29. Aryn
Aryn
I kick myself a million different ways. If we’d turned around at the first signs of trouble, we could’ve made it back to Thralune.
Maybe we could’ve joined a caravan heading this direction, or used our extra coin to hire protection.
Now we’re here, exhausted and exposed, all because I was impatient to get home.
It’s my fault we’re in this position.
My fault Cato is at risk.
Gods, if something happens to him because of me…
“It’s only a few hours from here,” I say, forcing myself to stay alert as I lead the group through the trees. Lillith has fallen into the rear to watch our backs with Cato, and I hate not being able to see him.
“Is it smart to leave the road?” Ronan demands from my side.
Smoke rises in a plume not far ahead, and I nod toward it. “They’re guarding the path, Ronan. Look at the fires up ahead. If they haven’t attacked another cart, then they’ve blocked the way. They have us barricaded.”
Ronan stares into the forest, jaw working as he tries to find another option. “This is too risky.”
“We can’t turn around,” I counter with a sharp edge to my voice. “We’d never make it.”
Ronan’s eyes flash with frustration. “And charging forward blindly is better? You’re letting your need to get home cloud your judgment.”
The words sting because part of me worries he’s right, but right now, it doesn’t matter. Retreating would have us run right back into their hands.
It’d be suicide.
“This is the only way,” I insist. “The back path is our best chance. I remember it. If we move quietly and slip through, we can lose them.”
Ronan stares at me for a long beat. “If you’re wrong…”
“I know,” I say quietly, “but we can’t turn around now.”
Another cracking branch echoes behind us, and Ronan’s jaw tenses. “Go on, then,” he grits through his teeth.
I focus on the path, pulling ancient memories from the corners of my mind.
Without them, our chance of escaping is next to none.
The route comes back to me as though it were yesterday, and I lead us through trees and rocks, using the points of the mountains as my guide.
Another few miles slip by without so much as a sound besides our footsteps.
For a brief, foolish moment, I allow myself to believe they’ve fallen back.
I let myself think we’ve won.
My ears twitch as a creaking noise reaches them, and I realize what it is as a shock of cold rushes through my limbs. “Get down!” I shout.
Everyone drops as a bowstring plucks and an arrow whizzes past. For a split second, I’m paralyzed, staring at the feathered shaft sticking out of the trunk where my head was only moments ago.
Footsteps close in from every direction at once, and I’m shocked by how silently they stalked us with their numbers. Low, guttural voices bark orders in harsh Elyrian, telling them to fan out and surround us.
“Go!” I roar as I scramble to my feet. “We have to go now!”
Branches whip across my face and arms as we sprint into the dense forest. The snow is much deeper here, sucking at our legs like wet cement and slowing our pace. Behind us, the voices have stopped trying to be stealthy, and shout taunts at our backs.
“Faster!” I plead, heart pounding.
One of them bursts from the trees to my right, a lean warrior with a handprint painted over his face. He lunges for Cameron with a jagged spear pulled back and ready to throw.
Cato bellows and charges forward, swinging his machete with all that coiled power in his body, and the blade catches the attacker across the throat with a wet crunch. Blood sprays hot across the snow as he collapses, gurgling his last breath.
We run even faster as everything explodes into chaos.
More fighters pour out of the forest, throwing spears and firing arrows that whistle through the air like deadly hornets.
An arrow grazes my ribs, ripping open my coat and tearing a burning line across my side.
I snarl from the pain but keep running, falling back to take the rear from Ronan.
“Run! Straight ahead! I’ll hold them back!”
“Aryn!” Cato shouts.
“Go!” I scream back, right as another leaps at my back. My tail whips out and snares his ankle, throwing him off balance so he crashes into a tree with a sickening crack. Another comes at me from the left, but I drive my blade into his shoulder, twisting before ripping it free.
There are too many, and they swarm like locusts as they try to cut us off.
Cato shouts my name again, putting more urgency behind it. “Aryn! Move! You gotta move!”
His voice comes from above me, and I risk a glance up. Cato and Lillith have climbed onto a ledge, both their shoulders braced against a giant boulder and their feet digging into the frozen ground. Cato screams at me again as Ronan rushes over to help.
I leap out of the way as the ground groans its protest, and the stone comes crashing down. Pained shouts and outraged bellows follow as the Viskari are forced to stall.
Cato jumps down in front of me and grabs my hand, nearly dragging me as we sprint away.
We burst into a wide clearing, lungs burning and bodies exhausted.
In the distance, the walls of Maelithryne rise against the pale morning sky—familiar stone and timber, banners of purple and silver fluttering in the wind.
So close.
Home is so close.
Behind us, voices and footsteps follow once again. There’s no way to hide the trench of tracks we’ve left behind in the snow, and we’re too exhausted to maintain this pace. We’ll never make it to the safety of those walls.
After everything, it’s still too far away.
In my heart, I know what has to be done. I cut one last mournful glance at the walls in the distance, sitting as strong as they ever were against the rocky edge of the mountains.
“This way,” I say as I speed up to take the lead. We veer off course and duck into a crevice in the stone.
“We’ll be trapped!” Ronan argues.
“It’s not a cave,” I say as I shove him in ahead of me. “It’s narrow, but you’ll fit, I swear it. It passes through to the other side and you’ll lose them. You can see the village now. Just get there. Run and don’t look back.”
The others follow as I hang back, and Cato turns to look at me with understanding dawning in his eyes. “Don’t you even fucking think about it,” he snarls. “Don’t you fucking dare.”
The sounds of their chase get closer behind us, and I shake my head, fighting past the fear in his eyes. “You have to go,” I plead, voice cracking with my need to make him understand. “They’ll follow our tracks here and they’ll find the passage, but I can lead them away. I know these lands.”
Cato charges closer, eyes wide with raw panic and blazing fury.
“No! We fight together, damn it! We stay together.” His hand cups my neck as he presses his forehead against mine.
“I’m ready, Aryn. I’m ready, okay? I’m yours and I’ll give you everything if you’ll just stay.
All or nothing, right? I’ll take it all. I want it all.”
My heart breaks at the pain in his voice. “They’ll catch us, Cato. There’s no time.”
“Then we’ll make time. Don’t do this,” he begs. “Please. Don’t leave me here. You said you wouldn’t leave me! You’re supposed to have my back!”
“And I do, rha khor,” I say, barely fighting my emotions as I yank the chain from around my neck.
My father’s sigil ring hangs from it as I press it into his hand, closing his fingers around the metal.
“Take this to Maelithryne. Show them this ring. Tell them you come in the name of the old house. They’ll protect you. ”
Cato’s fingers clutch the ring desperately, but his eyes are glistening and godsdamned devastated. “Aryn, please… stay with me. Fight with me. We’ll figure this out.”
The others stand in the mouth of the crevice, watching us with exhausted resignation. They understand it has to be done, and that it has to be me. Cameron’s bottom lip wobbles and Lillith’s eyes are glassy, while Ronan is stony-faced and dips his chin in a solemn nod.
“We’ll stay,” Cato tries again, a single tear hanging precariously on his lashes. “Me and you. They can go. I’ll stay with you.”
We’re out of time, but I steal a few precious seconds as I reach to swipe the tear away, hating how tempted I am to keep him by my side. Cato nuzzles into my palm, but I shake my head and nod at the others. “They need you.”
He snarls, the anger in it twisting his face into something fractured. “I need you.”
My battered heart doesn’t just break—it rips open in a wound that feels like it should be fatal.
All those ragged pieces spill through my ribs like something fighting to stay alive.
I want to stay… I want to stay, to never leave, but I force my trembling feet back one step, then another.
The arrow wound in my side scorches, blood sliding hot and sticky down my ribs beneath the coat.
I keep my arm pressed tight against it. If he sees how badly I’m bleeding, he’ll never let me go.
“I’ll find my way back to you,” I whisper, voice breaking. “I’ll find my way home.”
Before he can argue more, before I throw myself into his arms for another moment with him, I turn.
If I look at him for another second, I’ll change my mind and doom us all.
I sprint in the opposite direction on heavy legs that don’t understand why we’re leaving and the remnants of a heart that won’t possibly survive this.
I crash through the underbrush with enough noise to draw every Viskari after me. Behind me, I hear Cato’s broken, anguished shout of my name, along with Ronan and Lillith’s voices as they fight to hold him back.
Tears blur my vision as I run deeper into the forest. Death follows on my heels, and I welcome its threat.
It means my plan is working, and the danger is being led further from my mate.
Branches tear at my clothes and skin, my legs burn, and my wounds scream, but I keep running.
As I draw the horde further and further away, I pray to the Fates for the first time in decades, begging them for the strength to keep my promise.