Chapter 29
Chapter twenty-nine
“How could you save him?” Thorn wheezed beside her.
Blood seeped through his fingers, staining the dark fabric of his woven Hollow-born uniform.
The Ember Reach crest was barely visible on his sleeve as he clutched the wound at his side.
“We were finally rid of him! And you…you went and practically brought him back to life! Tell me why!”
The wind whipped around them as they soared high above the forest on the broad back of the massive transport eagle. The ceaseless beat of its wings, each one large enough to cast a shadow across the treetops far below, filled the air with a powerful rush of sound.
As Thorn's rasping words dissolved into a fit of coughing, his shoulders hunched inward. The unshakable composure he always carried had crumbled, and she couldn’t even blame him. Not after what she had done.
Her mouth opened and closed. “I… I…”
“I agreed to share everything I learned about the enemy while captive in exchange for Rynna’s assistance in escaping.” The smooth, unhurried voice of Ember Reach’s greatest traitor interrupted them from where he was secured to the bird’s saddle.
Thorn glared at the man before turning back to Rynna and raising an eyebrow expectantly.
Rynna glanced at the cause of all the drama.
Perched in the center of the bird’s back was a thin man of modest height, sitting cross-legged as if the chaos around him meant nothing.
His chin rested lazily in the palm of his hand, a single finger tapping idly against his cheek.
His long black hair fluttered in the wind, barely shifting despite their speed.
The dark, weathered robes of a Vessel, or master level Hollow-born, clung to his wiry frame, worn loose but sharp, much like the man himself.
His serpent-like eyes were half-lidded, yet his gaze drifted in her direction.
But the relaxed facade was only a mask. Rynna knew him.
Or at least, she had known the man he’d been over fifty years ago, a truth known only to Fire Reach’s leader, the Ember Warden, and Fenn.
Perhaps she didn’t know this Kaelith at all.
The man she may have loved the first time the Weaving sent her to this world might be long gone.
She shot him a hard look. They’d never agreed to a deal. It wasn’t why she had freed him, and they both knew it. But he was giving her a convenient excuse, a way to cloak her reckless decision in logic when it came to explaining why they were bringing him back.
“We need the intel, Vessel Thorn,” she said, even as the villain’s lips curved into a slight, knowing smirk. “He has it.” She couldn’t bring herself to outright lie, but she would play along, for now.
“She’s right,” the eagle’s rider added from the bird’s helm, still scanning the terrain beneath them. “We know next to nothing about the enemy, other than that they have a massive army and want the Great Phoenix, wherever she may be.”
“Shit.” Another cough rattled through the injured man, blood flecking his lips. “Fine. Let the Wardens deal with him. They can argue over which Reach will get to interrogate him.” He swiped a hand across his mouth, then slumped forward, his strength fading.
Without hesitation, Rynna crawled toward him, careful not to disturb the bird’s large but delicate feathers. She shrugged off her pack and tucked it beneath Thorn’s head, creating a makeshift pillow as she eased him into a more comfortable position.
“It’s a long flight back to headquarters, Vessell.
” She tightened the bandage around his waist, pulling a twig from his belt.
“I can handle things the rest of the trip.” She cast another glance at Kaelith, who hadn’t moved an inch.
“He’s not going anywhere. Last I checked, flying wasn’t in his bag of tricks. ”
The man barely managed a grunt in response before his eyes fluttered shut and his breathing evened into unconsciousness.
Thorn's training to resist pain was legendary. Her fellow Novices and Awakened held him as an almost impossible standard. Yet, even with that reputation, she couldn’t fathom how he had stayed conscious for so long after she’d pulled him from the enemy’s lair.
They’d had him for weeks, desperate to extract anything he knew about the location of the Great Phoenix.
Her gaze lingered on the man for a beat longer, tracing the exhaustion carved into his face, before a voice, smooth and rich with amusement, cut through the air, yanking her focus away.
“Flying may not be in my ‘bag of tricks,’ pet, but I’ve mastered enough dark arts to make any Vessel envious.”
Kaelith.
She turned, catching the wicked curve of his smile as he leaned in. “Surely, you haven’t forgotten the nights we spent in the shadow of the mountain…how you begged.”
Fuck. Rynna’s heart slammed into her ribs as memories she had long buried surged to the surface…his hands gripping her waist, pulling her against the hard planes of his chest, his mouth hot against her skin.
“Fuck off, monster.” She fought to keep herself steady, though her pulse thundered in her ears as she added, “What happened to you, anyway?”
Her eyes lifted, and there it was. For the briefest moment, something like pain flashed across his face. It was quick, almost too quick to catch, but unmistakable. His jaw tightened, and his lips twitched, betraying a wound that had long festered beneath supposed indifference.
A hand rose to brush a stray lock of hair from his face. “I was always a monster.” Then the mask fell back into place. “You just disappeared before the shadows consumed me.”
Guilt swelled like a vice around her ribs as she fought against the weight of the past—the memory of vanishing all those years ago pressing down, threatening to pull her under. She wanted to look away, to shield herself from the emotions piercing her weathered shields, but she couldn’t.
For a moment, Rynna’s hand hovered near her chest as if she could still feel the ghost of his touch. Then, the tremor in her body stilled, and she closed her eyes, focusing on the wind whipping past her face.
“No.” She pushed the past down where it belonged, beneath the surface where it couldn't reach her. “Whatever you became, it’s not the man I knew. You’re just the empty remains of something…else.”
Remember the Ascension. His actions were his own. He’s a monster. Rynna’s eyes fixed on the changing landscape ahead of them, trying to hold on to that thought, even though she knew it wasn’t entirely true. Not anymore.
When she rescued him, she had stripped away all the twisted enhancements that made him more serpent than man, leaving them behind in his captor, Skarn.
What remained was the Kaelith she had once known, untouched by the horrors he had inflicted upon himself in her absence.
Physically, at least, he was the younger version of himself now, the man she’d spent nearly four beautiful years with in the hidden mountain village of the Hearth.
Her fists clenched, knuckles turning white as those unwanted thoughts slithered through her mind.
Nothing can erase everything he did. He killed the last Ember Warden. He ate people and experimented on children. What the fuck is wrong with you!
Self-loathing burned deep. Even allowing the memories to surface made her feel like a terrible person. A despicable friend, teammate…and lover. Why had she freed him? What would Fenn think? Her inhale stuttered, lodged high in her throat, as a new gush of guilt welled up inside her.
How could you do this to Fenn, you stupid, stupid…! He’s the best thing that ever happened to you!
Her hand jerked up, gripping a fistful of her hair and yanking hard.
Fenn was already dealing with the fallout of their relationship being exposed—a senior Vessel sleeping with a younger Novice, one under his guidance, no less.
Though she was neither an inexperienced Hollow-born nor younger. ..another lie.
The sting in her scalp barely registered as her fingers flexed, strands of hair slipping free. She could feel herself spiraling, lost in the whirlwind of her own self-recriminations.
The Rules. The Weaving. A tiny, distant voice in the back of her mind tried to break through, but the shame drowned it out.
“Shhhh.” That familiar tenor cut through the storm in a sigh, pulling her back from the edge. “Just rest.”
She blinked, her vision clearing as Kaelith’s words sank in.
She was so tired. It had taken all her strength to disable Skarn and pull Kaelith out of him, and then get both him and Thorn out of the secret lab alive without tapping into power she wasn’t yet supposed to touch.
She was drained, her body pushed beyond its limits.
Only the madness of the situation kept her from collapsing.
Staring blankly at the horizon for a moment, her body quaked with fatigue, before darkness closed around her.
She awoke to starlight, the cool bite of a breeze, and a strong hand gently combing through her hair.
What the hell? She struggled to open her eyes.
When she finally did, she found Kaelith’s dark, inscrutable eyes staring down at her.
“We’re almost there.” Thorn coughed from the other side of the bird. “You might want to sit up.”
She scrambled out of the monster’s lap, no matter how comfortable it had been. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Glaring at him, she pushed her hair back from her face. “What did you do?”
The pale man sighed, rolling his eyes with an exaggerated display of impatience. “You seemed uncomfortable. Twitching and rolling about in your sleep. I was concerned you’d accidentally fling yourself right off the bird.”
“Like you’d care.” Thorn rolled his shoulders, jaw tight, pulling at his bandages.
Kaelith pursed his lips. “She is my witness to the deal we struck. Until the agreement is presented to the Wardens, her death would not be in my best interest.”
“Well, at least that makes sense.” Thorn moved away from them toward the front of the eagle. “You’re incapable of caring for anyone other than yourself.”
“You may be surprised, boy.” The man’s shoulders pulled up toward his ears.
I do care. His voice echoed softly in her mind, too intimate, too familiar. At least about you, I do.
She flinched, her jaw dropping in shock.
Ah, so it still works. His shoulders eased. That is encouraging.
There is nothing to be encouraged by here, Kae!
Rynna forced herself to turn her back on him and join Thorn and the Rider, hoping to hide the erratic rise and fall of her chest. So, a part of me didn’t want to see you trapped in that living hell.
That doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t change anything.
Not the mile-long list of horrible shit you’ve done these last fifty years, and certainly not the fact that I love Fenn. Now get the fuck out of my head!
“You’ve given me a second chance, Hollow-born of Ember Reach—Rynna—to...to be human again. I’m not fool enough to waste it,” Kaelith spoke, drawing surprised looks from both the rider and Thorn.
“You don’t deserve any chances, snake.” Thorn’s expression remained frigid as he turned away again, focusing instead on the distant ramparts of Tengūjō.
Rynna exhaled, taking in the sight of Pulse Reach’s capital and temporary Alliance Headquarters.
It rose like a fortress carved into the forest itself, massive trees intertwining with stone, as though the city had been grown, not built.
The wooden bridges between the towering structures swayed gently, connecting buildings that reached for the sky like the talons of a giant bird.
Maybe I don’t deserve any second chances. But how can the Crimson Wolf love you if he doesn’t even know you? Kaelith whispered in her thoughts. You can’t tell me you’ve shared with him what you once shared with me.
Rynna bit down on the inside of her cheek, her nails digging into her palms so hard they left tiny grooves in her skin. She had to sever this connection, this mental link forged during their captivity in the Hearth.
Kaelith wasn’t wrong about their bond, but it didn’t matter now.
That life…her heart seized at the thought.
That life was over. It was over the moment she disappeared into another great war on a distant world that needed her help, whether she had wanted to leave or not.
It didn’t matter that her new Mission had brought her back here. In this life, she loved Fenn.
With each pull of air, she pushed the memories back, forcing them into a corner of her mind where they couldn’t reach her. She wasn’t that person anymore. And Kaelith wasn’t the man she had known back then. He was a monster; second chances be damned.