Chapter 47
—Kienna—
Kienna woke in a bright room, a faint hum coursing through her bones after the magical phenomenon.
She hoped she would never see this room again after Dalelry, but her luck in battle seemed to be zero for two, and the room was less like one meant for healing and more like an endless loop in a terrible dream.
The once peaceful views of the trees out the window, herbal aromas, and chirping of birds reminded Kienna of her failures.
She grunted, placing her head back against the pillow woven from the finest silk.
She sat alone for the first time since her body broke.
As she closed her eyes, the gallop resumed, the ache of motion beneath her ribs.
Connak had rushed her through the forest with Tristian, horses laced with magic as they ran swiftly over the forest ground.
They covered a day’s ride in a few hours.
Connak gripped her sides, guiding her as they made heftier turns off the original path to Trinity.
His body was warm then, but his presence was cold.
She tried to call to his mind, whisper she was sorry…anything. Her voice was muddled by the pain surging through her. No whispers knocked back. Only silence and whimpers from Ruva begging for Kienna to mend as she ran behind the horses.
When they arrived, Kienna ebbed in and out of alertness with images of glowing magic and fragments of voices. Seredai commanded the room, her purple eyes and silver-streaked skin illuminating as crystals floated around them. Kienna heard yelling before falling asleep from the pain.
“The aura’s fractured… Seal it before it scars…”
She didn’t know what it meant. It sounded nice. Perhaps it was only a dream. Her eyes fluttered closed again.
Kienna was back in Dove Port.
Smoke choked the air, curling in black ribbons as her body lay twisted on the cobblestones, slick with ash and blood. Ahead, a mound of corpses burned in the streets, flames gnawing at what once were faces.
Kienna gasped.
They weren’t silent. They screamed for her, ragged voices tearing through the roar of fire, their agony spiraling into the night. Children’s cries laced through the wind, twining amongst the crackle of flesh splitting in the heat.
Kienna’s heart seized until it hurt.
“I’ll save you!” The words spilled from her throat as she staggered upright, the world spinning in a haze of smoke and red glow.
A child stepped out from the shadows of flame. Small. Barefoot. Skin powdered with gray ash as if carved from the ruin around them. Her eyes burned with a glacial, unnatural blue that pulsed, staring straight into Kienna’s.
“Don’t go in there!” Kienna cried. Her voice splintered.
The girl tilted her head. “You can’t save us.
” She paused, her words sharp as a blade.
As she said it, more children arrived. Two more boys, one larger than the rest, and the other with sweet green eyes.
Then two more girls, one with bright red hair and the other with deep, brown eyes.
They fell into the fire. The little girl turned to look at them burning. “You can’t save any of us.”
“No!” Kienna lunged forward. Heat swallowed the girl, devouring the air. The child’s outline blurred, then bloomed into a pillar of flame. Her skin blistered, splitting until she was nothing but ember and ash.
The fire reached for Kienna next.
Savage pain erupted. Blisters bubbled and burned across her arms as her skin blackened, flaking away like burnt paper. Her fingers split and crumbled like charred leaves. Kienna clawed for breath, clawed for anything. There was nothing except fire and the scream tearing from her throat.
Connak’s hands reached for her, calloused and real, wrenching her back into cold air and dragging her from the flames.
And then he was gone, and she was alone in the healing room.
The soft clink of glass woke Kienna. Sunlight filtered through the slats of the high windows, laying pale ribbons across the floor and her blanket. She slowly blinked the healing chamber into view.
Ruva lay curled beside her bed, her breath deep and even, the tip of her tail flicking now and then as if caught in a dream mirroring Kienna’s haze. Kienna’s body ached as the sleep faded.
Tristian sat near the window, his chair askew.
A half-empty flask rested near his boot.
He stared forward, gaze distant, elbow braced on his knee.
Only when she shifted did his eyes move toward her.
He looked tired with a layer of grief that refused to surface.
“Will you be the Ashborn?” he asked, cutting straight to the point, his voice low and tight like it hurt to say anything at all.
Kienna registered the shock in her bones.
She’d only read about the Ashborn Queen with Connak.
She hadn’t given herself a chance to think through it.
Why wasn’t her allegiance to them enough anymore?
Why did she have to change her name and become something out of a fairytale?
Her nightmare sat thickly on her shoulders.
“I…” She faltered, eyes dropping to her hands. “No.”
No? Ruva asked.
Tristian’s chest heaved, and when he exhaled, Kienna sensed the annoyance dripping in the air.
“We sent you to Dove Port for this. To anchor you. And even still, after everything we’ve given, after everyone we’ve lost… You won’t?”
“I don’t understand what you’re asking me to do, Tristian. So, what could you possibly want me to say?”
Ruva perked her head. Easy, Little Flame.
Tristian crossed his arms and looked away. “There’s nothing left to say. Tislin died for nothing.”
“You know what? Fuck you!” Her voice shook, the flames searing her blood. “You’re pretending like Tislin’s death doesn’t affect me, too. He was my friend.”
Tristian stood, his body towering. “Then why do you still sit here like none of it belongs to you?”
Tears brimmed in her eyes. “I can’t carry it all!” Her voice cracked. She knew she shouldn’t be screaming. Ruva’s growl confirmed it. “It’s too much. I see them when I close my eyes, those people I couldn’t save. The ones I had to kill. The screaming. The silence. It haunts me.”
“You let it stop you. And that makes you weak.”
Kienna leaned forward, her hands trembling. “I can’t armor up and turn it off like you. Maybe that makes me weak, but at least I’m not numb.”
“I’d rather be numb than paralyzed,” Tristian said.
“Then you’re lucky.” Kienna sat back, arms crossed, as her eyes darted away from him.
“Don’t pity yourself,” Tristian snapped, demanding her gaze back. “You have something the rest of us died to protect. Tislin. The Hollow Blades. All of them bled for you, and you still can’t see the path right in front of you.”
I just want to heal, she cried to Ruva. Gritting her teeth, she said, “I didn’t sign up for this.”
Tristian pulled his hair and paced the floor. “No one asks to become what they’re meant to be. They just do it.”
Kienna rose to her knees on the edge of her bed. The fury of her own heart thumped through her veins. They went around in circles in these conversations with a weight of expectations swarming her. “What if you’re wrong? What if I’m not meant to be anything?”
“Then we’ll all die for nothing.”
Silence, thick and bruising, encompassed the room. Kienna’s breath escaped her. She had nothing left to say.
The door opened with a soft creak. Connak slipped across the floor like a shadow.
His attention averted them both. His boots barely made a sound as he crossed the threshold, the weight of grief tucked neatly beneath every movement.
He stopped, hands at his sides, shoulders rigid.
Tristian didn’t acknowledge him either. The tension between them spoke louder than words.
They brushed past each other like old echoes.
Tristian turned, voice colder now. “Figure it out. Or don’t. But stop wasting what’s left of us, so we can go in peace.”
Kienna stared blankly at the wall. The door clicked shut behind Tristian, leaving a stillness that settled like ash. Even Ruva had nothing to say.
Connak stood there, eyes on the spot where Tristian had been, his jaw tight, fists flexing once at his sides before relaxing again.
He turned to Kienna slowly, and for a moment, it looked like he might say nothing at all.
Then, he crossed the room in a few steady steps, sitting beside her bed, heavy with the things that haunted him. “Is he right?” he asked coldly.
Kienna slumped into the pillows and scanned his face for any glint of friendship or warmth. There was none to be found. Her heart sank like a ship plunging into the Lysiria. Her breath wavered as tears fell from her eyes. Ruva howled as if a full moon beckoned her to the wild.
Connak shushed her with an edge to his tone that was unlike him.
Ruva lowered her stance and growled, but then she whimpered to him, offering her presence to anchor him from his untethered despair.
Connak lowered his head onto Kienna’s bed and cried into the sheets.
She watched him with his back heaving upward and then out, a release of emotion finally breaking the barricade he’d placed in his soul between them.
Ruva licked their hands. We all need to rest.
Kienna reached her hands out, still trembling from the trauma of Dove Port.
Her fingers caressed the back of Connak’s hair.
He flinched at her touch but allowed himself to fall deeper into the warmth she tried to offer.
Her mind pushed into his, sparking a small fire to bring him peace.
Then she tugged on him until he crawled into the bed and lay there with her until sleep overtook him.
Kienna waited until his body stilled, and then she moved out of the bed to let him rest peacefully.
She met Ruva’s stare. My presence might keep him from healing.