Chapter 5
Rylee
I don’t know how long I’ve been on these stairs. Could be minutes, hours. It feels like an eternity. Evaluna said I can free myself from . . .
wherever I’m trapped. I’ve tried everything I can think of, except for one possibility.
Jump.
At the far left of Evaluna’s temple, there’s a steep drop-off.
The fall would be enough to kill me, but I’m certain I’m asleep.
That none of this is actually real. It’s all happening in my mind.
Some post-Athanry effect of becoming immortal, or a result of holding all the Legends’ powers. Either way, it’s not real.
And the best way to wake up is to fall.
Right? I stop trying to go down the stairs and take a step toward that edge.
My nerves twist as I peer over it. It’s just a dream. I’ll wake up if I’m scared enough. I’ll wake up.
I scoot my toes over the lip, my heart in my throat.
Please tell me I’m right. Please tell me I’m not about to fall to my death. They’ll be so angry with me.
Evaluna said I need to wake up. This must be right.
I picture my mates’ beautiful faces and step off the ledge.
And plummet so fast, my heart stops and restarts. The ground approaches, growing larger and larger as I pick up speed.
Shit. I was wrong.
The ground is a breath away. Will it hurt when I break every bone in my body? Will it—
I jerk awake, sucking in a sharp breath as I sit bolt upright. My head throbs, my vision blurry. Rubbing at my eyes, I do my best to slow my racing heart.
Fuck, there’s an overwhelming weight against my bones I’ve only felt once.
Power.
Eons of undiluted power.
It swarms me, fills every inch of my soul—
She lives. She’s stronger than I thought.
The voice slithers through my mind.
Thank the goddesses. She’s alive. I’m going to kill her for putting us through this. Another voice.
I cringe against the thoughts, against the onslaught of emotions storming my senses—relief and anger and pride and confusion.
Those voices. I know them.
I peel my eyes open, heart hammering as I try to focus. I’m in Jax’s room in the palace. In his bed . . . our bed. I blink rapidly, body trembling, eyes filling with tears.
A hand squeezes mine—Mirren.
But it’s not her I’m worried about. It’s the second voice.
I look to my other side and jolt so hard, my head smacks the headboard.
“Hello, little bug,” Baydel says from way too close. He’s sitting on the bed, almost touching me. Reflexively, I shift away.
Mirren grips my hand tighter in what I interpret as a warning.
Or maybe I’m tapping into Jax’s gift and I can feel the warning from her emotions?
My four mates’ unearthly powers swell inside me like ocean waves, and I can hardly breathe around them.
“Jax,” I blurt. “Kal. Axl. Pierce?” It’s hard to form a coherent sentence with my mind whirling so fast.
Why aren’t they here?
Why did they leave me with Baydel?
Fear and panic swim in a rapid current swirling inside me.
My stomach roils.
“They just left,” Baydel answers, curiosity rippling over his features. For once, he doesn’t look at me with hatred. I don’t feel any coming off him now, either, though I could be interpreting Jax’s power incorrectly.
Shit. I need to get a grip.
“Where?”
“The Obsidian City,” Mirren says.
“A Fader attack is underway,” Baydel offers, and Mirren dares to glare at him for the briefest of seconds.
Faders.
Erin.
My mates. They’re vulnerable.
Panic has me moving before I can comprehend what I’m doing. Too quickly, I throw off the covers, slide off the bed, hurry to the wardrobe, and fling it open.
All black, of course.
“What are you doing?” Baydel asks, still seated.
“They fight, I fight,” I say, doing my best to clamp down on the power rising inside me, begging me to fly to them as fast as I can. “Mirren, my boots? Please?” I ask as I stare at the wardrobe filled with Jax’s things.
Mirren nods, racing out of the room as I slip a too-large black jacket over the long nightgown I wear. The jacket smells like smoke and leather and all things Jax. It fills my fragmented soul with hope and clears my mind.
“Really?” Baydel asks, tilting his head. “You’ve been unconscious for seven days.”
That fact brings me up short as Mirren hurries back, my boots in hand. I shove the thought away, slipping my shoes on just as fast, the connection to my mates feeling stretched by the distance between us. It’s an itch, a painful nagging that’s urging me to move faster.
“I’m fine,” I say despite the dizziness threatening to lay me on my ass.
“Rylee,” Mirren chides me. “You should stay here. Let the healers look at you—”
“I can’t,” I say over her, and I don’t know what she sees in my eyes, but she stumbles back a step. For the first time since I met her, she looks afraid.
Of me?
I flash her an apologetic look, then remember decorum and dip my head to Baydel. He’s still king, and the last thing I need right now is for him to pull a power card and force me to stay.
Without their powers, the Legends are weakened. The Faders could kill them.
I can’t let that happen.
“I’m sorry,” I say to Mirren. “Please, can you take me to a velomage?”
She nods a bit too quickly, bowing to Baydel before the two of us race out of the room.
“Pierce’s backup,” she says once she’s led me into a stable-like building on the palace grounds, filled with the princes’ conveyances—velomages and carriages alike.
“Thank you,” I say.
“You owe me answers,” she says as I mount the velomage.
“I know.” Something sharp lodges in my chest.
She steps closer as the magic roars to life beneath my grip on the handles. “Protect them.”
“I will,” I say. “I promise.”
I take off, hoping I can stay true to my word, but as the chaotic clash of power roils inside me, I’m not sure how I’ll control it.