Chapter 33
Thirty-Three
Rhodochrosite
Lunaria is so close that I could touch her.
She’s still sitting on the short rock beside me, a small crease in her forehead as she gazes out at the forest. Her fingers pick at the skin around her nails on her other hand, absentmindedly plucking, while she simultaneously nibbles on the inside of her cheek.
I’ve never seen her so unsure—never felt such a nervous energy surrounding her since the moment she found me.
As easy as it would be to think it’s because of me, of trying to figure out how to talk to me, there’s something more. But my mind is still shrouded by a thick haze, making it hard to sift through what I could be missing.
I already feel my energy slowly returning after my short rest earlier, but my thoughts are still…off.
It’s hard to grasp memories from right before I leapt into the Vale. Like there are small gaps preventing me from connecting one point to another. I remember waking up in the cave without Lunaria and finding Zephyr frantically pacing outside.
But when I try to think about how I got to her, the memory grows fuzzy.
Then I can clearly see Lunaria’s father on his knees before her, a weak excuse for a man, spewing words like acid at her. He told her that he wasn’t her real father, that the Lord of Shadows was. That much, I remember.
The rest is a blur.
I know there were others with us—Brielle, maybe? Flashes of scaled bodies and leathery wings fill my mind, but I can’t make out who’s atop the flying beasts. Can’t place who stood behind Lunaria and me before I decided to leap into the Vale to save her.
But I’ll never forget the voice that seized my thoughts, so loud that it was all I heard. Vidaris wants Lunaria.
Visions of Vidaris ripping Lunaria’s heart out play on repeat in the forefront of my mind.
All of my torture in the Vale revolved around one thing: Lunaria. I know Vidaris wants her, but for what?
The voice that gave me the warning wasn’t one I recognized; a soothing tone filled with starlight clanging inside of my head. The moment I heard it, I knew what I had to do. I was going to give the woman I loved a little more time.
Vidaris couldn’t have her—not if I could stop it.
There was no thinking after that. My body reacted, and I prayed to the Divine that Lunaria wouldn’t find a way to save me. I knew she would try—that there would be no stopping her from doing everything within her power to get me back.
I had only hoped she would fail. That whatever plan Eurydice had for her could come to fruition before Vidaris got strong enough to break through the Vale again.
And if the Goddess of Vengeance brought her power to our lands, the damage she could do would be irreversible.
The deaths would pile up, all laid beneath her feet, and their souls would be damned to an eternity with her.
But I should’ve known my girl wouldn’t accept failure.
“We should get going soon,” a familiar voice says from behind us, followed by a throat-clearing sound.
Adrian.
I blink, my back stiff as I realize we’ve been sitting here silently for longer than I thought. Lunaria turns to me, an odd look on her face.
“The sooner we get back, the better,” Adrian presses.
My jaw clenches, and I glance at him over my shoulder. “And where would we have to get back to?”
This is the first he’s talked to me, and even now, I’m not certain it’s directed toward me.
Adrian narrows his eyes at me, his mouth pressing into a narrow line.
I know he hates me for what I did—for lying to him about who I was while I was in Crea.
Adrian was my friend. He isn’t a bad guy; he’s just…
lost. Has too much blind faith in the invisible crown atop his head.
His motivations are to help others, but his problem is that he thinks he knows what they need.
And that certainly doesn’t mix well with a woman like Lunaria.
Even when he droned on and on about her at the castle, I knew he didn’t stand a chance with her.
She was…everything. Perfect. Fiery. Passionate and stubborn.
She left me breathless each time she walked into a room.
From the way she glares but fights a smile at my jokes to the soft, wide eyes that see me in a way no one else has.
I knew I had a duty to find Evelina’s daughter—to bring back my kingdom’s princess—but I was ready to abandon it all for her. If she had asked me to run away with her that night she escaped the castle, I would have.
“You haven’t told him?” Adrian looks to Lu, his voice softening enough that I shift toward her. His eyes briefly flick to me, noting the movement.
There’s a hint of smugness in his voice that he knows something I don’t. Well, I don’t give a fuck what she hasn’t told me yet. I trust her—which is far more than I can say for him.
We may have been friends once, but he still tried to take her from me. From her home. I won’t forgive that.
“And when would we have had time to go over everything?” Leda’s shoulder shoves into Adrian as she passes him, her eyes rolling.
I can’t help the small grin that tugs at my lips.
“When Lu was saving his ass from the Vale, or maybe when they both could barely keep their eyes open by the time Zeph brought them back?”
I may already have sisters, but she’s the closest thing to having another one. A pain-in-the-ass older sister, but a sibling nonetheless. My smile fades when my sister’s face flashes into my mind. I miss them. I really fucking miss them.
Leda stops on Lu’s other side, her arms crossed.
When she looks at her sister, I see something I don’t remember seeing before I got stuck in the Vale. Leda’s gaze softens, and she raises a brow at Lu, a small grin on her face. There’s a fondness in her eyes that wasn’t there before.
To anyone else, they might think Leda looks like the stone-cold warrior she is. But I can see through it—can see how much love she has for Lunaria.
I shift on the ground with a twinge in my chest as I wonder what else I’ve missed.
“Graylen,” Lu says, so heartbreakingly gentle, pulling my attention to her. She’s chewing the inside of her cheek again, and I know I’m not going to like what she’s about to say. “We have to go back to Crea.”
A dull buzzing drones in my ears.
Crea is the last place I want to be. The last place I want Lunaria to be. Moros is there doing Divine knows what. Every second I was there, it felt like a blanket of darkness had been laid across my shoulders, looking for a way into my soul.
And now we’re returning.
Right now, we’re safely on the side of the Zenovia Mountains with a queen who supports her people. We’re surrounded by magic and wonder, along with a raw wild that freely flows through the land.
But that isn’t Crea. We’re going back to a harsh land overrun with dodder vines—a direct manifestation of the darkness plaguing it. Not just any darkness, but one directly from Vidaris herself. A tingle twinges at the base of my spine as fear creeps up my back.
I take a deep breath. I’m not in the Vale anymore. Lunaria is by my side. We’re in it together.
“It almost sounds like you just said we’re going back to Crea, little princess,” I say slowly through our connection, my gaze locked with Lu’s. “Somewhere I explicitly remember you saying you would never go back to.”
My chest rumbles as my magic presses against it. I’m begging for a quick outlet. And like the fucking perfect woman that she is, she smirks. Her nervousness briefly falls away as the world dissolves into only her and me.
“Do you always believe what I say?” she murmurs into my mind.
Heat surges through my veins, warming the space between us. It focuses me. Pulls my attention away from the buzzing in my ears.
“Every single word,” I send back immediately, wondering if the teasing in my tone translates through our thoughts the way it would have had I said it out loud.
She huffs a soft laugh and mutters, “Liar.”
A throat clears, breaking the spell.
“Start gathering our things,” Leda growls to Adrian.
He opens his mouth to protest, but her eyes narrow, and he stomps away. But not before I catch the flush that tinted his face as he watched Leda. Interesting.
When he’s back in the cave, well out of earshot, Leda crouches down to face Lu and me.
“Adrian doesn’t know the entire reason we’re going,” Lunaria whispers, her gaze tracking Adrian as he sifts through a pack.
Lu’s conversation with Daimon floats into my mind. I remember praying to any Divine that would listen for my legs to hold me up until he left, but there was something Lunaria said that snapped my attention back to her.
“This is about Nightfall,” I guess.
The legendary dagger, said to pierce any darkness. When Lu said she knew where it was, I assumed she was bluffing. But then she explained the jagged white stone that she had in the Vale—not a stone at all, but a piece of Nightfall.
Lunaria nods, absentmindedly touching her vest. “Moros has it,” she says aloud. Her nostrils flare as her gaze bores into my mind. “And we’re going to get it back.”
Leda raises a brow, looking between us as she realizes she missed something, but she stays quiet.
I knew that was coming—could feel that Lu already had set her mind to something.
They explain the things that happened while I was gone.
Lu looks ready for everything being thrown at her, yet I can’t help but wonder if anyone stopped to think what this could cost her. What it would mean if Vidaris got her hands on Lunaria.
Leda continues filling me in, telling me her plan to go with the wyvern fleet to find my mother and father’s convoy, and how she hopes to convince some of the Riders in Kauri to help them check along the border and send a messenger to the palace to tell Queen Evelina all that has happened.
With my brain still foggy and my body already feeling like I need a nap, it’s a lot to process at once. Lunaria’s face grows hazy as my vision sways, and I scrub my hand roughly down my face. But I force myself to focus and keep my face passive.
Lunaria and Leda stare at me as if waiting for a response.
“When do we leave?” I ask, my voice gravelly.
Leda hesitates and looks to her sister. “Lu, maybe Graylen should go back with me—”
“I think the fuck not, Leda.” I point to Lunaria, my veins icing over at the thought of being separated from her again. “Where she goes, I go.”
Leda shakes her head and mutters, “Fucking Aegis.”
Fucking Aegis is right. Can’t deny it’s how most of us are. We do what we want to do, no matter how much it would benefit us to slow down. I’ll find time to rest. My magic will continue to replenish, and with it, my strength.
A soft wave of something warm and gentle brushes against my chest—emotions that aren’t my own. I glance at Lunaria, and she gives me a tentative smile.
From the corner of my eye, I see Adrian hoisting the pack onto his back, the leather satchel strapped over his arms.
“And how exactly is he getting us back?” I mutter.
They both turn to look at him just as he trips over a rock jutting up from the ground. He catches himself, but it deepens my doubt that he’ll be capable of getting us across the border safely.
“You didn’t think we were just sitting around waiting on you two, did you?” Leda smirks, and I have a bad feeling about what’s going to happen next.