Chapter 39
Chapter thirty-nine
They took him.
Rynna stood frozen, barely able to draw air, as the dense forest swayed around her.
The air felt thin, laced with the tangy scent of decay, while the sound of leaves rustling above seemed distant and muted, as though the world itself had tilted off balance.
Her pulse pounded in her ears, drowning out everything else as she tore through the clearing.
Where? Her thoughts tumbled over one another, frantic. Where did they take him?
“We’ll find him.”
Kaelith's voice slipped through the madness as he approached slowly, careful and quiet, his usual swagger muted. Rynna didn’t look up at first. Her jaw clenched, her entire body wound too tight to move as she felt him come up behind her.
How dare he be calm now?
“How?” she snapped, spinning on him, flames flaring to life in her palms, casting wavering shadows across the ground.
“How are we going to find him?” Her breath came in bursts.
“This…this is all your fault! You pulled me away!” She bent over, hands pressed into her knees.
“You could have handled Yata on your own, but—”
But I was having too much fun fighting by your side again. And Fenn seemed to have things under control. The realization twisted like a knife in her gut. It’s my fault.
Kaelith’s expression didn’t waver. “We’ll find him.” He knelt beside her, his hand light on her back, the worn fabric of his tattered cloak grazing her skin.
Rynna flinched, and the muscles in her shoulders tensed beneath his fingers. She didn’t want his comfort. She didn’t want to be soothed. She wanted to burn. To lash out. To break something. To hurt someone.
Without thinking, she spun on him, tearing free of his grip.
Heat surged down her arm, gathering in her palm, then she drove it into his chest in a crackling burst of fire.
The force blasted him off his feet, hurling him through the underbrush until he crashed into a tree with a heavy, bone-jarring thud.
She stalked forward, each step heavy with the weight of an image burned into her mind: Fenn and that spear of darkness exploding through his heart as he was taken into the portal.
She fought against the tightness in her throat, forcing herself to believe that Kaelith had ruined everything from the moment she’d brought him back.
Focus on that, she told herself. Anything to keep her from the truth that no mortal could survive a wound like that.
“Do what you need,” Kaelith rasped, blood dripping from his lips, splattering the ground. “I can take it.”
Rynna didn’t stop. She was already closing the distance, one blade rising in her hand. She could feel the fire crackling under her skin, burning at the end of her control. Cut him down. That’s all she needed to do. Turn him into pieces.
Kaelith held her eyes, steady and unblinking. “I can take it.”
Her hand shook, the blade’s point gleaming. Then her knees buckled, giving out from beneath her like a dam breaking all at once. She collapsed before she could stop herself, and Kaelith dove forward, catching her against his chest.
“I’m so sorry, Kae.” Her body quaked, heaving with empty sobs she couldn’t hold back. “I didn’t mean—”
“It’s fine, pet.” His hand slid to the back of her head, fingers threading through her hair with soft, calming strokes.
“I don’t…” She clung to him, her hands fisting into his shirt as if holding on was the only thing keeping her from drowning. “What am I supposed to—”
“Shhh.” He held her tighter. “We’ll find him.”
“But he’s…” She gasped, panic clawing at her throat. “He’s—”
“Shhh,” he whispered again, his lips near her ear. “We’ll find him.”
Rynna pulled back, searching his face, looking for any flicker of doubt. But there was none. Only the unshakable certainty that somehow, impossibly, he would help her find Fenn.
“You’d really do anything to get him back for me, wouldn’t you?”
Kaelith’s lips quirked into the barest hint of a smile. “I think we’ve already established the lengths I’d go just to see you again.”
He inched closer, his nose skimming hers.
Rynna’s heart tightened, and slowly, she leaned in, her lips grazing his as if testing something fragile.
Kaelith stilled, his hand resting against her neck, holding her there in the still moment between breaths.
“And what in the Elemental fuck is this?”
Kaelith released his grip.
“I thought I killed you, snake.” The voice cut through the clearing again, hard and familiar. “And I thought you were supposed to be with Guide Fenn. Not that that was a shock to anyone.”
“Taren?” Rynna turned slowly, her hands refusing to release the monster who’d dared to love her.
He stood there, arms crossed, his long ponytail swaying slightly in the breeze, dark strands of hair falling loose into his face. With a quick shake of his head, he flicked them out of his eyes, revealing a faint shadow of stubble dusting his cheeks.
That’s new, she thought, taking in his appearance.
She hadn’t seen him since he’d left after the Ascension, determined to find out more about his parents’ deaths.
He looked older now, his frame still lean but with corded muscle visible under his sleeveless tunic.
The dark fabric clung to his torso, its intricate stitching a discreet departure from the standard Reach uniform.
“Miss me?” The corner of his mouth twitched up, the loose folds of his deep blue shirt shifting as he adjusted his stance.
Rynna stared for half a second longer, taking in the long, frayed scarf draped across his shoulders, and then sprang at him, throwing her arms around his neck in a fierce hug. “Are you kidding me, you asshole! It’s been almost five years!”
Taren huffed, catching her easily, the black boots hugging his calves barely marking the dirt as he steadied her. “Except for that time you wouldn’t let me kill that old twat.”
“You glaring at me for thirty seconds and then disappearing doesn’t exactly count.” She punched him hard in the shoulder, feeling the solidness there. “Besides, living is way more miserable for that old bat than dying. Trust me.”
Taren shrugged, shaking off her punch with a grin. “She was just a small piece of the problem anyway.” His fingers fidgeted. “And I learned a lot following your lead. Wasn’t worth the fight.”
His gaze slid past her to Kaelith, and his face hardened, lines carving deep across his features. “But that one should be dead.”
Shit. Please don’t say anything stupid, Kae.
“This generation, Rynna.” Kaelith pushed himself off the tree he’d been leaning against. “So ungrateful.”
Taren’s lips curled in disgust. “You’re a foul, unnatural monster. Death would be a kindness.” His hand drifted toward the great sword strapped to his back as he turned to Rynna. “What has he done to you?”
She let go a weary sigh and rested her hand on his, her fingers sliding over the tense grip that held the sword’s hilt.
“You would stay my hand again?” His jaw clenched. “I don’t know if I can walk away this time.”
“Will you listen?” Rynna asked, her eyes pleading.
Taren looked from her to Kaelith, pausing. Then, finally, he released the air he’d been holding, his hand easing off the sword.
“For you,” he said, his voice softer now. “For you, I’ll give you fifty heartbeats.”
“Okay.” Rynna hugged herself, unsure of where to start.
Just tell him the truth, Kaelith’s voice whispered in her mind.
The truth? Rynna thought bitterly. She barely knew the truth of her own life anymore. But there was no turning back now.
“Kaelith and I were together over fifty years ago, during the lull in the last great Hollow-born war.”
Taren’s eyes widened, but he said nothing, waiting for her to continue.
“Then I... uh...” She hesitated, the words catching in her throat. “I...disappeared.”
“Without telling me you’d be leaving and never coming back,” Kaelith muttered.
“Yes, yes.” She waved him off. “As I’ve said, I don’t have a choice or notice when I get pulled from a Mission.” She turned to face him, her voice softening. “But I’m sorry.”
“What do you mean by ‘pulled’ and ‘disappeared’ for a mission?” Taren asked, then his gaze sharpened. “And how are you that old? What he did to extend his youth was...”
Rynna shivered, unable to suppress the chill that ran down her spine. She didn’t want to think about all the lives Kaelith had taken just to keep himself alive.
For you, a small voice sounded in the back of her mind. He was waiting for you.
She shook her head, banishing the thought. This was the hard part. Explaining something that sounded absolutely insane.
“I’m sent where I’m needed,” she began slowly. “Different worlds. Different times. Whenever there’s a threat so massive that failure means the end of everything, I get...inserted where I can help prevent it.”
Taren’s mouth dropped open slightly, disbelief etched across his face.
“That’s why I don’t really age much,” she continued. “I get...almost...reset every time I’m moved. I don’t keep detailed memories of previous Missions, only fragments and the accumulated skills.”
“That’s why you know the old ways of martial arts and rarely use the Source?” Taren asked. “And why you trained us in them all the time?”
“I don’t know if I would call them old ways, so much as foundational,” Rynna shrugged.
“Every world has magic or power that people can leverage.
And while it usually comes in different flavors or with different rules, at its fundamental core, it's all the same thing. Exerting your Will on the world.”
“Except…” Taren paused, thinking. “The Source is different, not part of the fundamental core.”
Well fuck. Her jaw dropped. That was it, wasn’t it? That’s what her instincts had been screaming every time she touched it.
“If that’s true.” She frowned. “We are well and truly fucked.”
She’d thought all the Outsiders had been locked away. Millenia ago. But how else would there be non-foundational power at play?
“You wouldn’t know as part of your mission?” Kaelith asked.
“No.” She shook her head. “I only get the knowledge that I’m on a Mission and…that I don’t really belong there.”
She dropped her head, the weight of her words hanging between them.
Kaelith’s fingers slipped gently into hers. “You belong here, Rynna. With me. With Fenn. This is real.”
“And with Fang Unit.” Taren nodded.
“Just like that?” She looked at them both, brows furrowing.
“What you’re saying fits with a lot of things I’ve discovered these past five years.
” He paused. “Plus, you’ve never lied before.
Don’t think I didn’t notice how you always skirted around truths you didn’t want to share.
But you never lied outright. And I don’t see any evidence of Source manipulation from the snake. ”
“Okay.” Rynna blinked, caught off guard by his quick acceptance. “So…”
“If you’re here, our world’s seriously screwed, and I’ve got bigger worries than that monster.” Taren turned to Kaelith, his gaze hard. “I still don’t trust you and will likely kill you when this is over, but for now...where is Guide Fenn? We need to end the horde and get to the real threat.”
Rynna tried to speak, but the words wouldn’t come. The memory of Fenn’s body being dragged into the void felt too raw, too fresh.
“They wounded him mortally and took him,” Kaelith exhaled. “We were escorting villagers back to the regiment, hoping to find Skarn, but it was a trap. The reanimated corpses of the Ember Demons ambushed us.”
Taren’s body went rigid. “I see. Tell me everything. But make it quick. We don’t have much time.”
“Time for what?” Rynna asked.
“Time to save him.” His smile was devoid of warmth. “And finally end that weasel Skarn. I can’t let Bran have all the fun on the northern front.”
“To save him?” Hope flared within her. “You heard the part about the mortal wound, right?”
“I did. I’ll explain on the way. We need to move.” Taren darted off toward the setting sun.
Rynna and Kaelith exchanged a glance before sprinting after him, weaving through the trees to catch up.
“And Bran! He’s joined the battle? He convinced the Wardens?” Her voice rose with excitement as they closed the distance.
“No, he left without permission, from what I heard.” Taren flashed a grin. “But yes, he and the Great Phoenix are charging through the dead.”
It’s all coming to a head, Rynna thought, her mind racing. But how can I make it through this with both Kaelith and Fenn alive? And Fang Unit? Was it even possible to keep them all from being swallowed by the chaos that was closing in around them?
The ground blurred beneath her feet as they sped through the forest, the shadows of the setting sun stretching long and dark.
The weight of what was coming threatened to flatten her in the dirt, but for the first time since Fenn’s disappearance, she believed she could have him again. Maybe all of them.
Taren’s voice cut through her thoughts. “We’ll save him. We’ll end this.”
Ahead of them, the sky glowed red, distant flames reflecting off the horizon.