Chapter 25
Sebastian
Julienne looks up at us from the ground; she is holding onto the reins of the mare I took from the homestead. Her eyes are filled with concern, but she is still smiling through the fear.
“You two take care of each other,” she says, her voice thick. “Promise me.”
“We will,” Isla answers before I can.
I glance at Isla, mounted on Jack beside me, his ears pricked.
Nox shifts beneath me, tossing his head. He’s picked up on the tension in the air, the urgency that neither Isla nor I can fully hide.
“I’ll return the pony to the homestead you mentioned,” Julienne says, stroking the animal’s nose. “You have my word.”
“Thank you, Julienne. For everything,” I tell her.
She steps back from the horses and folds her arms across her chest. “May Kakara watch over you both.”
Isla gives her a warm smile. “We’ll see each other again.”
I’m not so sure about that, but I don’t say it. Instead, I nod once.
We head out, turning to wave once just before disappearing into the forest. The trees are thick, so we keep the pace slow.
Branches hang low across the path, forcing us to duck and weave.
I lead, picking the safest route through the undergrowth while keeping an ear tuned to the woods around us.
Behind me, Jack follows at an easy walk.
Neither of us speaks. The court is still too close. Guards could be anywhere.
We move like this for a long while. Through the thinning trees, past the boundary markers, toward the dome that separates the Shadow Court from the deadlands beyond.
We break into an easy lope through the open field before the barrier.
As we pass through, the change is immediate.
The air turns cold. The trees give way to mud, rot, and decay.
The air smells of it. After a short while, the sun disappears, and the sky turns gray and muted.
There is now a diffused light that makes everything look washed out and tired.
I look over my shoulder.
We made it out. Soon we will be able to breathe just a little easier.
“How are you doing?” I ask Isla.
“I’m fine. Holding up. Just a little cold.”
“We can stop for you to put on your coat.” I glance at the oilskin tied behind her saddle.
Isla nods. She drops the reins and quickly dons the jacket.
“Better?” I can’t help but smile at her.
I’m given a shy smile in return. I know I am a gutter rat for thinking of her naked and soft beneath me, but I can’t help it.
I want her again. It’s going to have to wait, since there are more pressing matters right now, like getting to safety and keeping an eye out for unsavories. There are plenty of things out here that can kill in less than a heartbeat, without you seeing them coming.
Isla moves a little ahead of me. I note how she moves with the horse rather than against him, her body finding the rhythm of his gait.
She catches me looking. “What is it?”
“Nothing.” I turn my eyes forward.
But I look again a few minutes later. I can’t seem to stop myself.
Her blond hair has come loose from its braid.
Her cheeks are flushed from the ride, her lips parted as she breathes.
The gray light of the deadlands does nothing to diminish her.
If anything, she burns brighter against the dullness of this forsaken landscape.
She is warmth in a world that has forgotten what it feels like.
I think about what happened between us in the boulders. The taste of her. The sounds she made. The way she looked at me afterward, open and unguarded, without expectation or demand.
I’ve been with other females. None of them made me feel the way she does. I am sure that it is because I haven’t been with a female in many summers.
I force my attention back to the terrain ahead. We press on, the earth squelching beneath our horses’ hooves. There is nothing but the odd tuft of grass, followed by more mud and the occasional dead tree.
I’m about to suggest we rest the horses when a shadow falls over us.
Not the kind cast by a cloud. This is larger. Darker. Moving fast. Then dark befalls us. It’s unnatural.
Nox breaks stride. His head flies up, and he dances sideways. I pull the reins, sitting deep to keep him from bolting. He whinnies in fear, his eyes rolling.
Jack gives one small jump and settles, his ears swiveling upward.
I look up too.
My stomach drops.
The sky above us is full of dragons.
Isla gasps.
Easily two hundred dragons fly in a loose formation above us.
They’re enormous, their wings spanning wider than the tallest trees that once grew in these lands.
Some have scales of black, while others are green.
There are a scant few who are a deep burnished gold.
Their wings beat in great, sweeping motions that stir the air below into gusts strong enough to flatten the dead grass around us.
They fly low. Close enough that I can make out the ridges along their spines, the curve of their talons, the slit-pupiled eyes that scan the ground beneath them.
Close enough that the wind from their passage buffets us like a gale.
Nox screams and rears, his front legs striking the air.
I grip with my legs and lean forward, fighting to bring him back down.
“Goddess help us!” Isla shouts. Her hair is wild, her eyes wide as she stares upward. Jack stirs and is restless but doesn’t try to bolt…not yet. “What are they doing here?” she turns panicked eyes on me.
They’re on their way to the Shadow Court.
Toward Snow.
“It’s the Vashren,” I say.
Nox is still fighting me. I use my legs, my seat, my voice, every scrap of horsemanship I possess to keep him from bolting. He tosses his head, foam flying from his bit, and spins a tight circle before I bring him to a shuddering halt.
“The what?” Isla asks, still looking upward at the great beasts.
“The shifterfae,” I tell her. “It’s them.” My voice is deep and choked.
Isla stares at me. “I thought that shifterfae were a myth.” She shakes her head, her expression caught between wonder and fear.
“My mother told me tales about them when I was little. Stories at bedtime that scared me senseless. They supposedly live on the most southern border of the kingdom, far away from everyone and everything.” She looks back up at the sky, where the last of the dragon formation is passing overhead, their shadows dragging across the dead earth. “They can’t be real.”
“Well, they are, and they’re here.”
“My mother told me that they have never left their lands.”
“I wish that were true.” Something hot and old twists in my gut. An anger I’ve carried since I was a boy of ten, standing in the throne room with my parents’ blood still wet on the floor. “I am sure that they had my parents assassinated.”
From somewhere ahead comes a deep vibration. Not a sound exactly, more of a feeling. The earth beneath us trembles with it. The horses feel it too. Nox stamps and tosses his head. Even Jack shifts his weight, his nostrils flaring.
Isla’s eyes widen.
“They are extremely dangerous, Isla, and they’re coming this way. We need to get away from here.”
Her face has gone white.
“What are they doing here?” she asks.
I turn Nox toward the source of the sound. For a moment, the land is quiet. Then a roar splits the air. Not from above this time, but from the ground. It rolls across the deadlands, deep and guttural, shaking the earth beneath the horses’ hooves.
There is another answering roar.
“More are coming. On foot, or in whatever forms they’ve chosen,” I yell. “We need to ride.”
“What are they doing here?” she asks again.
I look to the north, where the dragons have all but vanished into the gray sky, and then back to Isla. “I think they’re going after Snow.”
Something passes across Isla’s face. Hope, perhaps. If another army is marching against the queen, surely that’s a good thing?
“If it were any other species, I would ride with them,” I tell her. “But the shifterfae are my enemy. I don’t know what their true agenda is. I don’t trust them any more than I trust Snow herself.” I gather the reins tight. “We need to ride hard. Hold on tight.”
She nods once. Her throat works as she swallows. Then she leans forward in the saddle, grips the reins, and drives her heels into Jack’s flanks.
The gelding explodes into a gallop. The horse moves with a speed I wouldn’t have thought him capable of, his short legs eating up the ground in powerful, driving strides.
Isla crouches low over his neck, her body pressed flat against him, her hands buried in his mane. She rides like she was born to it.
This female surprises me at every turn.
I kick Nox after her, and he’s only too happy to run. He stretches out beneath me, his long legs devouring the distance. The wind tears at my hair and clothing. Behind us, another roar shakes the ground. Closer this time.
I don’t look back.
I ride, and I pray to Kakara that we’re fast enough. That the Vashren are too focused on their prize to care about two riders fleeing across the wastes.
And gods help me, beneath the fear, beneath the fury that those murderous bastards are this close to me and I can do nothing about it, there’s a small, treacherous part of me that hopes they succeed.
That whatever army they’re bringing north is enough to bring Snow to her knees. I only wish I could be there.
I lean lower over Nox’s neck and ride harder.