Chapter 26
Twenty-Six
Prehnite
Zephyr finds me on the cliff’s edge, her massive form hidden under the veil of night, but I can feel her. My skin prickles, and a surge of warmth shoots through me as the sound of wings beating against the air nears.
Leda left to get Adrian, and I said my goodbyes to everyone else as they walked with her. A few of the villagers remain scattered across the cliffside, pyres now reduced to glowing embers.
I stare down at the white, puffy scar on my palm in the exact shape of the shard.
My hand closes into a fist and reaches down, flexing to wrap around the hilt of the dagger strapped to my thigh, a parting gift from Willow.
It’s a simple blade, but it’s strong. The weight is light and the edge sharp.
Feeling the outline of it pressed against my leg calms me. Comforts me.
Reminds me that I’m someone who knows how to use it—who knew how to use it before my magic, when I only had myself to rely on.
I tug on my Essence, pulling the strands of fire that have always answered my call without pause. It stirs inside of me, but no more than to open a sleepy eye before it closes again.
As if it’s there, but too drained to answer.
“Like I said, Prince—”
“King,” Adrian huffs.
There’s a quick beat of silence, and I can practically feel Leda’s glare behind me.
“Right,” she grumbles, drawing out the word. “Like I said, Prince, the other humans remain with us. They’re prisoners—just as you should be—but you have the lucky ticket to get out of here.”
Footsteps press against rocky soil, nearing, along with the sound of Adrian protesting.
I slowly turn toward them, wondering what he sees. Before Willow left, she marked me as one of the villagers, smearing charcoal across my face. I can only imagine the hazel of my eyes burning through the dark ash, focused on the man I don’t want to be near, but need in order to get to Crea.
“I can’t get on one of those again.” Adrian gags, and my gaze shifts to him, watching as he clutches his stomach.
Zephyr’s talons sink into the dirt as she lands, the ground shaking from the force of her size. Darkness still shrouds most of her from view, but she dips her head toward us, her teeth bared.
Adrian takes a step back, his feet shuffling. “And I’m pretty sure that one wants to eat me.”
Leda pats Adrian on the back, her palm smacking him hard enough that he jolts forward with each tap.
“You’ll be back to your castle in no time.” Her words are smooth and soft, almost kind if not for the smirk on her face and the dark gleam in her eye. She shrugs and props her elbow on his shoulder. “Unless you fall off Zephyr and we lose you in the seas.”
Adrian blinks rapidly as Leda pushes off of him and walks over to me. I shake my head, a smile winding its way onto my face.
Leda leans in toward me, her voice low as she says, “I’m fucking terrified of that creature. Feet are meant to be on the ground, not in the air. Tell Zephyr to take it easy, would you?”
A puff of air blows my hair back as Zeph lets out a long breath. I can feel her muscles tensing, her wings rustling impatiently.
“She knows we’re going to get Graylen back,” I whisper.
Zeph lets out a low whine at his name and scoots closer to us. I step up to her, my hands reaching for the warm scales on the side of her face. Pain and longing shoot down the bond, but it’s hard to tell which is mine and which is hers this time.
I’m not the only one who misses him.
I press my forehead to hers, the leathery roughness that coats her steadying me as it meets my skin. She isn’t going to like our plan—isn’t going to like staying behind with Leda and Adrian while I go to the Vale to get Graylen.
But it’s the only way.
The crisp night air isn’t enough to cool my body down. Sweat lines my brow with every flap of Zephyr’s wings. She flies steadily and low to the Andronicus to stay hidden, the mainland slowly coming into view ahead of us.
My chest burns where the shard rests, slipped into an inner pocket of my vest. It makes its presence known, buzzing against my skin as if there weren’t layers of cloth between us.
A spray of salty water splashes up, and I hear a small yelp from behind me. I look over my shoulder to see a frown on Leda’s face. She rolls her eyes and leans to the side, revealing Adrian’s wide gaze behind her.
“This thing isn’t meant for three people,” Adrian stammers as he swipes water off of his face.
“This thing has a name,” I sneer.
Adrian’s eyes meet mine, and his brows slowly pull together. There’s so much written across his face that I’m not ready to think about. He’s sorry for the way things happened between us—I know he is. But sorry doesn’t fix it. “Lu—”
“Don’t.” I turn back around, feeling Leda shift as she straightens. “What we focus on now is what happens after we get Graylen back.”
We haven’t told Adrian the plan yet; we decided we would wait until we had him in a place he couldn’t refuse. Atop a wyvern that could fling you off at any moment seemed like a good time as any to get him to agree.
“And what exactly happens then?” he asks quietly, his voice muffled by the wind. “What if we don’t get Graylen back—does that change things?”
The urge to snap at him again bubbles up inside of me, but Leda beats me to it.
“Your job is to listen.” Her words are clipped and low. “We won’t be getting Graylen back. Lunaria will. That doesn’t concern you, so questioning her doesn’t really help now, does it?”
Adrian clears his throat but doesn’t respond.
I glance over my shoulder at Leda and give her a soft smile. She dips her chin down at me, and it’s then that I realize she has my back. Not just because she feels obligated, but because she wants to.
“Leda’s right.” I twist around, needing Adrian to see me while I tell him his part in all of this. “Leave Graylen to me. But you—I need you to get us back to Crea. And then I need you to get me into the castle.”
Adrian’s eyes widen. “Why would you want to go there?”
I don’t trust Adrian enough to tell him about Nightfall. Duke Wyman is still his “uncle”—though I’m sure that’s what he’s been told his whole life, they likely don’t even share any blood—and Adrian hasn’t been quick to believe our story about his true identity.
It would be a lot for anyone to wrap their head around, but without Adrian having proof of his uncle being the last human king who sparked a rebellion into war, he isn’t going to be fully on board. Therefore…I can’t fully trust him.
“Unfinished business,” is what I settle on. Before he can ask any more questions, I trudge ahead. “Your plan was to bring me back to the castle, right?”
He nods his head, his lips pressing into a thin line.
“I want you to do exactly that.” My jaw flexes. “The Duke doesn’t know what’s happened to me since I’ve gotten here. All I need to do is convince everyone I’m who I was when I left.”
A flash of pain flickers in his gaze. “You mean when you were Amira?” he asks softly.
I nod my head in a short, choppy jerk. He’s right; I can’t go back as Lunaria. I have to be Amira. She doesn’t feel like me—somehow it feels like she’s an entirely different person.
When I was Amira, I held my tongue. I may have done it to play the game society forced me into, but I did it all the same. My life was ruled by men in power, men who viewed me as weak. Men who underestimated me. Men like Adrian.
“They’ll know she didn’t come back willingly,” Leda jumps in. “You’ll need to act as her captor, bind her wrists and bring her in like you planned.”
Adrian flinches. “We only did that because—”
“You thought you knew what was best for her,” Leda growls. “Saying it a hundred times doesn’t make it better.”
His eyes drop to where his hands are folded in his lap, and he falls quiet.
Even though Adrian thought he was doing what was in my best interest, it doesn’t change the fact that the end result was to control me. The best intentions don’t make someone right.
“When I get Graylen back, we’ll meet you and Leda where we land.” I clear my throat, my voice uneven. “Then you’ll get us back to Crea.”
Adrian’s head snaps up. “Graylen is coming?”
My eyes shift to Leda. Her face is unreadable, her gaze neutral. She shakes her head slightly and looks away. I know she still thinks Graylen should go back with her, but even if I agreed, there would be no stopping Graylen from doing what he wants.
Finally, I look back at Adrian, my jaw set as I say, “Where I go, Graylen goes.”
Adrian must see something in my eyes, because after a moment, he nods, not asking any more questions about it. The truth is, I don’t know what kind of shape Graylen will be in when I get to him.
But I can’t leave him behind in Penyth.
I just hope he’s still in one piece when I get to him.
“Lu,” Leda breathes, snapping my attention into focus. “Look.”
She points over my shoulder, and I spin around, facing forward again. Zephyr slows as the Zenovia Mountains come into view. After flying through them when Willow led me to Kauri, I know that we have a bit further before we reach where I first saw Daimon.
“Don’t get us too close, Zeph,” I whisper, my hand patting the base of her neck. “I need to be able to get to you guys, but they need to stay hidden.”
Zephyr glides up, a low rumble vibrating through her chest in understanding. She soars into the mountains, the moon’s light hidden as we sink into the outskirts of Zenovia.
A slimy tingle works its way down my spine as the sea disappears behind us. I hate it here—so close to the curse that keeps the realm divided. There’s a heaviness that presses against my skin with each flap of Zeph’s wings. It bears down against my flesh, sticky and unsettling.
Leda shivers behind me. “Do you feel that?” she whispers. “It feels like…”
“Death,” I finish. “It feels like death.”
Zephyr banks left, heading for a small cave tunneled in a narrow valley. She lowers us to the ground, rocks tumbling as her wings clip the sides of the mountain.
Adrian scrambles off of her the moment we touch down, Leda not far behind. I take a moment to glide my right hand across Zeph’s side, sending a wave of appreciation to her through our bond.
She swings her head around to look at me from the corner of her eye, her golden irises shining in the darkness.
“Where would I be without you?” I whisper.
Her body shifts as she lowers a wing for me to slide off. I feel warmth wrap around my chest as she sends a soothing sensation toward me.
When I’m on the ground, I turn to Leda. She nods at me, a silent understanding passing between us.
“I won’t let anything happen to the little king,” she vows.
Adrian opens his mouth to argue, but I cut him off.
“Zeph will let me know if anything goes wrong, just as I’ll let her know.” I pat her neck, and she settles into the ground, tucking her wings in tightly.
I don’t mention that I likely won’t be able to feel that bond once I go to the Vale.
“I’ll be back.” With Graylen lingers unsaid in the air.
Leda’s gaze catches mine, her hard exterior cracking as her eyes glaze over, bright and shiny. She lunges for me, her arms wrapping around my neck. For a moment, I’m frozen. But then I sink into her, my arms embracing her back.
“Promise you’ll come back,” she breathes. “Our mother will kill me if you don’t. And then I will bring you back and kill you myself if anything happens to you.”
My chest feels too tight to take a fill breath.
“You can do this,” she adds, whispering into my hair. “You have our mother—the blood of the queen—in you. Do not forget that.”
Our mother. A small smile pulls at my lips as she squeezes me. “I’ll do my best.”
She nods stiffly, pulls back, and turns away from me. “Come on, let’s set up camp,” she mutters to Adrian as she passes him.
He takes a step toward me, his hand reaching up. I quickly take a step back, leaving his hand to meet air instead of my face. His fingers close into a fist, which he drops back to his side.
“Be safe.” His voice cracks.
I want to laugh at him—to tell him that there is no safe from this moment forward. Safety is an illusion, created by people who want to believe they have nothing to fear. But in this world, there is no security.
There is only what you choose to do and the aftermath. Every move I make will create a ripple effect from here on out, and I plan to make each one count.
Looking at Leda—plagued by the thought of leaving her behind to find Graylen—is the first time I feel my stomach sink. Even when I thought I was alone, I wasn’t. Not until now.
When I was following Leda and Brielle to the Shadow Lands, Graylen was right there with me. Then, in the trials, I still had my friends and family waiting for me when I awoke. And when Vidaris infiltrated the temple, my mother and Graylen found me immediately.
But this isn’t like those times.
Leda said our mother—her blood. While I may not know what having the blood of the gods means, I’ll always know what having her within me means.
My mother is a gentle but firm leader, one people respect and listen to.
She made me feel safe when I arrived in Penyth, something I never truly experienced in Crea.
No matter what information she withheld from me about Reichardt and Daimon, that doesn’t change who she is deep down. And she’s a woman who makes me want to be brave.
I take a deep breath and nod, and with a final goodbye to Zeph, I head to the edge of the Shadow Lands.