Chapter 4
NYRA
T hey moved as a unit, each of them watching the backs of the others with precision, and they didn’t slow down in the slightest bit to accommodate me.
Wren’s light hair fell in front of her face as she turned to look at me.
Her eyes were filled with sadness as she gave me a small, sympathetic smile.
Thick branches clawed at my clothing as I stumbled forward in the route they directed me.Dacre had tied my hands together, and the rough rope dug into my wrists as Kai pulled me forward.
Kai held me firmly as if he worried I was going to run again. His arms bulged under the leather uniform as he pulled me along the dense forest. I stumbled over a thick root and gritted my teeth against the pain of my knees slamming into the ground.
Kai helped me back to my feet, but he didn’t utter a word.
We trudged on in silence for what felt like an eternity. My feet ached and my stomach still grumbled from lack of food. I sneaked glances at Dacre, watching his broad shoulders carry us in an unfamiliar direction. He hadn’t spoken a word to me since he bound my hands and handed me off to Kai.
He hadn’t looked in my direction either.
But I stared at him as the moonlight danced off his jet-black hair until the lush trees gave way to a small glade.
The full moon cast a silver glow over the clearing, highlighting the massive tree at its center.
Its trunk was wider than any I had ever seen before, and its branches reached high into the sky as if trying to embrace the moon itself.
The intricate web of gnarled roots spread out from the base, anchoring the tree to the ground.
“Stand there,” Kai rumbled, his eyes spearing me in place as he pulled one of his daggers from its sheath and sliced through the rope at my hands. It snapped apart effortlessly with a single swipe. I quickly rubbed at my wrists and tried to bring life back into them.
I felt the rough bark of the tree press cool against my back as I stood still.
Dacre moved just ahead of me and spread his hands in front of him, palms outspread as he whispered words I could not understand in a tongue that sounded ancient.
A fine sheen of sweat broke out across my brow as I watched magic slip from his fingers in glowing golden threads.
The ground beneath our feet began to vibrate and small cracks formed in the earth. The dirt buckled, sending trees swaying and leaves fluttering to the ground as I stumbled backward, clinging to the trunk for support .
Magic had been used in my life daily, but it felt mundane compared to this.
“What are you doing?” I whispered, my voice giving away every bit of my fear.
Dacre didn’t answer me, his focus solely on the ground before him as if he could reach out and physically control the elements. A low rumble filled the air, and the ground began to heave beneath our feet. Energy seemed to dance across my skin as the tremors grew stronger.
The tree quivered violently, its trunk creaking ominously as I heard the sound of wood splintering as it swayed.
The grassy earth suddenly disappeared in an avalanche of dirt and stones plummeting into darkness.
My scream echoed sharply around me as I dropped, my arms wildly flailing in a desperate attempt to find something, anything, to stop my fall. But it was too late. I fell down into the darkness and plunged into the icy water below that stole the breath from my lungs.
As I gasped for air, my mouth opened wide, but instead of air, salty liquid filled my lungs.
I thrashed wildly, grasping to find the surface.
Desperate for oxygen, my chest tightened and my vision blurred with inky blackness.
Panic consumed me as my arms swung, searching for something to hold on to.
But the water offered no salvation. It was relentless as it pushed me farther into the depths.
My cloak, already loosened from the struggle of staying afloat, suddenly tightened around my body. I thrashed and kicked, expecting to be dragged down deeper, but instead, something pulled me upward toward the surface. My lungs burned for air as I emerged from the water, gasping and sputtering.
A strong hand gripped the back of my cloak, yanking me upward with ease so that my upper body was pressed firmly against the ground. My chest heaved against the hard earth.
“Are you okay?” Wren asked as she made her way down the last step of a dark set of stairs with Kai behind her. Her eyes searched over my face, but I simply nodded.
Lying had become so easy lately.
Dacre pulled me toward the base of the wooden stairs, and I scampered fully onto the landing. The water was a black abyss, like a midnight sea, without a hint of light or movement.
Sunlight was still pouring in from the chasm in the earth above us, and I blinked up at the stairs reaching all the way to the top and ending at the base of the cave floor.
They could have prepared me for what was happening, let me use the stairs the same way they descended, but they let me fall.
“This way.” Dacre’s voice was like coarse sandpaper as he nodded toward the thin strip of ground that was surrounded by water.
As we moved farther into the cavern, the walls came alive with a warm glow from dozens of floating torches. Firelight danced and flickered along the rough stone, casting shadows that seemed to dance alongside them.
I followed closely behind Wren, my heart pounding in my chest as fear and curiosity warred within me.
As we rounded a sharp corner made of jagged rock, I stopped in my tracks.
Before me lay an ethereal city from another world, an immense expanse of ancient architecture half submerged in the eerie water and veiled by the lack of sunlight.
The rough silhouettes of broken stained-glass windows caught the flickering firelight of the hundreds of lanterns that seemed to hang from the sky like stars and crumbling stones laid at the base of the snaking river.
The buildings and small patches of land were connected by hundreds of small hanging bridges and pathways. Up above, thick moss and vines clung to the roofs of the buildings and coiled down the sides until they kissed the edge of the water as if they were thirsting for a drink.
My nerves were on edge, but I couldn’t deny the sense of wonder that washed over me as I gazed at this place for the first time. A part of me wanted to savor this moment forever, while another part was already trying to rationalize why I shouldn’t be in this place.
The city my father had spent a lifetime searching for.
Everywhere I looked, people were milling about, most of them dressed in fighting leathers like Dacre, but some were wearing normal clothes instead of a uniform.
There were at least a hundred people walking across the bridges and down the narrow dirt paths. Some were moving in and out of buildings while I could see others through windows settling down for the day.
“This is impossible.”I inhaled a shaky breath, my voice barely above a murmur.
Dacre shifted his hard gaze to me. “Impossible for you, maybe. But for us, it’s the only home we’ve ever known.”
“I don’t understand.” My voice quavered as I spoke, my body wrought with tension. “How could you keep something like this hidden?”
Dacre’s face grew stern, his voice was low and grave, like a thunderstorm rolling in from the horizon. “As if we would tell you that. You can’t even figure out who it is you’re betraying. I don’t trust you.”
I snapped my gaze away from him, taking in the sights and sounds of the hidden city while trying to block out his harsh words. It was far from the legends my father had told me. He had spoken of horror stories and ruthless rebels, but this felt…different somehow.
When I looked around, this felt like a city of people just trying to survive, trying to rebuild something my father had taken away.
Yet, I couldn’t shake the fear that crawled up my spine.
My father’s words of hatred and contempt for this unseen world echoed in my mind, but as I peered out at the sprawling network of bridges and tunnels that seemed to be carved from the earth, I couldn’t find the same disdain.
The glimmering torches glowed like stars scattered across an infinite sky, and I couldn’t imagine anyone destroying it.
“Move.” A woman’s forceful hand shoved me forward, breaking me from my thoughts, and I spun around to look at her.
She was roughly my age, dressed head to toe in fighting leathers, and she had more weapons strapped to her body than I had ever seen. Her eyes bore into me with an intensity that made me shift uncomfortably under her gaze.
I had been too busy taking everything in that I hadn’t noticed her approach.
“Your father’s been waiting for you.” She looked away from me to meet Dacre’s gaze as she nodded to the left .
“I’m sure he has, Mal.” Dacre moved past her, barely paying her any attention.
“They brought in a load of recruits.” She said the word with a sneer on her face, and my stomach tightened. “He wants you to deal with them.”
Dacre let out an exhausted sigh before moving across a weathered bridge.
The rest of us followed him, and the boards creaked beneath us as I peeked down at the ebony water.
I breathed in a short-lived sigh of relief when we reached the other side, where an imposing structure loomed before us.
The tall walls were made of thick gray stone, and at its peak was a worn wooden sign that read Revolt in flaking black letters.
We stepped inside, and there were a few people huddled together in a small group. But it was the seven individuals lined up together against the far wall that I couldn’t take my eyes off of.
Each of their clothes were marred with dirt and filth, but it was the hunger in their eyes that I couldn’t look away from. The hunger that told me they were trying to escape my father’s cruelty.
“Line up.” Mal nodded toward the others who stood before me, and I foolishly looked behind me before taking another step.