Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three
EMORY
“ Y ou’re not alone. You’ve never been alone. Not since the day I met you.”
That’s what Maverick had said to me, his words so sincere that I wondered if it might actually be true. But I didn’t have much time to think on it. Not when there was so much else to dissect.
We sat around the fire, bellies full, that same twilight sky as always stretching over us with rays of emerald green slicing through the canopies. When the star court was at its full power, it must’ve been beautiful, a true sight to behold.
Questions burned through me. So many spirits-damned questions, but neither Aron nor El seemed to notice. Aron had tended to Maverick’s wound, properly dressing it, the tattered scarf I’d used now shoved in Maverick’s satchel. Then we’d eaten and he’d asked us what we’d encountered so far in the Wilds. We told him everything, none of it appearing to shock or surprise him. El said nothing, her brown eyes, so dark they were almost black, watching us as she chewed on the rabbit meat, spitting out bones and flicking them behind her into the forest. She looked like she might very well belong in the Wilds, like she’d been born from it, her hair curly and disheveled, black dust coating her cheeks, her eyes with a feral glint to them.
I shifted, crossing my legs underneath me. “We need to talk,” I said.
El lifted her hands and formed a series of shapes with her fingers. I tilted my head, studying her as she lifted her pointer finger, then bent it and slashed her hand in a vertical line down her stomach.
“El agrees,” Aron said.
So she couldn’t speak, but she could hear us? Just another question to add to the growing mountain of them. This was not the most pressing one, though, not by a long shot.
“What is this place? How is it possible?” I looked at Aron. “How are you possible?” I winced. “No offense.”
Aron didn’t look remotely offended. More like he was pondering the question along with me. He might have been the most even-keeled person I’d ever met.
Maverick leaned closer, and the fire illuminated the sharp edges of his stubbled jaw, the straight line of his nose, his copper-brown eyes that swirled with questions. I quickly looked away when I realized I was staring.
There would be none of that. I hated the way my gaze kept darting to him, that I was constantly looking to see how he reacted to something new, constantly wanting to ask his opinion, constantly wanting to banter back and forth like we always had. I’d revealed far more of myself than I’d intended to in that crypt.
“What do you know of the spirits?” Aron asked in response to my rapid-fire questions.
Driscoll, Maverick, and I shot each other loaded stares. I heaved a sigh. To get answers, we were going to have to give a few ourselves. “We believe the Seven Spirits were trapped long ago. That they didn’t leave the Old World of their own volition like we’ve always been told. We know that Spirit Shadow was freed from his tomb sixty years ago and resides in the shadow court, where he’s trapped. We know he wants to free all the spirits, that that’s the only way he can be free himself.” I took another deep inhale. “We also know that he’s using his shadows to search for all the weapons needed to free the other six spirits.”
I waited for any flicker of surprise on their faces, for shock, bewilderment, fear. None of that came. Instead, El gave a grim nod and flipped her long, black hair over her shoulder.
“This place is cursed,” Aron said. “Everything here was born of that curse.”
We all stayed silent, listening intently, but my mind worked through what he was saying.
El signed. Aron’s eyes flicked between her hands and us while he translated. “When Spirit Shadow was freed, he tore through the star court, destroying everything in his path. He tore shadows from bodies, taking the shadows with him to the shadow court.” Aron tilted his head. “Many, many elementals died because of Spirit Shadow, the way he so viciously ripped through Shiraeth. Most of the star court, in fact, and anyone else who was here fighting in the war. But a few of us didn’t, by pure luck. Right place. Right time. Survival involved many factors.”
“Okay.” Maverick scratched his head. “So after the Shadow War, a few survivors remained, including you two. What in the fucking spirits below made everything into this?” He gestured around his head.
Aron spread his hands out. “A curse. That’s what we call it. It warped everything. We don’t know who cast it or how, but it had to be powerful magic.”
El began signing again, and Aron glanced at her, then translated, “Within days after Spirit Shadow’s rampage, the transformations began. Trees that started to shrink. Flowers that grew as tall as mountains. Bark that formed eyes. And the elementals who remained, turning into monstrous creatures.” El paused and placed a hand on Aron’s arm, giving it a soft squeeze.
Aron looked at us. “She’s worried she has offended me, but I am what I am. I accept I am a monster of sorts. I also accept that part of my past self remains, a semblance of humanity.”
“Do you remember your human life?” I asked. “Do you remember anything of yourself before you became this wolf? Can you still use your frost magic?”
Aron tipped his head to the side. “Yes, yes, and yes. It took time. Years. And not everyone is so lucky. Some creatures here don’t remember anything of their former lives, can’t access their elemental magic. Some can. I still can’t control when I shift. ”
This was so hard for me to wrap my head around.
“At first, I was more beast than man.” He tipped his head. “But I met El and she took me in, took a lot of us in. Slowly my humanity returned, as did my frost magic, though it doesn’t work well here. Elemental magic tends to be repelled by this world. You can use it, but it probably won’t save you if your life is being threatened.”
We’d definitely experienced that.
Aron leaned forward, steepling his fingers together. “El gave us a safe haven, a place to just be monstrous. Slowly, my memories began to return. I lived in Fyriad, came to Shiraeth to fight in the Shadow War. But I am not that same person. Not anymore.”
I studied El. “What about you?” I asked her. “You don’t seem... monstrous.”
She returned my gaze, her own brown eyes hard and cold as she signed, Aron translating, “That’s because I was born shortly after the curse was cast.”
Maverick studied her, and I followed his gaze, realizing her shadow stretched over the ground. That was why she had her shadow. She’d been born after all the tragedy that had struck Shiraeth. Likely born from one of these creatures. I wasn’t even sure I could process the logistics of that. Who her father was. Who her mother was. I didn’t know if it would be rude, painful, even, for her to talk about her parents, so I asked a different question instead.
“What magic do you have?” I asked. “What court are you from?”
“You’re looking at it,” Aron said.
Driscoll’s mouth dropped open, and he worked to close it. “The star court? You’re from here? You have star magic?”
El’s jaw locked, and she glared at Aron. It seemed like she hadn’t wanted us to know this information, but it was important.
“Everyone assumes that all the star elementals are dead. But there’s one of you left. Are there others?” I asked.
“None that are still elementals,” Aron said, and I understood his meaning.
They’d transformed into one of these cursed creatures, no longer their former selves .
El looked to be a bit younger than me, maybe in her mid-twenties at the most.
“If you were born shortly after the curse,” Driscoll said slowly like he was thinking along the same lines as me, “then why have you not aged? I mean, shouldn’t you be like at least fifty?”
“We assume that’s part of living here.” Aron spread his arms wide. “She’s aged, just very slowly. The rest of us haven’t aged at all, not without our shadows.”
El’s gaze went watery, and suddenly, I felt a tenderness in my heart. It couldn’t be easy reliving all of this for complete strangers.
I reached across our circle and lay my hand over hers. “I’m sorry. You won’t be forgotten about any longer. Not if we escape this place.”
She stared at me for a long moment before she slipped her hand from mine and nodded.
“Who is the queen of hearts?” Maverick asked abruptly. “Is she welcoming of strangers like us?”
I hadn’t heard of this queen of hearts, and I wondered where that question came from. Driscoll frowned like he was wondering the same thing.
“The queen of hearts,” Aron repeated.
Driscoll sighed. “Why is there a woman called the queen of hearts? Let me guess, she rips people’s hearts from their chests and eats them?”
El signed, eyes dancing. “Oh yes,” Aron translated. “She doesn’t just eat them. Makes the hearts into pulp. Drains her enemies of their blood and uses it in pies, tarts, bastes, soups. Can’t get enough of it.”
We all stared, horrified, until El’s lips twitched, the closest thing I’d seen to a smile on her face.
“Apologies,” Aron said. “She can be mischievous.”
“So you’re joking?” Driscoll asked El. “Please tell me you’re joking.”
“She’s called the queen of hearts because she has been known to rip out a few hearts,” Aron admitted. “But it was to protect those she’s taken in. She also has a big heart of her own. She’s selfless, fearless, and you’re sitting in her presence.”
I stared at El, dumbfounded.
“You’re the queen of hearts?” Maverick asked. “So you’re in charge here? ”
“As in charge as anyone can be of a place like the Wilds,” Aron said.
El glowered at us.
“Um.” I bowed my head, not knowing the proper way to greet her. “Your Majesty.”
She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.
“She prefers El,” Aron said.
“Okay, El,” I said, looking at her, then Aron. “Can you two help us get out of here?”
All the amusement disappeared from her face. Aron cleared his throat. “That’s going to be difficult since we’ve been trying to escape for the better part of fifty years.”
Maverick leaned forward, gaze pinned on Aron. “But you did escape.”
“I’ve only escaped once, and it was in my wolf form.” Aron scratched his jaw. “Like I said, I don’t remember how I got out. According to El, I left one month ago. She looked everywhere for me, couldn’t find me. I have very few memories of my time in Fyriad.”
“So you don’t remember the bolt?” I asked.
Aron’s brows drew together. “The bolt?” he echoed.
My heart sank, and Maverick met my gaze with a sympathetic smile. I didn’t want to reveal too much to these strangers. Didn’t want them to know Spirit Sky’s bolt was somewhere in the Wilds. They’d saved us, but that didn’t mean they could be trusted with such important information.
“Never mind,” I said quickly.
“So we’re stuck here.” Driscoll used a small bone to pick his teeth. “Perfect.”
“No.” I leaned back on my hands. “We will find a way out. We’ll go to the library like we planned, and we will read every book we find if that’s what it takes.”
El signed something, a questioning look in her eyes.
“She wants to know what library you’re referring to,” Aron said.
“The Library of Astrias,” I said. “The most famous library in Arathia. I know it’s likely been razed to the ground, but there must be something left that can help us.”
El’s face darkened as she made a series of quick hand gestures .
“It’s too dangerous.” Aron watched El, translating. “If you want to lose your life, go for it. But I will have no part of it. I haven’t stayed alive this long just to die on some foolish mission.”
“So you’d rather just stay here and do nothing?” I shot back, temper flaring as El and I glared at each other. “What is the point of being alive if you’re not even living? You’re just surviving.” I gestured around us. “This isn’t a life.”
Her jaw locked, and she stood abruptly, flipping her wild black hair over her shoulder and stomping away.
I slumped back. “I’m sorry,” I said to Aron. “I shouldn’t have lost my temper like that.”
“She has many wounds she hasn’t yet healed from. She’s lost her whole family, her whole life ripped from her in a single moment. It’s not an easy thing to move on from.”
“What about you?” Driscoll asked.
Aron shrugged one shoulder. “There’s not much more to add than what I’ve already told you.” He stood. “I’ll find El and talk to her. It might be best to travel with us back to our home. You can get the supplies you need before you leave for your journey to the library. Or wherever you need to go. But for now, you should rest. You all look tired.”
That was an understatement. I could sleep for three days straight and still not be well-rested.
“We’ll be safe here?” Maverick asked, an eyebrow raised.
“Ah.” Aron’s eyes lit with understanding. “This forest is dangerous but only during the day. The trees sleep at night, so as long as we leave before morning, we’ll be okay.” He pointed upward. “The stars tell us what time of day it is by their movement. We’re well-accustomed to using them as our guide.” He nodded and disappeared into the dark, leaving the rest of us once again lost in thought, not sure what to make of our new companions or their revelations.