Chapter 27
LYRA
“There’s no sign of them,” Mev said, joining me in my favorite spot in all of Elydor: the king’s outdoor platform.
Located between his solar and throne room, an outdoor space jutted out from the mountain, poised high enough to see what seemed like all of Aethralis below. Many who were not Aetherian, comfortable in high spaces that seemed to almost touch the clouds, refused to come to this spot.
Gyorians, especially.
“Have all reports come in?” I asked.
Last I’d heard, there had been no whispers from our scouts at the foot of the Ascension Gate. We’d been receiving whispers from every corner of Aetheria—from the coastal towns to our borders with Estmere and Gyoria—but thus far, nothing from one of our closest outposts, which was concerning.
“Yep. Nothing. Not land. Or water. Balthor’s men are nowhere to be found. Yet.”
We were certain they had followed us.
“Perhaps they retreated to Balthor and are amassing an army.”
“That’s what my father thinks too. His generals are continuing to prepare for full-scale war.”
Full-scale war. In Elydor, it could mean utter destruction. When immortals who’ve been training for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years to weaponize elemental magic, even a minor skirmish could be catastrophic.
I shivered.
“Any word from the men?”
Mev shook her head. “Nope. Nothing.”
Terran and Kael had been gone since morn. No one, not even Mev, knew precisely where.
I twirled my fingers absently, playing the wind. Swirling it. Practicing. Preparing.
Trying not to think of last night.
“Rowan and the queen?” I asked.
“Being escorted north as we speak.”
“Both of them?”
With the Wind Crystal in our possession, the Stone as close to it as we could get at the moment, King Galfrid had sent word via whispers to Thalassari. We assumed someone, likely Sir Rowan, would bring the Tidal Pearl north. But I’d not have expected Queen Nerys to accompany him.
“I guess so. Marek and Issa are bringing them.”
“Of course,” I murmured. Few could navigate the waters quite like Marek.
“I can’t believe this is really happening.
When they get here, if Aethralis is still standing…
holy shit.” Mev paced back and forth, though never approaching the platform’s rails.
Sometimes, her human side showed more than others.
For the most part, I typically forgot Mev was not Aetherian born and trained. Until she spoke, of course.
“It will stand,” I said, confident of it. “And your father will open the Gate. The question is, what will you do then?”
Mev stopped.
“Go through it, I guess. What else?”
“Alone?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Kael already said we can’t chance it. He’ll go through with me. Just in case.”
Just in case it somehow closed back up again.
So Kael was prepared to give up immortality for Mev. It both surprised me, and didn’t.
“And your father?” I asked.
“Will stay. If for some reason, things go badly on the other side, as much as he wants to reunite with my mother, he’s afraid of what Balthor might do if he never returned.”
I resisted the urge to shudder again. “A disconcerting thought, if I ever had one.”
“We’ve heard from them,” Eirion said, approaching.
The Council enforcer, when the Gate was open, and Galfrid’s former general of Aetherian forces, he served as a military advisor to the king.
“Is all well?” I asked, suspecting his response. Eirion appeared overly calm for there to be anything amiss.
“Aye. No sign of any Gyorian forces.”
“From any direction?” Mev asked.
Eirion shook his white-haired head. “None.”
We let the news sink in. “I’m meeting with your father shortly. Will you be joining us?” he asked Mev.
For Eirion to defer to the princess showed how far Mev had come since arriving.
“I will,” she said, “but must speak to Lyra for a moment first.”
He nodded and left.
“If Balthor does not plan to follow, or attack, imminently… when Nerys gets here…”
She trailed off, but no explanation was needed.
“Let me do it.”
“With luck, it won’t be necessary and he will volunteer our use of the Stone without having to be persuaded. Maybe after talking to Kael, hearing another perspective…”
“I would be surprised,” I admitted. “Terran isn’t Balthor, but neither is he Kael. He truly blames the humans for his mother’s death.”
“Kael did too.”
“He is.” I thought back to last eve. “Different.”
Harder. More domineering. In more ways than one.
“Lyra?”
My head snapped up. By Mev’s narrowed eyes, I could see my momentary lapse of control over my emotions had cost me.
She knew.
“Oh. My. God. Are you serious?”
I schooled my expression back to neutrality.
“We have important things to discuss—”
“Yeah. Like you and Terran. Holy shit. How did I miss it? When did this happen? I can’t even believe it. You guys are like… I don’t know. Oil and water.” At my expression, she continued. “Air and stone.”
“We are very different,” I acknowledged.
“Different? That’s the understatement of the year. He is…” She stopped abruptly as the object of our discussion joined us, along with his brother.
At the sight of him, in daylight, my body confirmed what my mind already knew. I was falling for the Gyorian warrior—a prince—like no one I’d been with before.
Heart hammering, his presence ignited every nerve in my body as I imagined him coming over to me, as Kael joined Mev, and claiming a kiss.
Claiming.
It’s what Terran had done, and not only had I let him… I encouraged it.
“Eirion meets with your father,” Kael said to Mev. “Will you join them?”
“Aye.” She tugged on Kael’s hand. “Come with me.”
Though he appeared momentarily confused, Kael did go with her, leaving Terran and I alone, precisely as Mev planned. What she truly thought of us, I couldn’t be sure. But one thing was for certain.
In the dawn before what would likely be a time written about in history scrolls, Balthor’s response to his son absconding with the Stone of Mor’Vallis, the possible reopening of the Aetherian Gate, I had only one thought.
And as Terran stalked toward me, it wasn’t about the fate of Elydor.
I wasn’t falling for him.
I’d already fallen, and there was no way back.