17. Raelyna
RAELYNA
It wasn’t long before we were making our way across town, back to the Nox District, and more specifically, my apartment.
I fanned my wings wide as I glided through the air on a gust of wind.
It had been far too long since I’d flown, and I nearly spun in the air out of delight.
Glancing to my right, I spotted Finn soaring higher into the air, his body tense with anger.
Beside me, Emberly glided along the same current I found myself on.
In theory, I guessed that I couldn’t necessarily blame Finn for the anger that had built throughout the conversation we’d had with the two Royal Solis Guards . . . I knew my actions had been slightly reckless . . . but that was my responsibility, and mine alone.
Pushing away all thoughts of what I’d discovered tonight—if only just for a moment—I found my gaze drifting downward, watching the buildings as we flew through the night.
We flew in and out of towers as we climbed higher in the sky.
From our vantage point, you could see the towers stacked on towers of skyscrapers disappearing into misted clouds.
I dipped my wings, ducking my head as I flew right below a skybridge connecting two of the largest structures in the Quarter. From here, I could spot the limestone cement blocks forming the barricade of The Wall.
A slight chill brushed against my skin as we moved through the air.
I loved it up here, watching the streetlights twinkle below, the hustle and bustle of Solis Quarter seeming calmer from this vantage point.
Up in the skies, there was no bargain, no promise to Lucanus, no one forcing me to be something I wasn’t. It was just me and the open air.
I was free.
Dipping to the left, my wing caught a new current, and I felt myself glide higher in the air, embracing the feeling of the wind against my face as I gracefully flapped my charcoal-colored wings and pushed higher still.
A giddy sense of overwhelming happiness flooded through me, and I tilted my left wing down, spiraling in a slight freefall toward Emberly below me.
I felt the wind whipping by me as I momentarily plummeted through the sky, feeling weightless, before I threw my wing out again at the last minute, right before I collided with Emberly and straightened.
“You’re insane!” Her voice carried through the sky, a chord of laughter floating around the words as I grinned over toward her.
Soon, we could spot the outer edges of The Wall with more clarity, and on it, I knew my apartment would quickly come into sight.
It was always a noticeable shift as we headed toward the Nox District.
The skyscrapers became less tall, only reaching ten to fifteen stories into the sky, and the street lights had a duller glow than the neon gleam in the center of the Quarter.
My gaze drifted along the looming cement barrier that kept others out of Solis Quarter.
Better yet—or worse, depending on who you asked—it kept us in.
Those with the least powerful affinities often resided on the outskirts, cast in the shadows of the ever-looming wall.
The homes on this side of the Quarter were cramped together, cowering under the ever-present eye of the RSG keeping guard along The Wall.
I was ten years old when my father first sat me down and told me about The Wall.
How it had been warded with ancient affinities gifted to the kings by the gods—meant to keep us safe, protecting us from the corruption of the rest of Aurelia.
When I asked my father why we couldn’t just fly over The Wall with our wings, he explained that it was impossible to fly over, and from what I’d seen, it was.
But I wasn’t so sure that was solely because of the wards.
The number of deaths that occurred in the poorer districts because a citizen attempted to fly past The Wall was too high to count.
It was a known fact in the Nox District that attempting to fly over The Wall was a suicide mission—you wouldn’t survive the guards stationed along the outer edges of The Wall .
. . even if you somehow managed to survive.
If you miraculously made it across the barricade that was The Wall, you would find yourself stranded in the forlorn deserts surrounding us on two sides, or The Rift.
Neither option offered a high chance of survival.
And the older I’d gotten . . . the more I’d begun to realize that we were trapped.
Trapped inside a barricade built to protect us.
Trapped by the very people who’d promised the citizens of Solis protection.
It was when I’d realized that, that I began to understand why my father had begun sneaking around prior to his death.
I slowed my flight as we drew nearer to the outer edges of Solis Quarter, careful to indicate through my actions that we were slowing, as I felt the weight of eyes trained on our movements.
The RSG, who carefully monitored our actions, tracked every movement on radars to ensure we weren’t attempting to flee the Quarter.
I couldn’t get Blackwood’s comment out of my mind. “When you’re ready for answers, you know where to start looking.” He’d tapped the markings on my arm—the ones he’d said he believed I was lying about. But it was too much. It was all too much.
Callum. My markings. The secret temple on the fourth floor. Lucanus being involved with the disappearances of angels. The mention of the Remnant—of a religion I’d thought no longer existed. My bargain with the king. My sisters. I didn’t know what to do—where to even start.
And even with my mind swimming in chaos from the information, a singular name kept popping into the forefront of my mind, a name that refused to vanish from my thoughts no matter how much I tried.
Callum Blackwood.
I walked out of my bedroom, tugging on a sweatshirt just as the front door opened and Sage walked through, followed by my youngest sister. My eyes narrowed on Kira as she excitedly greeted Loxl, the fennex purring delightedly at her greeting.
“What is she doing here?” I hissed toward Finn, who was currently making himself at home in my living room.
“I thought it would be good for her to be here,” he answered earnestly at the same time that Kira responded.
“Thanks for the warm welcome, sis.”
I sighed wearily before my eyes collided with her hazel ones. “That’s not what I meant, Kir.”
“Whatever you say, big sis,” she singsonged as she flopped over the back of the couch, landing on the pillows in a heap. She grabbed the remote, clicking the TV on as a pilaeria match came onto the screen, the announcer’s chatter filling the room softly. Sage walked over then, wrapping me in a hug.
“You finally found a reason to leave the temples and grace us with your presence now, did you?” I teased when she pulled away, her blonde hair swaying as she grinned at me.
“Finn said it would be a night I wouldn’t want to miss,” she answered, a heavy question in her eyes.
“What in Aurelia did you text the group, Finn?” I demanded, a slight bite in my tone as I pinned my best friend with the most menacing glare I could muster.
Finn, to no surprise, decided to look off into the abyss, pretending to have not heard my demand.
“Finnick Oren Lancaster,” I snapped, his green eyes colliding with mine at the use of his full name. “What exactly did you decide to text all of our friends?”
I watched his jaw tick, anger flashing briefly in his eyes before he finally sighed, running a hand through his brown hair and responding. “That we needed to have an intervention.”
“For the love of all five gods,” I protested. “An intervention?” The word was a near shriek before my eyes whipped toward Emberly. “And you clearly agreed?”
I watched her toy with the edges of the throw blanket on my couch, her eyes darting nervously between Finn and me before replying softly, “Well, I don’t know, Rae. Maybe. Tonight . . . I don’t know what’s gotten into you—associating with the RSG, sneaking through the upper floors of Solis Court.”
“Not to mention the multiple episodes you’ve had,” Finn added to the already extensive list.
I heard both Kira and Sage’s gasps at those statements and sighed, realizing tonight was going to be a very, very long night.
“Got it,” I stated, hurt rising within me. “So, what I’m hearing is that none of you—even after decades of friendship—trust me to be able to make my own choices, even if you might question them.”
“It’s not that we don’t trust you to make your own choices, Rae,” Emberly replied, ever the voice of reason in our group.
“It’s that your current choices are idiotic and putting you in danger,” Finn retorted angrily.
I huffed a scathing laugh. “Thanks, Finn.”
“Don’t give me that attitude, darling. You know I’m right.”
It took everything in me not to scoff once again. “Or . . .” I glared at him. “Have you ever considered that maybe you might not know everything? That there might be pieces of the story that you’re missing?”
I felt everyone’s eyes on me, a long pause stretching across my apartment’s living room.
“Well . . .” Sage broke the silence first. “If that’s the case, why don’t you actually let us in and tell us what we are missing?”
I paused, slightly reluctant as my gaze nervously darted around the room, landing on Emberly and Sage, before shifting to Finn, and then finally my youngest sister. Kira nodded at me, a slight upward tilt to her lips in silent encouragement.
I toyed with my lip for a moment, wondering what to even say, because if we were being honest, I went sleuthing on a random hunch, had a far-too-vague conversation with a royal guard, and didn’t even really know what to think of the entire thing myself.
“Okay,” I started. “But to preface this entire conversation, I’m not really sure where I’m going with it, and I only just discovered most of this tonight . . . so just, like . . . bear with me on everything, okay?”