Two Become One #3
It felt exactly like having the flicker in hand for my fire. My magic seeped slowly and steadily from my heart to my hand, where a coiling black shadow rose a few inches tall in my open palm.
I looked to Drayce first to find a smile on his face, then to Sevrin, who studied me closely as he held out my black sword. I placed my palm over the thickest part of the blade, above where it met the hilt, and imagined pressing my shadows into the metal.
The sword began to smoke and vibrate. After a few seconds, I pulled the magic back into me, the effort more taxing than with my fire, but still not too cumbersome.
And the dark-me didn’t make a peep with this ring on. This made me tremendously more comfortable using my shadows in the upcoming fight. My vey form would only be a last, desperate resort.
Sevrin sheathed the sword and handed it back to me before leaving Drayce and me alone.
“Are you ready?” I asked him.
“Would you think me a terrible leader if I said no?”
“I would think you were an honest leader. And a brave one at that, to still be walking headfirst into this.”
He smiled, but it wasn’t the genuine smile I’d grown fond of. This one was sad underneath.
I laid my head on his shoulder, and we stared out across the water in comfortable silence for a while.
A thought occurred to me. “What was the point of the cards and the fire in the ballroom the night you came to Ashthorn?”
He ran a hand down the back of his neck. “I’d really hoped you wouldn’t ask.”
I lifted my head and faced him. “Well, I did, so…”
“Many at the base, myself included, were outraged at the news you’d publicly denounced us.
You, the daughter of our fallen leader, told us to stand down.
So I had to send you and the king a message that we would do no such thing.
Let the world know that, despite what you’d claimed, we would carry on. ”
“The message, the cards… They were in part for me?”
“Understand, I had no idea you were being forced to say those things. You were dining and dancing that night like you really were one of them.”
My cheeks grew hot, and I was glad my dampener ring kept shadow-Naci at bay. She likely would be furious.
“I’m sorry. Really,” he finished.
Noxie came and landed on the railing next to me, saving me from having to answer him. “Aerie says we’re nearly at the anchor point. Tell Drayce to shroud us in a light fog out here, and we can drop in a few hours.”
A few hours? I thought we had a couple more days. I relayed the message to Drayce, and he nodded. If he was as surprised as I was, he didn’t show it.
With a last apologetic look at me, he left for the lower deck.
“We used the distraction that night to extract a group of mortal servants, if it makes you feel any better,” Kellan said as he came to stand beside me.
“A little, I guess. At least for the mortals.” A memory struck a chord from my time at the castle. “Hang on, had you guys done that before? Saving mortals from the castle?”
“A few times over the years I’ve been with the rebels. As often as we could, when we had intel there were mortals that wanted out.”
“There were rumors… Mortals would disappear without a trace, never seen again. It was you!”
“I can’t promise a mortal never went missing for nefarious reasons in that place. But I’d like to think it was mostly us, yeah.”
He smiled, and I felt a wave of gratitude for this man, this rebellion. Kellan made me believe there was still good in the world. Something I’d stopped believing a very long time ago.
“There is one mortal in particular there that I need to get out. Halden. He’s a red-haired teenage boy, works in the kitchen. It’s…very important to me that we get him out.”
Kellan’s face fell slightly. “If I see him, we’ll get him. But Naci, this mission…”
“I know. But just in case, just…be on the lookout for him.”
Kellan nodded. I didn’t dare get my hopes up that we’d get to Halden. But if not this time, we would come back.
On the deck below, Drayce spread his arms wide, and the wind picked up around us, reminding me of the day he saved me from the king’s clutches.
When he’d run toward me that day, wind, rain, and lightning raging all around, with glowing, silver eyes—I hadn’t known then that it was him. But when I saw him then…
He’d looked exactly as he did now. His hair blowing around, his face set in determination, accentuating the sharp lines of his jaw and cheekbones. I couldn’t help but think he was perfect.
I’d thought that about Varyn, too, but back then I was a foolish, mortal, and ignorant little girl, starved of attention and connection. I was the opposite now, no longer starved but closed off.
The brightness of the sun overhead dimmed as fog set in around us, the air growing thick and chilled. It was already cooler here than Elyndor, the mist making it more so.
“We’d better get ready,” I told Kellan. We still had a few hours, but suddenly that seemed like no time at all.
“Go ahead. I’m going to stay here for a bit.”
I nodded and left him alone. Back in the cabin, I hastily bathed in the private bathroom of Drayce’s cabin and dressed in my black leathers with shaky hands, then strapped my shadowed sword to my waist and fixed my fire daggers to each thigh.
Next, I tucked the bottoms of my pants into my calf-high boots and laced them up, then finally threw on my long coat that covered my weapons mostly, with only the tip of my sword’s sheath visible from the bottom.
Spending way longer than necessary fussing over my outfit in the mirror, I figured I was stalling. The silver ring sat cold against my chest, hanging from the chain around my neck, and I twisted the black one on my finger, more for comfort, to know it was there.
“We’re gonna be fine, you know.” Aerie had silently slipped into the room. The avian in her made her so damn quiet when she moved, light on her feet.
“I hope so,” I said. “We’ve gotta be. I just…gods, none of us can afford to lose any more.”
“Well, that’s the difference between them and us, isn’t it? We have something really worth fighting for. Caedryn? He fights to hold on to his power. Nothing compared to our cause.”
I smiled at her, appreciative but at a loss for words.
“I’ve got to go get Bernitha’s saddle ready and get my team into place. Join us when you’re ready, and we’ll go over the first phase one last time.”
I nodded, and she left. With a final deep breath, I stared at myself in the mirror.
I still saw the mortal girl who’d left Briarstead so long ago—no visible scars then but so brutalized inside.
Now, I also saw the female I’d grown into, scarred but so much more sure, as if I’d lived an entirely different life since Nella and I left home.
I closed my eyes and held my hand over my heart, picturing the time Nella stood behind me as I looked into the mirror in that ball gown. The memory strengthened my resolve.
Caedryn had taken enough. Now, it was my turn to take.