Chapter 66
Allie
The forest was alive.
Not with grunts and the metal slash of swords that still–and probably always would–hiss in my ears, but with the chant of sorrow.
All of Solkar’s Reach had gathered into a final procession heading for the Memory Hall, to mourn and celebrate the lives of the fallen warriors.
Their statues had been carved and already entombed in the crypt, waiting for their loved ones to say a final farewell.
At least they could see their faces one final time, though they didn’t have the comfort of burying them.
With few portraits and the bodies burned during the war, the closer the statue resembled the fallen soul, it meant the more that person had an impact on those that remained behind. They could all help the stonecarvers bring their likeness back, even in one frozen for all eternity.
I shuddered as I thought about Geryll and his own sculpture waiting for us ahead. The red candle gripped in my hands shook alongside me, the flame fickle and weary, like it could sense I didn’t feel like I deserved to mourn along so many broken families I’d never broken bread with.
People cried. Children hung onto embraces asking where mommy and daddy were. Everyone who had a weapon carried it, my bow and arrows strapped to my back. The surviving warriors marched solemnly, a defeated slump to their spines. Among them, Vylkor muttered prayers of forgiveness.
A few flinched whenever a tree branch crunched or a rock got disturbed, the horrors of war dancing in their wide, terrified eyes.
The marks of war never left. Not really. They could soften and scab over with time, but they settled deep beyond the surface.
My gaze found Ryker before I could stop it. Even after everything that happened, it still sought comfort in him.
I wondered if time could truly soften the memories and bridge the chasm.
But that was a selfish sorrow, for another day.
He walked with his back as straight as ever, carrying Geryll’s shield in his hands like a great offering to the gods. I caged my energy within me, not wanting to intrude on this painful moment, but I felt the endless, bottomless sadness he kept hidden. The ache. The guilt.
Gods, this guilt would devour him.
I held on tighter to my candle as the voices around us grew and dimmed in waves. Later. This time I would talk to him later. He’d saved me from the brink of crumbling moons ago, and he’d been right–I would do the same for him. Try to, at least.
This was an ache only he could truly defeat.
In front of him, Nadya walked with her head bowed, small cries shaking her shoulders. She had no candle and refused to enter the crypt, but insisted she would accompany Geryll’s spirit one last time.
“Poor girl,” Mrs. Thornbrew said from right in front of me. They’d known Geryll longer, it was only normal they’d accompany him first. She sniffed into her handkerchief, holding onto Mrs. Mallowmere’s arm for support, though the woman was a head smaller than her. “She’s taken this loss hard.”
My gaze dropped to my feet as I swallowed thickly.
Dax walked closer to me, his own candle flickering in tune with mine.
He hadn’t laughed once today, all the joy burrowed.
In the distance, the trolls grunted lowly, as if sensing our pain and wanting to lessen it.
The warriors only flinched harder at the sound.
“She would, the dear.” Mrs. Mallowmere patted Mrs. Thornbrew’s arm. “At least she survived.”
Mrs. Thornbrew sniffed harder as we neared the crypt. Warm light poured out of its open door, like a portal to another world. The people of Solkar’s Reach believed their ancestors always watched over them and would protect them in their time of need.
Perhaps they were right. But now, only weapons remained of the warriors who’d perished. Were their souls wandering the plains, trying to get home?
I clenched my jaw and focused on my flame. Only the gods knew.
“Yes,” Mrs. Mallowmere said sadly. “But she’s not the same. I keep telling her to leave her room more often. She doesn’t train anymore. Doesn’t eat. She’s just locked herself away from all of us–”
Beside me, Dax tensed.
“–Ry and I both tried to talk to her,” she went on. “She avoids both of us.”
“She’ll come to, you’ll see,” Mrs. Mallowmere said gently. “It’s hard for a young soul.”
Dax’s steps slowed down, enough for me to turn and look at him. The people behind us kept walking, giving us a wide berth.
“What’s wrong?” I whispered, still caught up in thoughts of Geryll and Ryker’s guilt infusing my veins.
Dax narrowed his eyes in the distance. “You won’t like this.”
“I don’t like anything now.”
He worked his jaw for the longest time. “I know for a fact Nadya leaves her room every morning. So why–”
“Why would Mrs. Thornbrew say otherwise?” My chest tightened, looking up ahead. The first in the line had almost reached the crypt’s door. The light was already playing on Ryker’s stern face. “She could have just lied to her. Wanted space. Or Mrs. Thornbrew misunderstood.”
Nadya truly loved her space and Mrs. Thornbrew loved to talk.
“Yeah. That sounds right,” he said, but didn’t sound like it was right at all.
I kept looking at them, walking closer to the Memory Hall, Ryker caught between them, the weight of the shield shattering more of him with each step.
All this sorrow he carried within him.
Something ugly fractured inside of me.
Not fear.
Recognition.
My heart plummeted into my ankles, blazing my veins as it went. My breathing fractured. My fingers dug into the candle until the hot wax dripped onto my skin. I didn’t care.
“You still had one vial of truth serum, right?” I shook with rage.
Doubt still trickled in.
Gods, I hoped I was wrong.
Dax patted his breast pocket. “I can make more once Mrs. Mallowmere brings in more pyrrot.”
One was all we needed.
Shaking from the tips of my hair down to my boots, I let the candle fall. The flame extinguished with a hiss as I marched forward.
“Allie!” Dax whisper-hissed behind me, drawing unwanted attention on me.
I didn’t care.
I was controlled by a force stronger than shame or guilt right now.
I hadn’t allowed myself to truly think about my future husband’s death. Not until today.
How easily I could have lost Ryker.
Every.
Single.
Night.
Solkar’s Reach stilled as I raised my bow, the arrow aimed straight at his unguarded back, hundreds of mourners frozen in fear all around us.
I clenched my jaw, letting that famed Vegheara pointed chin convey what my lips couldn’t utter.
Rage boiled inside of me.
Betrayal burned away whatever forgiveness I had left, until only the lust for revenge remained.
Deep beneath our feet, I swear I could feel the crater murmur as I tightened my bow’s string. The head of the arrow glinted in the flickering candlelight flooding out from the Memory Hall.
The citizens of Solkar’s Reach had come here tonight to mourn the souls they’d lost in the war.
Instead, they watched in horror as I raised a weapon at their Commander, the man they worshipped.
Ryker’s eyes sparked as he whirled around.
Shock flickered across his face, only to be replaced with something much worse.
A deep, bone-searing disappointment that hollowed me as well.
He didn’t even reach for his blood powers to freeze me where I stood. Didn’t try to stop me.
He sensed the stench of inevitability in the air and let the truth stand bare between us, undeniable.
We stood in the same position we’d been in when we’d first met, back when the walls of the Sanctua Sirena maze had closed in, the stones had been splattered with blood, and we’d survived the slaughter.
The day when my father had been assassinated and I lost my throne.
Back then, he’d smirked at me.
Challenging.
Waiting.
Defiant.
Now, he looked defeated.
The war had changed him.
Had erased his lopsided smile and killed the challenge in his eyes.
But, despite it all, there was still a glimmer of hope.
That this was all a dream.
That I wasn’t defiling the grounds of the most revered sanctuary in Solkar’s Reach.
That I wouldn’t spill blood today.
But he was wrong.
I would shatter that hope right out of him.
His warriors reached for their weapons, already moving, as if one of them might still be faster than my arrow.
They couldn’t.
“Traitor,” I whispered and loosed the arrow that would shatter Solkar’s Reach and his heart.
The arrow flew straight at him, before curving through the air around his shoulder.
A shot only The Huntress could make.
Under everyone’s astounded gazes, the tip caught Nadya’s fur cuff, embedding itself in the wall just outside the crypt entrance she refused to walk through.
“What the–” She reached her other hand out to free herself.
I fired another arrow, catching her other cuff.
She was trapped and staring at me as if she was terrified I’d gone insane.
“What are you doing?” Ryker bellowed, caught somewhere between shock, loyalty to me, and fear for her.
He whirled around to free her.
“No,” I bit out
My powers snapped, engulfing Nadya and I in a blue orb not even the crater’s Rays could crumble now.
Not when I was shock and fury incarnate.
I scowled and caught her chin in my hand, teeth bared. “What did you do, Nadya?”