chapter fourty-nine
elysia
The journey to the northern line was quiet, heartbreakingly so.
Thane hasn’t spoken a single word since the funeral; he hasn’t eaten and he hasn’t slept either, if the bruises under his eyes are anything to go by.
He hadn’t wanted to leave.
Gods, he’d begged Kaden to let him stay there, alone in that clearing of moonlilies so he could fade beside Sirena’s grave and follow her into whatever waited beyond the veil.
And though Kaden understood… understood his grief, the hollow ache, the bone-deep desire to surrender, he couldn’t let it happen.
Because Sirena didn’t want his life to wither away in the shadow of her death. She wanted him to keep living… for her, for himself, for the future ripped so cruelly from their hands.
So, with a heart splintered straight down the middle, with reluctant steps and shaking breaths, Thane whispered his final goodbye to his soulmate. Fingers clutching the ring against his chest like his very existence depended on it.
“Are you okay?” Cole whispers, voice raw.
I lean my head against his shoulder, breath shuddering. “Not really. You?”
“No.” He shakes his head sharply. “I feel like I could have done more. Taken down more of them, if I had… maybe—” His voice fractures, splintering at the edges. “Maybe she wouldn’t have burnt out saving Thane. Maybe she’d still be here.”
I swallow the ache rising in my chest. “Cole… you couldn’t have done any more than you did.” I gently squeeze his arm, grounding him. “There was no way anyone could’ve known what would happen.”
His eyes shine with unshed tears as he stares ahead, jaw tight. “Maybe one day, I’ll believe that.”
My mouth opens, but I don’t get to respond as Kaden’s voice echoes through the headquarters’ courtyard.
“Ossaryn have been spotted roughly twenty minutes out, and they’re gaining distance fast. Drop your satchels in the supply hall, attach a new heating rune and meet at the ward in ten.”
Everyone moves in unison. I make it to the supply hall in a flash and drop my satchel, checking briefly to make sure Varo’s necklace and ring are still safely tucked away. I let out a sigh of relief when I see they are.
Walking over to the table, I detach my current rune, its warmth fading as I place it with the others and attach a new one. Heat washes back over me instantaneously, flushing my skin pink.
An arm slinks over my shoulders, tugging me in the direction of the door.
“Come on, let’s go. Don’t want to get scolded for being late.” Cole teases, half-heartedly.
I give him a tight smile, swallowing the fear rapidly growing inside of me. I don’t think I have it in me to lose anyone else, to see the life fade from their eyes.
Cole squeezes my shoulder once before releasing me as we near the ward, the shimmer of the northern border rising like a faint curtain of warped air ahead of us. Warriors stand shoulder to shoulder, breaths clouding the cold afternoon air.
Even the wind feels tight with dread, as if it’s bracing itself for what’s coming.
Kaden steps forward, shadows gathering at his heels in an almost protective curl.
“Listen carefully,” he calls out, voice cutting cleanly through the hush.
“Once we cross, they will track our heartbeats. Keep your shields up at all times… no breaks, no slips.” His eyes sweep the line, sharp and lethal.
“They’ll use voices, screams and whispers of the dead, of loved ones…
don’t listen and don’t react. If you do, you will die.
” His voice seeps with authority and command, “If you can’t crush their hearts, injure them from a distance and leave the final blow to those that can. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, squad leader.” Everyone mumbles in a unified chant.
Kaden nods once, eyes slowly raking over everyone. “Good, put up your shields and get ready. Most importantly… don’t fucking die.”
Magic ripples through the air. One pulse, then another, as translucent shields flicker to life over every bit of exposed skin, shimmering like thin, iridescent armour. Mine tingles across my arms, humming faintly with my heartbeat.
Kaden strides to my side, brushing his knuckles against mine in a silent question.
“Ready?”
I nod; heart lodged in my throat, but determined.
I take in a breath and lace my fingers through his. Warmth spreads through me, calming and steady for half a heartbeat, then we step forward together.
The ward ripples around us, humming against my skin and sending goosebumps along my arms. Once we’re on the outside of the border, everything is quiet… hauntingly so.
For a long, brittle moment, there’s nothing but the whistle of the wind and the rapid thuds of our hearts.
Then a scream.
High. Human. Horrifying.
My eyes dart between everyone… but none of us made a sound.
A cadet to my left falters, her shield flickering as the scream grows closer.
One single lapse.
One single breath of fear.
One single, detectable heartbeat.
An ossaryn slams into view from nowhere.
One moment, there’s empty snow, the next a mass of sinew and bone and glistening teeth appears ahead of us.
It moves faster than a blink.
Its jaws close around her with a wet, crunching snap. Bone cracks, blood sprays and a scream gurgles and dies.
Dead before she got the chance to fight.
Brynn’s shadows snap out almost instantly, slithering into the ossaryn and crushing its heart inside its own chest.
Then chaos unleashes around us.
The battlefield springs to life in a violent, impossible burst as ossaryn appear in stuttering flashes of speed, ripping through snow and the falling blizzard.
I move before I can think.
Fire erupts from my palms, blazing bright against the grey and freezing sky. Every ossaryn I see, I burn… slowing them, searing them and forcing them to falter.
Kaden is a shadow beside me, a constant presence. Every time my flames stagger one, his shadows slither like smoke into its gaping maw, ripping their heart out from inside and crushing it with a wet squelch that should turn my stomach.
But it doesn’t.
It only empowers me to keep fighting, to keep pushing.
Screams echo around us as ossaryn and warriors alike drop like flies. The unmistakable tang of blood and magic grows thick and heavy in the air. I’m pushing back an ossaryn with a wave of tidal influence when a familiar, angelic voice echoes across the battlefield.
Sirena’s voice.
My head snaps to the side where Thane is freezing the heart of an ossaryn… and he falters.
“Sirena?” His eyes search around frantically, then he’s moving at a run through the chaos. “Sirena! Where are you?”
“Thane!” The voice… Sirena’s voice screams. “Thane! HELP ME!”
“Hold on, Angel. I’m coming!” He stumbles, “Where are you?”
His shield flickers for a single pulse, and an ossaryn appears a few metres from him.
No.
My feet are moving before my mind can catch up, running at an unnatural speed, colours and sounds blurring into nothing but static as I advance. Then, with every ounce of strength I have in me, I hurdle my body into Thane and shoot my arm out, creating an arc of fire.
The ossaryn flies over us, missing by inches as it pounces, fire searing the skin of its stomach before it crashes into another warrior behind us.
Thane shoves at me beneath my hold, panic etched raw across his features. “Elysia, what are you doing! I have to find Sirena, she’s out there—”
“It’s not her, Thane!” My voice cracks, hoarse and trembling.
He shakes his head, fighting to loosen my hold. My thighs tighten around him on instinct, keeping him pinned to the snow-covered ground. My hands wrapped around his wrist.
“No… no, it is. I heard her.” He struggles beneath me, “she was calling my name—”
“Sirena. Is. Gone.” The words land sharper than I ever intended.
His breath stutters. His eyes gloss with tears, grief hollowing him out from the inside. And in that same heartbeat, that familiar, burning ache claws at my throat.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, voice breaking. “Thane… I’m so sorry.”
He swallows, then clears his throat. “She’s gone,” He repeats, as if reminding himself.
“Yes.” The word fractures in my throat, and tears burn behind my eyes, but I force them back.
Thane stiffens… then slowly, he nods. His gaze is distant and hollowed, but calmer than it was seconds ago. Only then do I rise, easing off him to stand.
He surges up and drags me into his arms, an embrace so fierce it almost hurts.
“Thank you,” he breathes, voice breaking against my shoulder.
And then he’s gone.
He launches himself toward a warrior seconds from being cleaved in half, ice cracking up his arms as he freezes the ossaryn’s heart, each step driven by grief.
Relief floods me so fiercely that my knees nearly give out.
He’s here.
He’s breathing.
He’s alive.
I barely manage a shaky exhale before the world shifts behind me and a prickle of dread crawls up my spine. I drop flat onto my stomach just as something immense snaps through the air above me. The impact slams the breath from my lungs, snow biting into my palms as an ossaryn soars over my back.
My shield flickers, then thins before I snap it back into place.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
I scramble onto my knees, lungs burning—only to freeze as a shadow falls over me.
I lift my gaze, eyes roaming over a mass of exposed muscle and bone. An ossaryn towers above me, much taller than any man. Its mouth too wide with rows of jagged teeth, crimson dripping from its jaws. The stench of iron and rot hits me in a wave so strong I nearly gag.
A high-pitched keening noise rings in my ears, like a bell hammering in my skull, and a second later, a voice slides into my head… low, wet and rasping.
“You…” it growls, “I know exactly who and what you are.”
My chest caves in, fear and confusion wrapping around my lungs like a tightening band.
What the fuck.
My fingers fumble for my dagger strapped to my thigh, and after what feels like a lifetime, I rip it free. Gripping it so hard, the runes flare silver-blue and magic hums against my skin.
A deep, haunting laugh rumbles through my skull. “Do you really think you can kill me with that tiny blade?”
My eyes dart across the battlefield, desperate and calculating as my heartbeat thunders in my ears, louder with every passing second. Through the chaos, I see movement, a shadow gaining on the ossaryn at a run.
Kaden.
Relief stabs through me so sharp it makes my heart skip.
My gaze snaps back to the ossaryn as a slow, wicked grin splits my face.
“No,” I breathe, “But he can.”
Its head jerks up just in time to see Kaden surge from behind, silent as the night.
Darkness erupts around him and swallows the beast whole, crushing bone and sinew with brutal finality.
The air echoes with crunching bones, snapping tendons and squelching blood.
The ossaryn collapses in a heap of shattered bones and torn flesh before its screaming voice in my mind can finish dying.
Kaden is at my side in a second, hauling me to my feet and pulling me against the hard lines of his body.
He smells of cedar wood and cinnamon and life and home.
His arms cage me in, fierce and trembling, before cupping my face. “Don’t ever…” he growls, voice rough with terror, “let me find you in front of one of those things again.”
I huff a relieved laugh, “No promises.”
His lips meet mine in a quick and desperate kiss, then the world surges back into motion, and we move together as a single force. One breath, one violent and beautiful heartbeat cutting straight through the chaos.
My fire erupts in sweeping arcs, heating the air and searing through every ossaryn that lunges too close. Flames coil around my fingers as I ignite their every advance, halting them mid-charge, scorching their sinew and exposed bone until the air is thick with the smell of burnt flesh.
Kaden is silent and merciless. His darkness lashes out like black tendrils of death, snaring ossaryn and twisting their limbs, yanking them off their feet. Shadows crush bone with a sickening crack, ripping hearts from their ribcage, then crushing them quicker than the eye can blink.
Around us the battlefield roars, but inside our orbit, there is only movement… precise and relentless movement.
The ossaryn are beginning to thin out and retreat when my eyes snag on a figure in the corner of my vision, standing at the edge of the battlefield, barely concealed by afternoon shadows.
A figure made up of pale, translucent skin. Veins so black it looks like spilt ink being pumped through its body. Pale fingers faded into a dark red.
“Kaden!” My voice is shaky, a wave of tidal influence snapping the neck of an approaching ossaryn. “Kaden—”
But it’s too late.
The blood mage’s hand snaps out as a wicked grin stretches across his face, and then every one of us staggers backwards, hearts lurching violently in our chests.
No.
A cold, brutal realisation spears through me as my heart grows heavy… he’s going to take us all out at once.
He’s connecting our hearts.
All-consuming fury surges through my veins, and before thought can catch up to instinct, I’m already moving.
Charging straight at evil incarnate.
Fire erupts from my hands, wild and untamed. Only this fire… It’s blue and laced with silver, like moonlight forged into flame. And the shadows curling around my feet aren’t protecting me, they’re pushing me forward, fuelled by the anger igniting my every nerve. Because the shadows aren’t Kaden’s.
They’re mine.