Chapter 32 #2
For the life they could have shared, the three of them, if they’d run away together from the Citadel. But Erath had never known about the secret Styerra carried.
And he never would, because Ervos had stolen their connection away. He’d slid the Ring of Finding from Styerra’s finger in hatred, not in love. So Erath would never find her on the other side.
Ezer felt sick as she looked down at the ring and curled her hand into a fist.
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered to the ghost of her parents. ‘I’m so sorry for what he did to you.’
And when she released her fist …
She released Stefon Ervos from her heart, too.
Kinlear came for her that morning.
‘You look haunted,’ he said. ‘But lovely all the same.’
‘I’m going to take that as a compliment, Prince,’ she said, as she stepped out of Six’s cage.
His tunic and cloak were a soft white with warming runes swimming across the surface. The buttons were open, revealing his pale chest and the vial that hung on his skin, the liquid a bold red. With his dark curls and his eagle cane …
He looked like a mystery, once more.
‘And you look very much alive,’ Ezer said and smiled through her scars. ‘Don’t ever do that to me again.’
‘I’ll warn you; princes aren’t very good at keeping promises.’ He winked. ‘But for you, I shall do my very best.’
To her surprise, he pulled her into a hug.
She sucked in a breath, surprised at his touch. She was stiff at first. A flash of her dreams, his blade, her end … it all came to her in a rush.
But a killer would not hold her like this. A killer would not stake his mission upon hers, his future, his life. So, she settled into his warmth. The smell of him … it had become familiar and safe.
‘What’s done is done. I’ve closed the door on Ervos. He confessed everything. My father died a traitor. My mother died a victim. And I suppose in some ways, that makes me one, too.’
She did not tell him about the feathers, nor the suspected birds. Something about that part felt personal. A secret to be kept safe until she could discover what it meant.
‘You don’t have to be a victim anymore,’ Kinlear said. ‘You can change that part of your story. We can change it. Together.’
She met his eyes. ‘Together.’
For three days, they did nothing but train with Six. Ezer did not see Arawn.
Countless times, the stone in her pocket warmed.
But she ignored him until it went cold.
For days, she and Kinlear practiced mounting and dismounting, until they had it down to seconds.
Six snapped her wings out, and soared in small, swooping circles around the clifftop, responding to every motion of Ezer’s body.
Kinlear’s grip stayed strong around her middle, and when Ezer leaned, he leaned.
When she shifted her weight back to slow, he shifted with her, until they rode as one.
When the sun set, they spent an hour in the darkness together, making Six stay on the cliffside to watch the shadows. Learning not to fear the storm, not to panic as she had before.
When the cold became too much, they took dinner inside the catacombs. Izill brought heaps of food to the outer door … along with letters from Arawn.
‘Send them back,’ Ezer begged her friend each night. ‘Tell him I never even opened them.’
‘It will hurt him,’ Izill said knowingly and pressed a kiss to Ezer’s cheek as she took the letters back. ‘And you, if you don’t face him soon enough.’
But Ezer couldn’t bear to see him.
Not yet.
While they dined on the floors just outside Six’s cage, they pored over maps of the Sawteeth, planning their entrance and exit.
The Masters’ plan was as good as it could be, all from the intel they’d gathered from tortured darksouls.
From Ehvermages who could sense when a person was lying or telling the truth.
They need only execute these simple steps.
Leave the moment Realmbreak hits – the Long Day – three days of sunlight – their best hope in terms of time.
Find the black doors, the entrance to the Acolyte’s domain.
Make it to his ritual, right before the sun sets.
‘Kill him on his throne,’ Kinlear said, twirling his dagger in his fingertips.
The dagger she knew all too well from her dreams. ‘And if we’re right …
the shadowstorm will break. The wolves will disappear.
He’ll have nothing to protect his army any longer.
They’ll either die with him or be scattered without if they somehow survive.
We can go in by daylight after that. And end this once and for all. ’
‘And if we’re wrong?’ Ezer asked as she tossed Six a bleeding steak.
Spoiled creature, she thought and smiled as the raphon devoured the snack.
Kinlear’s eyes met hers. ‘It’s a little late for that. I have prayed, day and night, that my blade will be steady. That my hand will be swift.’
‘And I’ll be waiting,’ Ezer said. ‘Hiding in the Sawteeth for your signal, to carry you away, victorious. The prince who saved Lordach.’
‘And the Raphonminder who was crazy enough to help him do it,’ Kinlear said, and smiled at her through his fear.
‘And what about the godsblessing?’ Ezer asked. She knew it was the one thing he couldn’t tell her. The one truth he’d held back. A shield, was all he’d said. A shield instead of a sword. ‘Will we be able to make it back?’
She’d thought it would be something like a fresh set of wards.
Perhaps a true wall that none could pass.
‘We will,’ Kinlear said, holding her gaze, ‘so long as we don’t miss the deadline. End of Realmbreak. Just before the sun finally sets on the third day.’ He swallowed and looked up from the map. ‘Ezer… if I should fail …’
She shook her head. ‘You won’t.’
‘But if I should … you must leave me. Fly back here and get behind the wards before Realmbreak ends. Promise me you’ll leave me behind if it goes wrong.’
‘No,’ she said.
She took his hand and laced her fingers through his.
He sucked in a breath at her touch, and some part of her wondered, with how he looked at her …
Strange, to desire him sometimes.
To see how they would work together, if her heart had opened to him first.
‘I won’t leave you, Kinlear Laroux.’ She gripped his hand so hard her fingertips went white. ‘And you will not fail.’