CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT TREW
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
TREW
The third ward hung like a final test between us and whatever lay beyond it.
Isi had been working on it for long enough I was worried about her, her nose crusted with drying blood from the second ward’s retaliation. I felt every muscle in her body coiled with concentration.
“Talk me through it,” I said quietly, keeping my voice level despite the stress winding through my chest.
“It’s different from the others.” Her hands paused mid-gesture. “The first two were defensive. This one is…” She fluttered her fingers in the air, frowning. “I think it’s not trying to keep people out. It’s trying to identify who’s trying to get in.”
“A blood ward, maybe?” Kerralyn asked. “I read about them, how they only recognize certain people.”
“It could be.” Isi’s hand dropped to her thigh, her frustration palpable. “But if it is, I don’t know how to get us through it without offering blood.” Her gaze met mine. “I sense the ward wants to know if I’m blood-related to whoever set it. If I’m not, it’ll probably kill me.”
My hands tightened on Lakast’s spine spike. “Then we’ll find another way.”
“There is no other way.” She turned that stubborn set of her jaw on me. “And if this is my mother’s place, well, I’m blood. It’ll let me pass.”
“We have no idea if this is the property she may have owned,” I growled.
“I’m going to try.”
I wanted to snarl and make her stop, but if I tried to suppress her, I’d break her. I’d stomp her down just like her father.
The realization gutted me.
Pherin chirped from her shoulder. Gavelle shifted his weight on her other shoulder, his own support flowing through our connection.
“If your mother owned this place,” I said, finding it wasn’t so hard to speak them. “It might work.”
“In theory.”
“I hate theory.”
“So do I.” Her hand came up again, her fingers spreading as she studied the invisible lattice. “But it’s all we have.” She glanced up at me. “That wasn’t so hard, now was it?”
This was another reason I loved her. She truly did know me.
“It wasn’t easy,” I grumbled, but followed it up with a quick smile.
She stroked my face before getting back to work, and I was mesmerized despite my concern.
She stunned me all over again with her total focus.
Her lips moved as she counted threads or patterns or whatever veil-seers saw when they looked at magic.
Competence radiated from her, the kind that came from trusting your abilities even when they were terrifyingly new and fear whispered you’d fail.
She could do this.
“If it goes wrong,” I said. “I’m killing whoever’s responsible.”
Her smile flickered briefly. “It won’t.” She looked up at me, and the heat in her eyes made my chest ache. “Have a little faith, King Trewyn.”
“I have complete faith in you. It’s the ward I don’t trust.”
“Smart man.” She returned her attention to the magic, her shoulders straightening. “Everyone stay back. If this gets messed up, I don’t want anyone else caught in the end result.”
Kyreth and Wairen drifted farther away, giving us space.
Isi took a deep breath and released it slowly. She pricked her palm with a blade and after blood welled, she reached forward, pressing her hand flat against empty air.
Light exploded from the point of contact, brilliant gold shot through with silver, spreading outward in a web that became visible even to me. The ward’s structure revealed itself, layers upon layers of interwoven magic that must’ve taken years to construct.
Marlane had been incredibly powerful.
Blood ran from Isi’s nose again, bright against her skin. But she didn’t pull away or flinch. She kept her hand pressed against the ward as it examined her, tested her, and tasted her blood to read her lineage.
“Come on,” she whispered. “Recognize me. Please.”
The ward pulsed once, twice. On the third throb, it sang out a crystal note I felt all the way to my bones.
When the ward finally yielded, parting like silk, I felt a surge of possessive pride so intense it nearly overwhelmed me. She’d done the impossible. Again. Broken through defenses that should have killed her, made it look easy.
“Brilliant,” I breathed, pulling her close. “Absolutely brilliant.”
The way she melted against me, exhausted but triumphant, made me want to release a primitive roar. My woman.
With a hiss, the opening widened until it was large enough for dragons to pass through.
“By the fates,” Lexie breathed from Kyreth’s back, Derren nodding along with her.
Isi sagged against me, her breath coming in gasps. I twisted enough to catch her before she fell, tugging her around and securing her in my lap.
“You did it.” Pride surged through me and shone in my voice. “Now let’s see what your mother was hiding.”
I guided Lakast through the opening, the others following.
The moment we crossed the threshold, everything changed.
The corruption stopped. It simply ended, a stark line between rot and life so clear it could’ve been sliced with a blade.
On one side, the festering wasteland we’d been flying through for days waited.
On the other, lush grass, flowers, and trees heavy with fruit that made my mouth water shone like an oasis.
We flew over the new area.
Water ran in a stream through the center of the canyon, clear enough to see smooth stones on the bottom. The air smelled like growing things instead of decay, like hope and possibility and everything the wasteland had stolen.
Isi released something between a sob and a laugh.
The tightness drained from her shoulders, her breathing evened out, and wonder replaced the grim determination that had carried her through the wasteland. Her face had changed completely. Hope and longing blazed across every feature.
I wanted to give her a thousand places like this. Wanted to build her a world where she never had to see corruption again.
A manor house sat in the center of the canyon meadow like something from a children’s story. Small but perfect, made up of white stone covered in climbing vines with pink flowers. Smoke rose from the chimney in a lazy curl. Someone was home. It was clear they were maintaining this place with love.
Isi’s hands started shaking.
“Breathe, Minx,” I said as I guided Lakast down to the large clearing in front of the building. “Whatever we find, I’ll be right there with you.”
She nodded, but I felt her throat work as she swallowed hard. Her fingers dug into my forearm holding her secure on my lap.
“Maybe we should land somewhere else and spy on the place before announcing ourselves with dragons?” Lexie asked.
Isi shook her head. “My mother’s ward kept everyone but those I can trust out.”
Kerralyn frowned. “How can you know that?”
“I know it here.” Isi pressed her hand over her heart, and her voice dropped off to almost nothing. “I just do.”
But we’d sliced a hole in those wards. Something to address before whatever was hunting us figured out we’d found shelter.
We landed in front of the house. Kyreth and Wairen touched down nearby, our friends dismounting with weapons ready despite Isi’s confidence. Their companions either rode on their shoulders or padded along beside them, equally alert and watchful.
I slid from Lakast’s back, ignoring the protest from my shoulder and abdomen. My boots sank into grass so soft it felt like moss. Real grass, healthy and green and impossible in the middle of the wasteland.
I turned and reached up for Isi as she climbed down the dragon’s side. When her feet touched the ground, she peered around, her lower lip quivering.
“Breathe,” I said.
“I am.” Her gaze remained on the manor house, her entire body trembling with anticipation.
Derren and Lexie fanned out, covering our flanks. Kerralyn stayed close, her hand on her blade but her expression soft with understanding.
The door opened, and a woman stepped out, slowly crossing the open patio area in front of the building with small steps. She stopped on the top of the wide stone steps, shielding her eyes, looking our way.
Petite, she had long dark curly hair falling past her shoulders. She was thinner than I remembered from before she and Fenmark left on their doomed mission. Her face held a wariness that spoke of suffering most would never survive.
Shock flooded her features, followed by joy so bright it hurt to see, followed by fear that dimmed the joy to something desperate and urgent.
Isi made a sound I’d never heard from her, strangled, broken, and full of every emotion she must’ve been holding back since she discovered her sister might be alive.
My hands fell away as she ran forward.
“Addie!” The name tore from her throat.
Addie met Isi halfway across the path. They collided with enough force that I tensed. But they held each other up, arms wrapping tight, both of them crying and laughing and saying things too fast for me to follow.
My chest felt too small to contain all my emotions. Like my ribs had shrunk and my lungs didn’t fit anymore.
This is what I almost died for. Seeing her whole again was worth every wound.
Gavelle’s satisfaction mirrored my own.
Lexie sniffled. Derren cleared his throat. Kerralyn’s eyes sparkled with tears.
Isi pulled back enough to cup Addie’s face. “You’re alive. You’re really alive.”
“So are you.” Addie’s laugh came out wet and broken. “I thought Father would—I was so afraid he’d—”
“He tried.” Isi’s voice hardened. “But I had help.”
Addie’s gaze shifted past her sister’s shoulder to find me. Recognition sparked in her dark eyes, followed by something that looked like gratitude.
“You kept her safe, Trew.”
“She kept herself safe.” I stepped forward, close enough to be part of the conversation but not so close I intruded on their reunion. “I just provided the dragons.”
Addie’s mouth quirked up on one corner. “That’s not true. You’re insufferably protective of your people.”
“Fenmark. Is he—”
“Alive.” The word came fast. “I don’t know where he is.” She rubbed her chest. “But I know in my heart he’s alive and somewhere in the wasteland.”
Isi gripped her sister’s hands. “We read your journal and Commander Thorne’s message about where to find you.”
“Thorne.” Addie’s expression softened. “He saved me. Got me here when I thought I’d die in the tower.” Her gaze moved to me again. “Your cousin nearly did die. The torture was horrific. He was taken away before Thorne came for me. I have to find him.”
Addie’s attention shifted back to Isi, taking in the blood on her face, the exhaustion carved into her features, and the way she swayed on her feet. “You look terrible.”
Isi smiled through her tears. “And you’re too thin. When did you last eat a proper meal?”
“When did you last sleep?”
They stared at each other, then burst into the kind of laughter that came from relief too big to contain in any other way.
“Come inside,” Addie said, taking Isi’s hand and urging her toward the front door. “We’ve got a lot to talk about.”