17. Chapter Seventeen
When I first saw it, I thought the glamour had failed. That we’d been caught.
While the cartographers, Talia and Xaden, bickered with Isaac about whether their information regarding the trade routes were true, the ground quaked. I had thought nothing of it at first.
But when Isaac spoke of the shipments in passage once every full moon, the glasses clattered against the wood. I’d watched them fall off the edge, shattering onto the soil within seconds. We all stared at each other for a moment. Then, the screams ripped through the quiet tent.
Scream. One singular chord echoed throughout the camp like a terrifying war cry. I’d nearly flipped the table as I ran into the open, amazed by the sight of starlight beaming from the ground into the sky. It was so bright, battling for dominance against the morning sun. The magic was melting the glamour—it would give us away.
“Where’s Lyra?” I hollered. I twisted toward the cartographers and Isaac before hissing, “I don’t care if it’s the worst magic wielder you’ve ever seen. I want anybody even mildly capable of keeping that barrier up. If we are found, we’re all dead.”
They stumbled back, their stares still on the starlight. I sprinted toward it, Casynox catching up somewhere halfway. The soldiers were crazed, ready to fight but unsure where to look. They were all aiming at the same place. But as we neared, we found fire, the thrashing whips of orange and red burning midnight-black soot into the air.
My entire chest had turned hollow. “Aurelie,” I sputtered quietly. “She’s—”
But then a body emerged. Silver hair covered in soot and bleeding from their face, out came Sapphire. She was dragging a limp body by the wrists, collapsing as soon as she’d gotten far enough from the fire. I pounced toward her and collapsed onto all fours when I found Aurelie, Casynox tending to Sapphire and pulling her further from the blaze.
She was ice cold, with black shadows coloring the sides of her lips and the veins in her neck. I cursed under my breath and lifted her off the ground, sprinting away just as a few soldiers rushed over with buckets of water to squash the fire.
I didn’t care if this entire camp burned down with the years of documents and war planning. It’d mean nothing if Aurelie was gone. I needed her—not to secure my throne or win this war, but to survive. It was a terrible feeling, being so reliant on the well-being of another person, but the thought of going on without her shattered me from the inside out.
I pressed my ear near her mouth and gasped at her raspy, shallow breaths. I relished the sound of her beating heart when I closed my eyes. I could have wept then and there—fallen to my knees and worshiped whatever god or goddess was responsible for this second chance. This was not a second chance I would easily forget.
Whatever had happened in that tent could have been her downfall. It could have been her end.
That would never be a possibility again.