Chapter 45
Wind whips my hair back, but my eyes do not close against it. I am solely focused forward. The Astral Queen was right. I can feel him. Like a vise around my very soul, snaking through my marrow, tugging like a rope, I follow the glittering string across the world to him.
He’s gotten far, quickly. Perhaps he was always capable of this speed. Maybe I just slowed him down. Maybe that’s all I ever was to him—an obstacle to overcome.
Of course I was. Why would I ever think anything different?
I see you too.
Those words haunt me, my eyes stinging. “You saw me, and you left me,” I say into the wind, my voice echoing through it.
After everything, foolish of me to think that something I cared about would ever be anything other than temporary.
Anger and agony and betrayal shape me, until I become more than just this body, just this armor and this glimmering sword of starlight. I become a sword myself, forged in fury.
The gods don’t know what’s coming for them. I don’t fear death like they do.
This will kill me.
It’s supposed to.
My dragon’s wings push forward, conquering the skies, riding with the winds, fighting right beneath me, as if she has her own purpose. Flat on my stomach, I hear her strong pulse echo against mine.
“Your name,” I whisper, and I know she hears me. “I never—I never got your name. Maybe that’s why, when I called you, you couldn’t hear me.”
She hums below me, her scales trembling.
“I don’t think I’m going to walk out of there alive,” I say. “You saved me, for this. You helped me, for this. And for that, I thank you.” I take a shaking breath. “I would like to thank you by name.”
Don’t thank me yet.
The voice isn’t a voice at all, but a feeling strung into words. I can sense it, as if she’s speaking directly into my mind. I can’t hear her … but somehow, I know the words anyway. Just like my sword, telling me its name.
“How did you do that?” I breathe.
But there’s no response.
The string in my chest tugs—Raker. He and our swords are close. “There,” I say, seeing a shimmering arch even from the sky. It’s blocked by a wall of clouds, thick as a storm.
I grip her scales as she dives forward.
Right through the tempest.
And we plunge into a sea of magic. It’s everywhere, glimmering, poured into all my senses, drowning me from the inside out.
Everything pulls my focus. There are holes in the clouds, with rainbows spilling out of them, like paths, brushing against the sparkling ground. Every time I focus on one thing, the rest vanishes.
This place is its own test. Someone could make it all the way here, I think, and get lost in its maze of radiance.
Luckily, I have my dragon. She cuts through the beauty, landing in front of an arch formed from beams of silver light. This must be the entrance to the well of magic. I can’t see what’s beyond it. The place wears a cloak of enchantment.
I slide off my dragon’s back. Just when I’m about to enter, a shadow casts around me. I tense. Snap around.
A beast is landing right next to my dragon.
Instead of reaching for my sword, I nearly fall to my knees.
Zane. He’s on the back of a massive winged creature. My eyes burn. He did it. He claimed it.
A glorious Helmhawk.
His smile transforms his entire face. In a moment, he’s on the ground, then pulling me into a crushing hug. “You’re—you’re alive,” he says, staggering back from me, eyes wide with wonder.
“So are you.” I frown. “Did you … go in already?”
He nods. “I got my cup.” He pulls a silver chalice from his pack. It’s filled with shimmering liquid that somehow doesn’t spill. “I got here about a week ago. I’ve stayed to get anything else I can, but this place is like a labyrinth. I was just leaving, when I saw you.”
I throw my arms around him again. Finally, some good news. Something positive from this deadly journey.
It reminds me of the bad. Slowly, I pull back. “Kira—Kira is dead.”
The news melts the smile off his face. He curses. “I had hoped … I had … hope, I guess.”
“Me too.” His eyes meet mine, and my voice is poison. “It was Cadoc. He hunted her down, and—”
His eyes flare with something at the mention of that name.
“What is it?” I ask.
Zane’s expression is serious. “He was just here, a few hours ago. He had a cup.” Fuck. He actually made it. The bastard. Zane’s gaze is hard. “I saw him drink it, Aris.”
Silence.
“Did he—did he …”
“He was screaming. His dragon took him away. But … he was alive.”
No. Cadoc—Cadoc cannot be immortal. I tense, knowing what that will mean for the other side. For any world with a person as terrible as him in it.
But that’s not my problem. It shouldn’t be.
Wrath still racing through my veins, my eyes dip to the chalice in his hands. The liquid inside swirls silver, like a cup full of stars.
“What are you going to do with it?” I ask.
He doesn’t hesitate for a moment. “I’m going to take it home and pour it on our land. I’m going to save my mountain and everyone who lives there.”
I believe him. He’ll make it back to the gates on his Helmhawk, if he’s quick. “Go, then. Go save them all.”
Zane hugs me. One last embrace.
His hand grips the side of my arm, grasping the new, sparkling metal. “It was nice to meet you, Aris,” he says. I know he means it.
“And it was nice meeting you, Zane,” I say. I watch him mount his massive bird and disappear into the sparkling light.
My blood pounds with fury and grief and, most of all, purpose.
“Stay here,” I tell my dragon. “And if I don’t come out, know that knowing you was the greatest gift of all.” I press my head to hers.
Then I turn toward the arch and the end of my journey.