders back. To everyone else, he must have looked like the conquering hero. Victor of six of the Seven Gates of Velora.
But I knew Garrick better than my own soul, and I was past the point of being able to deny it. I saw the agony in his eyes. I felt the burn when they landed on me, the desperation that he would only show to me.
We might physically survive the Seven Gates. But they could still destroy us.
Maura and the king were just one of the threats hanging over our heads.
We were running out of time.