45. Atlas
Atlas
Morning comes with a rock digging into my shoulder. I’m halfway hanging off the blanket, which is sideways from how I set it up after Greer and I moved from the ground to the spot where she set up our beds, and still, we couldn’t keep our hands off each other.
Reaching out, I search for her back. Her warmth. But my hand finds a cold, empty space beside me.
Rustling pulls my attention to the cave’s opening.
“We need to get going.” Greer stands as far away as possible without stepping outside, shoving her torn leathers into her bag.
She’s already dressed. Her braids are tied off her face. The cold, glassy distance I’m familiar with has returned, hiding any vulnerability she showed me last night.
I push myself to sit, the blanket strewn across my lap. Greer glances at me out of the corner of her eye, quickly catching herself and looking away. Her shutting down isn’t unexpected, but it pisses me off.
Through the feisty quips last night, I know she felt something between us. She can bury it, and she can run from it, but she can only deny it for so long.
Standing, I don’t bother covering myself as I walk toward my clothes, shoving my legs into my pants. It’s not like she’ll let her guard down enough for it to affect her anyway. I shrug on my shirt, leaving the laces loose as I start to pack.
When everything is in my bag, I meet her at the cave entrance, pulling down the magic that kept us safe last night. “You good?”
Her chin stays high, her eyes refusing to meet mine. “Always. Built for battle and blood, right?”
I hate that she uses my own words against me. Especially when it’s bullshit after last night. But there’s no use arguing with her or forcing her to talk to me when she refuses to let down her guard for a second.
We need to focus on what’s ahead to stay alive today anyway.
If she were anyone else, this wouldn’t matter. I’d have already lost interest after losing myself inside her. But Greer isn’t anyone else. She’s infuriating, mind-altering. Perfection. I grit my teeth and ignore the nagging truth that stirs.
The forest is noisy this morning. Critters skitter along the ground.
Something slithers up the trees, and the steady thrum of the orb pulls us north.
Cyan has either yet to catch up with us or is already waiting for us because he knows where we’re headed.
Either way, his shadows don’t nip at our heels.
I’m ready for this to be over.
We walk in silence the entirety of the morning. Greer stays a few paces ahead so I can’t see her face. She doesn’t slow or look back. I do my best to shove down everything I want to say to her in favor of staying alert.
The sun is high in the sky when we finally reach the border of something.
Greer freezes like she’s struck a wall, and I nearly run into her back but manage to catch myself.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know.” She holds her palm up; light sizzles between her fingertips and the air ahead of us. “A barrier of some sort.”
“We must be close.” I lift my hand, and she steps back while I call flame to my fingers. It rubs against the light, and I realize it’s not a true barrier but an illusion of one. Magic that only convinces Greer she can’t pass through.
Malachi’s power is growing.
I wave my hand over the thin film, searing it away. “It’s not really there. You can step through.”
With that reassurance, Greer manages to take another step. She draws her sword, and I do the same, unsure of how much farther we have to go but needing to be ready. The air changes in this part of the forest. Any sound is drowned out by the hum of the orb.
It’s no wonder Nym and Nyxia lost their minds hearing the voices of the gods if this is what a gods-touched object sounds like. When I was in the Ley Court, I don’t remember it sounding like anything. Whatever feeds it now has the magic fully awake.
It doesn’t take long before we reach a camp. Through the trees, Fae wearing Crown Guard armor bustle around. At the center is a large tent draped in blue and gold.
“He has to be in there,” Greer seethes, her eyes narrowing.
My magic reaches out to the path ahead of us, ribbons of flame searching for a way through, but I’m met with resistance.
“The guards’ minds are protected from my magic. Malachi is definitely in there blocking anyone from going unnoticed.” I sigh, frustrated.
“We need to get closer.”
“We need to stay alive,” I remind her when the fire in her eyes ignites.
I know that look—vengeance.
All the anger Greer carries around is aimed at one male right now, and if she’s not careful, it will get her killed.
“We found Malachi,” I tell her. “I can mark this place so we can get back here quickly with a Gate once we have the void.”
“What if they move?” Greer argues. “We need to get closer to learn what he’s planning.”
“Our mission was to find him, not engage unless necessary.”
“That’s not my mission.” Her voice cracks; a sheen coats her eyes.
I step close, and she shifts back just as much, avoiding me. “I know you want to kill him, and hell, he deserves it. But we’re outmatched. Walking into that camp is sure death.”
Finally, a tear slips from her eye, but she wipes it away as quickly as it falls. “Go back then. I’m getting answers.”
Greer pushes forward, knowing damn well I’m not going anywhere and leaving her here. I throw out a marker so we can find our way back if we manage to get out of this alive.
My sword is up and ready, firm in my grip. There are only three guards at the edge of the trees. Between the two of us, we have no trouble taking them. But the moment they fall, movement comes from our sides. Figures spill out from the forest.
We’re surrounded.
It does nothing to stop Greer as she shoves into the clearing, refusing to back down.
“Subtle,” I mumble, equally irritated and impressed at her unwavering confidence.
It earns me more of a smile than she’s shown me all morning, but it quickly falls as more warriors step out of the shadows.
Three in the clearing. Two at my back. One on either side, and four more spread deeper in the trees, ready if we run.
It’s a trap, as we should have expected.
But the flap on the blue and gold tent has yet to move, and I know Greer must be thinking the same as her eyes drift that way. There’s no Malachi or Cyan in sight.
“Look, it’s the traitor,” one of the guards sneers, skimming Greer over in a way that has me itching to peel off his skin.
“The only traitor is the king you bow to.” Greer holds her head high. “A traitor to his kingdom. His people.”
The guard chuckles as Greer moves. Faster than light. Than sound. She shoots forward, the male still smiling as her sword drives up through his jaw and out the top of his head.
He slumps to the ground as she pulls her sword out, and all amusement has fallen. The Guard unleashes.
I turn, covering her back as two come at me from the forest. One bearing daggers, the other a sword and shield. Flames lick the blade as I send it in a perfect arch, cutting one of their heads clean off.
But when I try to strike the other, his shield catches the hit. Metal vibrates my grip as two more run from the trees. Blood rains. Fire skates the ground as I send flaming ropes to break the necks of two who try to sneak up on Greer from the right.
When she ducks, I sweep the sword over her head, slicing open the chest of her opponent. She turns just as quickly, throwing a dagger at the one behind me. We battle, moving as if she and I have trained together our entire lives.
A new rush of warriors floods in when the first fails, this one double in size. I send a wave of flame that some deflect with their own magic, while others fall. But there are too many, closing in too fast.
Greer must sense it too. She pauses, her back to mine.
“They’re multiplying,” I say through gritted teeth.
“Giving up so soon?” I can hear the smile in her tone.
“Never.” I swing at the first guard who approaches, while more flood in.
But we’re losing steam—losing hope.
Until a crack darkens the sky. Something beyond the realm opens; static in the air has the hair on my arms on its ends. It’s enough to make the guards pause the fight and look up. Lightning doesn’t often strike the forest, but as the air crackles overhead, I sense something brewing.
Greer doesn’t flinch. She shoves her sword to the sky as white light bathes over her.
She doesn’t create a storm; she becomes one.
A bolt of lightning meets her where she stands, striking the tip and pouring light like water down her body.
She drinks the magic others wield, the magic of the realm, and beyond it.
Lightning crackles in her aura, and then she gives me a look.
A warning to cast a shell of magic around me the split second before she shoves the blade into the ground.
Lightning strikes out from all sides, burning the guards to ash.
It kicks against my magic, nearly cracking through the shell as Greer unleashes the storm around us.
Until there is nothing but dust floating in the wind.
Her shoulders sag as her sword dulls, and I let my magic fall.
“And here I thought you were a seer?”
Her hands shake as she looks down at her sword, seeming just as surprised at what just happened. “I am. I saw something in the realm, and I grabbed it.”
“I underestimated you.” A voice has her head snapping forward.
The tent flaps part, and out walks Malachi. He’s gaudy, even in the middle of the forest. Decorated in royal blue and gold jewelry. The glowing orb hangs at his neck.
“You could have been more useful than I realized.” He grins at Greer.
She shoots to her feet, and I’m too slow to stop her. She charges for Malachi, clinging to every last fiber of rage as she drives her sword through—
Nothing.
The tip meets air. A swirling illusion.
Malachi grins. “We both know that would have been useless even if I were here.”
“No.” She drops her sword to the ground, falling to her knees.
This entire journey, everything we’ve searched for has led us to nothing. To exactly what he wanted.
“Where are you?” I step forward.
Malachi’s head tilts as he looks at me. “Far enough that you’re safe. I am curious why Wilder chose to send you two on this mission when I already told his mate where I’ll be.”
That catches Greer’s attention.
“Ah, did she not tell you the details of our visit? Interesting. Just like her little trip to the Mortal Realm.”
Malachi knows.
“I know all,” he snaps, reading my thoughts, then glancing down at Greer. “I planned to kill you, but now I might keep you around when this is over. I could use whatever that was.”
“I’ll never help you.”
“We’ll see about that.”
Malachi vanishes, and Greer bends forward, catching her hands on the dirt. The pulse that led us here is gone. Birds stir once more. There’s nothing. We’ve chased a ghost.
Greer drops her chin, and I stand frozen, clutching my mother’s necklace in my palm as Greer’s shoulders start to shake. I stare at the flame carved in the stone, running my thumb over the design my mother etched. A message I’ve spent centuries trying to understand.
My heart.
My happiness.
I didn’t know what it meant until I flip the stone over now and see the grooves on the other side. A mark I always thought was a spiderweb. Glancing at the ground, at the charred pattern in the dirt webbing out, I realize my mother saw something else entirely.
Lightning.