Chapter 45 #4
“Go,” I said, louder and firmer. “Your service to Lumnos is done.”
“Blessed Kindred, are you mad?” Remis shouted. “You finally have a gryvern willing to stay, and you’re telling her to leave?”
Luther unsheathed the Sword of Corbois and tipped the point toward his father. “Silence,” he snarled.
But Remis was not the only one to object. The crowd raised their voices with similar protests. They edged in closer on both sides, and someone from the Royal Guard appeared with a heavy chain in his hands, watching Alixe and awaiting her command.
“Your Majesty,” Alixe said carefully, “if Sorae desires to stay—”
Luther silenced her with a glare, but Alixe was the least of my worries. With even my High General doubting my order, the emboldened crowd grew louder and nearer.
“What if Ophiucae takes over their minds, too?” someone yelled out. “He’ll have six gryverns, and we’ll have none.”
My blood chilled at the thought. When the bonds were intact, even Ophiucae’s Faunos magic couldn’t have compelled the gryverns to disobey me. Now . . . gods, their minds were free for the taking.
I leveled Sorae with a hard, unyielding stare. “Go with Tybold. Get as far away from Emarion as you can.”
Tybold growled in agreement. He launched into the air and circled over the palace, howling for Sorae to join him. Her wings slowly unfurled, muscles rippling under her fur in preparation for flight. Still, she hesitated.
“Be free,” I begged her. “You’ve done enough.”
She looked up at Tybold and let out a heartrending whimper, then back at me. Her talons stretched forward, and her chest sank to the ground as her fearsome head lowered.
One last bow to her Queen.
“Don’t let them leave,” Remis shouted at the man with the chains. Tybold swooped low, unleashing a plume of orange flames that would have taken out a third of the crowd if it weren’t for Luther’s quick work to raise a shield.
“Sorae, go!” I screamed.
She left the ground, and my heart went with her.
Emotion choked in my throat when the shadow of her wings passed over me—those magnificent wings that had curled around me in my darkest moments and shielded me from countless harms. She and Tybold circled in tandem, the tips of their feathers brushing in a long-awaited caress.
Tybold let out an ear-splitting roar, and for once, it wasn’t burdened with rage. At last, the Ignios gryvern was happy.
At last, they were free.
Luther held me against him as we watched Tybold bank and soar toward the sea. Only then did I realize how truly empty I felt. Every life lost today had taken a piece of me with them, and with the gryverns’ bonds gone, a chasm had been left behind that even Luther’s touch couldn’t soothe.
I pulled away from him and headed for the forest. Perhaps I owed it to Sorae to see her off, but I couldn’t bear to watch her go.
Then I heard the distinctive click of talons on stone.
When I looked back at the palace, up to the terrace of the royal suite that my gryvern and I had both been forced to call home, Sorae stared back. She folded her wings against her body, then lowered her back legs to the ground.
Tybold swooped toward her. He gnashed his jaws, nipping at her each time he flew close. She answered back in plaintive whines and imploring mewls, but she didn’t budge.
“No,” I breathed. I ran for the palace, waving my arms. “Leave, Sorae, go with him!”
Tybold flew away from the palace, then hovered, glaring back at her. The ground rattled with his roar, a warning that he was leaving, with or without her.
Sorae tilted her head up toward the moon in a yowl, then lowered her body flat to the ground. An ultimatum—stay with her here, or leave her for good.
“Don’t do this,” I screamed at them, fresh tears starting to fall.
Both gryverns ignored me, trading chirps and snarls. Tybold’s tone grew harsh as Sorae’s cries turned shrill and achingly desperate.
I grabbed Luther’s arm. “Give me some magic. I have to make her leave.”
“Diem, the Faunos magic won’t last. Once it wears off, she’ll come back.”
“Then I’ll do it again. I’ll force her to keep leaving until she stays away for good.”
He dropped his chin, his features stern. “And that’s different than forcing her to stay?”
“Luther, if she chooses me over him again . . .” My voice broke. “He’ll never forgive her. She’ll lose him.”
He set his palm over mine. “It’s not your choice to make, my heart.”
The fight drained out of me. I looked at Tybold, who sank low enough to perch on the ivy-covered wall that circled the palace grounds.
Both gryverns had fallen silent, their gazes locked.
They were no longer quarreling with each other, but waging a war against their own hearts: How much is love worth giving up?
Tybold’s glare smoldered as it shifted to me. His talons curled like fists, gouging lines in the stone. He growled, low and rumbling.
I held his stare. “I’m sorry,” I said, and I hoped he understood it was about so much more than Sorae.
He spread his mighty wings. Launched for the sky.
And moments later, he was gone.