Chapter Thirty-three
THEA
T hea stood at the bow of The Furies’ Will and looked out onto the white caps of the water, lapping in the wind.
The early morning air was crisp against her skin, a shock after the delicious warmth of being in Wilder’s arms all night, but good.
She needed something to bring her out of the haze of him; she needed a clear head.
The captain had told her that if the conditions remained favourable, they might see Tver on the horizon before sundown. Which seemed far too soon. Thea wasn’t ready to leave the rocking comfort of the sea, or face the darkness that awaited them beyond it.
‘There you are,’ Wren’s voice sounded behind her.
‘Here I am,’ Thea echoed, greeting her sister with a smile.
Wren’s whole body seemed to sag as she came to stand beside her. ‘I think that’s the first time you’ve smiled at me since your initiation test.’
‘Well… We haven’t seen much of one another.’
‘You were avoiding me.’
Thea sighed. ‘I was.’
Wren nudged her. ‘I am sorry, you know. For keeping that from you.’
Thea swallowed. ‘I know.’
‘I was just trying to do right by you, to protect you.’
‘I know, Wren.’ Thea touched her sister’s arm. ‘I forgive you.’
‘You do?’
Thea held Wren’s hopeful gaze and nodded. ‘Life’s too short,’ she said, echoing Wilder’s words. ‘Too short to hold grudges against the people you love.’
Wren gave her a sad, knowing smile. ‘Here.’ She rummaged in her pocket and produced Thea’s fate stone.
As soon as the piece of jade hit Thea’s palm, it was as though a heavy blanket had been thrown over her senses. Suddenly, she felt off-kilter, like the world had tilted beneath her feet and she wasn’t seeing clearly.
‘Thee?’ Wren prompted.
‘Is it stronger than it was?’ she asked, gripping the rail of the ship to steady herself.
Wren looked at her strangely. ‘No. I treated it exactly as I always have…’
Thea frowned, taking the fate stone between her fingers to examine it. The number twenty-seven had grown darker, but it had been doing that for some time now. Enovius was coming for her, slow and steady.
‘Thea,’ Wren said, forcing her to look up. ‘It’s not the alchemy that’s stronger. It’s you . That’s why it feels so different. You’ve never had this much power to suppress before.’
‘Oh.’
‘How do you feel?’
‘Queasy… Like a piece of me is missing.’
‘Because it is. Do you really think this —’
‘Wren, please,’ Thea cut in. She thought her sister would continue to argue, but she seemed to understand that Thea needed to do this her own way, in her own time.
Wren simply rested her elbows against the railing and looked out across the sapphire sea. ‘We haven’t talked about her…’ she ventured quietly.
Thea knew who her sister meant.
The Daughter of Darkness. The winged woman who had shattered a part of the Veil. Anya .
‘Do you think it was real?’ Wren asked.
Thea followed her gaze across the water as the morning sun crept a little higher. ‘We both know it was.’
‘They had wings, Thee…’
‘I almost did too,’ she admitted, recalling the searing pain of the reaper’s talons piercing her flesh in the Bloodwoods. ‘I could have been one of them, could have been sucked into that army of darkness…’
‘But you weren’t.’
‘No.’ Thea took a breath. ‘But this woman… She’s the fiercest thing I’ve ever seen. She scares me.’
Wren rested her hand atop Thea’s. ‘Then consider me terrified.’
Thea gave her a questioning look.
Wren chewed her lip for a moment. ‘You’re the one person I know who doesn’t get scared.’
‘What?’ Thea baulked. ‘I get scared, Wren. I’m scared every fucking day.’
‘Then you hide it well.’ Her sister’s fingers laced through hers. ‘We’ll get through this.’
Thea squeezed her hand in answer.
* * *
Later, their group sat around a small table on deck, the midday sun beating down on them, warm despite the sea breeze whipping about them. Wilder was showing her how to oil her armour to keep it in good condition as they talked.
‘By now, the whole of the midrealms will have been alerted about the invaders,’ Torj was saying. ‘To attack one of the three kingdoms is an act of war.’
‘But there was no warning, no chance to prepare,’ Kipp said, flattening his palms over the map spread out before them. ‘With the distance between Tver and the other two territories, no one will get there in time, save for the Guardians stationed nearby. No royal armies —’
‘We don’t need royal armies. The best warriors are with the guild,’ Wilder said, pointing to a patch on Thea’s armour she’d missed with the oil.
‘We just have to hope that there were some decent units stationed throughout Notos.’ He turned to Thea and Wren.
‘You have no idea of the numbers she had?’
Thea had told him of the woman they’d both seen, and how she’d rallied an army of monsters, just as the rumours told. She shook her head, still tending to her leather vest. ‘No, and what’s to say the numbers we saw are the only ones? It might be a portion of her forces.’
Torj let out a heavy sigh. ‘We should have listened to Audra. Warswords or not, we need more Naarvian steel.’
‘Will Vernich be heading to Tver?’ Thea asked.
‘Of course,’ Torj replied. ‘But whether or not he’ll get there in time is another story.’
Kipp pressed his hands together in front of him. ‘It depends on how these forces attack. If they’re heading there with a mind to use the element of surprise…’
‘Then Tver is fucked,’ Thea finished for him.
‘Correct. However, Wren said that this woman wants something – something about brothers and sisters?’
Thea recalled the winged woman’s words… ‘We will come for them!’ she had shouted as the darkness bowed to her command.
Finished with oiling her armour, she frowned and glanced at the Warswords. ‘How do we find out if King Leiko has half-wraith prisoners?’
‘Once we’re back on the mainland, we can send a raven… Though we might get to Notos before we receive the reply,’ Wilder answered. ‘Are you thinking it’s a rescue mission?’
‘Anything I say is just speculation. Wren and I saw a fraction of a much bigger picture. All I can say for certain is that she has the power of the wraiths behind her. She can manipulate shadow. And it’s strong enough to tear the Veil.’
Kipp traced the lines of the map again. ‘Well, I suppose we need to hope that it’s a retrieval operation as much as it is an attack. It will mean they won’t go in heavy-handed, that there’s planning involved: setup, camps… An escape route.’
‘If they can travel like they did across Harenth, then they’re lost in the wind to us,’ Wilder said.
‘We won’t know until we’re there,’ Torj replied.
They sat there strategising for hours, the Warswords and Kipp leading the discussion.
But the more outcomes and possibilities they prepared for, the less in control Thea felt.
There was no coming back from this; she knew it in her bones.
Whatever waited for them in Tver would change the course of history, would change all their lives.
With the strange blanket over her senses, and the impending doom, Thea felt that familiar instinct to turn inward, to shy away from those around her and revert to the quiet within, its silence louder than ever without the thrum of magic in her veins.
But Wilder was there, Wren was there, her friends were there with her, and they wouldn’t allow her to do such a thing.
As though sensing her unease, Wilder put an arm around her shoulders and tugged her to his side. Just the sheer presence of him was enough to settle the urge to run.
Noting the Warsword’s movement, Kipp exchanged a glance with Cal. ‘That’s still taking some getting used to.’
Torj snorted. ‘I thought walking in on them mid-fuck might have shocked it out of you already.’
Thea groaned, reaching for the flask she knew Wilder kept in his pocket. ‘It wasn’t —’
‘Must we have this conversation?’ Wren exclaimed.
‘Too vulgar for your delicate sensibilities, Your Highness?’ Torj teased.
Thea could practically feel her sister’s temper spike.
‘Keep your voice down,’ Wren hissed. ‘And for your information, Warsword, I can talk about fucking as much as the next person —’
Thea nearly sent a spray of fire extract over the table.
‘But she’s my sister . And judging from the sounds we heard echoing down the halls last night, we’ve all got a pretty clear picture of what’s going on between them.’ She whirled to Kipp and Cal, who shrank back. ‘They’re together. Deal with it.’
To Thea’s surprise, a deep laugh bellowed from Wilder, his whole body shaking as he tried to get a hold on himself.
‘In all my years of knowing Elderbrock, I’ve never seen him look so shocked. And I was there when he got the name Bear Slayer.’ He wiped his eyes. ‘Thank you, Elwren.’
Wren’s brows shot up and she folded her arms over her chest. ‘I didn’t say I approved.’
Thea stared at her sister, recognising the storm in her gaze.
But Wilder just shook his head, laughter still in his eyes. ‘Noted.’
* * *
The rest of the day passed in a similar fashion, and before Thea knew it, the sun was dipping and Tver was on the horizon. They sat on deck, their belongings packed and their horses ready, as the evening breeze billowed in the sails above.
A pang of regret curdled in her gut. She’d liked being out at sea, and there was no way she and Wilder had made the most of having their own private cabin.
As she glanced across at him now, desire flared.
His shirtsleeves were rolled to the elbow, revealing those tanned, muscular forearms. His hair was swept back in a knot, his beard trimmed to follow the sharp line of his jaw.
He looked as fierce and as beautiful as ever, the wind catching in the back of his shirt, making it billow slightly.
She had half a mind to drag him down to the cabin, the others be damned.
‘How long would it have taken us to get here if we’d gone over land?’ Wren asked the group.