Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
Ophelia
“What are you staring at?” I murmured to the chitara perched atop a flat rock.
Squatting down, I looked into its beady eyes. One of the many magical beasts that scampered among the forests and plains of Gallantia, it was a docile critter—at least today. Legends said chitaras once held powerful abilities. Shifting and venomous bites that only existed in stories now.
It tilted its head from one side to the other, tiny hands fiddling with a blackberry, bushy tail swishing and curling up behind it.
Though it didn’t appear harmful, its gaze had been locked on me for minutes, from the second I had stopped here for a brief rest. I tried to follow its line of sight but was afraid to look away for too long.
Nothing seemed out of place on my leathers, though they were streaked with dirt after two days of travel.
I lifted my hand. It didn’t move.
I touched my necklace.
Its head tilted again.
“This, then?” I mused.
It released a small squeak, eyes flitting to my face. Its stare was communicative, but what it was trying to tell me, I couldn’t parse out.
My voice dropped to barely a whisper, smooth and welcoming. “You can show me.” I stretched a hand out, fingertips an inch from its tiny paw.
But the chitara only released another small squeak, twitched its nose in what seemed ominously like a warning, and scurried away through the piles of dead leaves toward the mountains. Sapphire whinnied as it fled, a trickle of discomfort dancing down my spine.
Sighing, I shook it off. Wild Gallantian creatures were odd, the mythical ones more so.
Still, if I hadn’t already believed there was something mystical about the heated emblem on my necklace, I would have now.
Leaves crunched beneath my boots as I walked back to Sapphire, coating the forest floor even during the height of summer—odd.
My warrior horse had ridden relentlessly through the mountains.
We stopped only for quick food and water and for me to relieve myself, but each time I tried to sleep, my mind raced. Adrenaline forced me up quickly.
As I crouched beside the river, cupping water to rinse my face and neck, my eyelids were heavy, but my body buzzed with desperation to continue.
In my reflection, there was hardly any of the girl I used to be. Carefree, young, and unafraid.
Grief, rage, and heartbreak replaced her.
My soul worn, it shone through the harsh set of my lips and sharp stare.
Sighing a quick goodbye to that innocent girl, I sat back on the dirt, counting the moonlit spots in the branches crossing above my head and imagined what was happening in Damenal right now. Malakai…he was likely furious.
But he and I were done.
We had to be—there was no piece of me that could love him in the way I once had.
In leaving, in choosing to go after my best friend, the person I needed more than anyone, I wasn’t choosing between two men.
I was choosing myself.
I breathed in the crisp night air, allowed the thought to settle within me. Acceptance spread along my bones like roots in the packed earth. The satisfaction, the personal debt I owed myself after being so torn for years, was soothing.
The choice to leave took back a piece of the person I’d lost. Built her back up.
While I may miss the girl I used to be before my world was burned down, the woman who emerged from the ashes was a force ready to forge her broken shards back together, retake ownership of her life, and return stronger than before.
Each step away from Damenal lifted pressure from my shoulders.
Like I’d been held beneath water, my air supply running out, and now life was slowly refilling my lungs.
Maybe it was the distance from so many expectant eyes, maybe it was the proximity to my target, maybe it was being beneath the stars with only my horse for company, but if healing was a feeling, I think this lightness in my chest was a part of it.
With that strengthening my resolve, I walked to Sapphire and pulled my cloak from my bag, donning it. Though we were still in the Soulguider desert, the farther we got toward the Mindshaper Territory, the colder the wind turned.
“What do you say, girl?” I muttered to Sapphire. “Got a bit more left in you?”
I was grateful when she immediately turned, as if telling me to hurry up and get on. I wasn’t ready to stop yet. Not until exhaustion dragged at our bones. Too much land still sat between me and Tol.
But as Sapphire carried me closer, I contemplated how I might find him. There was no guarantee he’d even made it into Mindshaper Territory, let alone the capital he aimed for. I knew the path he’d planned to take, though, and I followed it south, trusting the Spirits would guide me.
The constellations popped to life above us, and I smiled at them. At the deep spaces between the stars that made my darkest parts feel welcome.
Unfortunately, they did not smile back.
Titus saw darkness in my celestial future. The promise of destruction burned through me, a predator I couldn’t fight—didn’t know—lying in wait to wrap its claws around my life.
Oh Damien, I thought, for once wishing he would appear to answer my questions, what waits for me? He hadn’t visited since his prophecy, and a piece of me wondered what kept him away.
Seeking out the most familiar constellation, the Mystique Sword, I inwardly cursed the Angel, but the moon’s glow pulsed, and my heart lurched. I stopped myself from screaming my anger at the Angels. There was too much at stake right now; I needed their guidance.
“Please, Damien,” I whispered. Sapphire’s ears twitched at my voice. “Please, if you have any kindness in that fucking eternal soul of yours…please. Let him be okay.” A hollowness echoed through my chest. I bit my lips to keep them from trembling, clenched my hands around the reins. “I…I need him.”
I didn’t know if anyone heard the confession, but I repeated it under my breath, my mantra cast into the ethereal night, begging the clouds to carry it away.
“I need him. I need him. I won’t survive without him.”
I whispered it again and again as Sapphire marched across the moonlit dirt, hoping any Spirit or Angel listening might send him a sign that I was coming.
We hadn’t been traveling for long when a wild roar cut through the still night.
Sapphire kicked into a gallop, not waiting for my instruction.
I swiveled atop her, looking over my shoulder to see a trio of mountain cats descending the rocky foothills above.
With long legs and lithe bodies, they leaped through the air and landed in pursuit of us. Bright green eyes, haunting and glowing, stood stark against dark brown coats.
Nemaxese, I realized. Large felines—larger than me if they stood on their hind legs—that prowled the mountain range in the dead of night, hunting.
A second high, scratchy growl echoed from the one in front, his scraggly mane shaking.
Jaw dripping.
Dread pooled within me.
“Come on, girl,” I encouraged Sapphire, turning back around. There was nothing but empty land ahead of us, no towns in sight. I supposed that was good. No one else was in danger.
My heart pounded in time with Sapphire’s hooves, the plain blurring around me. I peered over my shoulder again. They were close enough now that I could see the rabid hunger in their eyes.
“Spirits,” I cursed under my breath. Something was wrong with them. Nemaxese weren’t a threat to warriors; we weren’t their natural prey. I’d heard of some even voluntarily settling in warrior homes, becoming domesticated.
Not these ones—these were tainted. It was in their unblinking stare and frothing mouths. In their relentless pursuit, homed in on us.
The journey to the Undertaking flashed behind my eyes in snips of red-coated terror.
The creature that attacked us in the forest, nearly taking my sister’s life.
The animals that rifled through our food supply.
All wild. All unnatural. All hungry for more than their rightful prey.
Sapphire cleared a low hill, and a stretch of cypher trees came into sight. If we could make it there, we may be able to lose them among the sweeping branches. I didn’t want to hurt them. Whatever had happened to them, these creatures were innocent. They were—
Compromised, I corrected myself as something flashed in my peripheral.
A sharp pain shot through my shoulder as the world flipped, sky and earth melting together.
I rolled across the dirt, the largest nemaxese bounding after me. Getting my arms beneath me, I pushed upright. I focused despite the spinning earth.
I pulled Starfire from my hip, but she’d be useless against one of these creatures if I wasn’t smart. Jaw or eye—those were the only two places a blade could pierce a nemaxese, their skin impenetrable.
Long teeth flashed. I braced my stance.
Spirits, I didn’t want to hurt an animal. I had no problem slicing a man’s head from his body if attacked, but this felt wrong. Like I was breaking a sacred law. I almost dropped my sword. But as it circled me, the other two flanking it, no soul looked back.…there was no hint of life left.
Their hearts may beat, blood may spill, but they were puppets to the rot within them.
I adjusted my sweaty grip on Starfire and gritted my teeth. My Angelborn necklace warmed, but I ignored it.
Instead, I watched that wide vibrant stare and shoved down any remorse crawling its way up my throat.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, chest heaving. I didn’t know if it was to the creature itself or the Angels I may be upsetting. Maybe it was to the God of Mythical Beings for harming his ward, or to myself for the guilt I’d suffer.
The cat snapped its dripping jaw. It bent its legs, preparing to pounce.
I raised my sword higher, aiming for that exposed maw.
But then, a shadow reared up above me.
Two hooves planted firmly on the cat’s side and threw it to the ground, unmoving. I blinked as the dust settled.
My grip tightened on my sword again as the second nemaxese leaped after its leader.
But Sapphire reared up again, clouds fanning out on either side of Sapphire’s body like a pair of luminous, swirling wings.
She hit the second nemaxese square in the skull, then the third in the ribs.
Each fell into a heap on rock-strewn dirt.
Almost laughing at the shock flooding my system, I jumped back into the saddle, and Sapphire galloped away, releasing a triumphant whinny into the night that echoed up to the stars.
As the adrenaline faded, though, anger slid into its place, a hot knife slipping into a waiting sheath.
Because there was something very wrong among the wild of Gallantia, and while most of the troubles among the warriors could be traced back to our former Revered and his wicked queen, I doubted even Lucidius and Kakias could be responsible for this corruption.
Sapphire whinnied a second time, and I shouted out with her.
The fates had been unfair to us all, and I poured my anger into that endless night.
For those who had suffered from the war, for those who were hurting now from the deep-rooted corruption, for every innocent soul being forced into a battle they never asked for, I roared my frustrations to the stars.