Chapter 39
Kade crashes through the trees like a boulder in human form, all muscle and fury, a curved sword in his hands.
The moon glints off the blade as he swings it in a brutal arc, yelling and charging toward us.
There’s no sign of Callie. Then, I remember the pop and scream when the trial first started. She must be dead.
“Move!” Caelus shouts, lunging toward Kade and Rhythe.
Steel rings out as Caelus’s blade blocks the sword, shattering the night’s silence.
Kade doesn’t fight like a soldier. He fights like something caged too long and just set free.
Wide, messy swings meant to break whoosh past Caelus with narrow misses.
I whip out the blade against my ribs and dive for Ivy, dragging her backward as Kade’s weapon whistles through the air toward her.
She cries out, breath catching in her throat.
“Grab whatever you can,” I scream at her.
Caelus charges at him, and Kade rips out another weapon, an axe, one I swear I saw in Jace’s hands.
Jace. Talia. Where are they?
And then—another blur.
I whirl around—Rhythe.
He moves fast and silent. His spiked weapon cleaves through the night toward me, his eyes darting past me to Caelus, who is now behind me fighting Kade.
I parry just in time, lunging inside the arc of his swing, knocking his forearm off-line with the flat of my blade.
His eyes are calm. Too calm for the chaos he’s unleashing.
“Out of my way,” he says, stepping around me. He wants to get to Caelus, but I block his way. “This isn’t how it was supposed to go,” he spits, lunging.
He’s stronger than I expected. I pivot on instinct, fighting my body’s deep fatigue, twisting under his arm and slashing upward.
He jumps back, graceful, his spiked weapon spinning before settling in front of him again.
I slash at him, feinting left, then twisting right.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Caelus lose ground.
Kade white-knuckles his axe. They’ve moved farther from the trees, closer to the mountain’s edge.
I can’t breathe. Kade’s axe is slow but heavy, and each strike forces Caelus to dodge or deflect.
His prince training shows—clean footwork, precise cuts—but the axe is battering through his defenses like a hammer on a chisel.
Then, he trips.
And hits the ground.
A bloodcurdling shriek rips from my throat, my body moving in his direction, paces ahead of my mind. Then Rhythe slams into me, knocking me aside. My blade flies from my fingers, lost in the brush.
I hit a tree, and it feels like a stone wall.
Rhythe runs past me. Ivy stares frozen, watching this carnage unfold.
“Do something!” I scream at her, trying to regain feeling in my arm and searching for the backup blade against my ankle.
But all I feel is skin inside my boot. My heart rattles, my throat drying.
Then, I remember the driftwood-handled blade my father made me.
The one Caelus got back for me. My fingers lift, brushing through my hair until they find its small, familiar shape tucked deep in my bun. I drag myself upright.
Kade heaves his axe high, preparing to bring it down on Caelus, while Rhythe closes in from behind.
But Caelus surges up, rolling to his feet and pivoting around a nearby tree trunk.
As the axe swings down, he ducks low—just in time.
The blade bites into the trunk with a solid thunk.
Kade yanks the handle, but it’s wedged tight.
Seizing the moment, Caelus drives his shoulder hard into Kade’s gut, slamming him back.
They both stagger. Caelus lashes out with a quick slash. Kade catches his arm mid-swing with a snarl. As Rhythe closes in, Caelus twists free just enough to hurl his blade whirring through the air. It hits Rhythe, sinking into his shoulder. He stumbles back, clutching the wound.
I force my aching body into motion and dash toward the tent. Ivy screams something, but it’s muffled.
I spin.
She’s gone.
No—she’s moving. A figure in the shadows of the trees has her, dragging her backward, hand clamped over her mouth. Ivy’s legs kick uselessly, heels skimming the ground. She claws backward, pulling on whatever she can on her attacker. I spot unmistakable blond hair.
“Talia?” I gasp.
Her face is ghost pale, grief carved deep in every line. Her eyes flick up and lock with mine, and for a moment her mask slips. I see it all: The rage. The grief.
Jace.
Jace isn’t here.
“Talia!” I break into a sprint with my climbing pack at my side. She’s crying. She doesn’t even wipe the tears away. “Where’s Jace?”
Hearing his name stops her dead in her tracks. “Don’t say his name,” Talia chokes.
“Everyone around you is disappearing,” I say. “It’s Rhythe, Talia. Why do you think Ivy is with us?”
More tears pour down her face.
“What happened to Jace, Talia?” I press her again, begging her to see reason. But her grip on Ivy tightens. I edge closer. Ivy’s wide eyes dart between us—terrified. “Rhythe is controlling Kade,” I tell Talia.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about! Kade hasn’t been in on the alliance this whole time,” she says. “He’s just around now. For this.”
“Talia, think,” I say. “Lira, Orrick.”
She shakes her head. “No,” she mutters, but there is no heart in it.
Rhythe bursts from the shadows, cutting in front of us, positioning himself between them and me.
He crouches low like he’s ready to strike.
I grab my driftwood-handled dagger and drive it through the air, aiming for his head.
The metal edge catches on his shoulder—but he twists away at the last second.
He stumbles into me and grabs me roughly by my collar.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Axira,” he says twice, as if repeating it makes it true.
“Then stop trying,” I growl and shove him off of me. He lunges.
Talia gapes as Rhythe and I tumble over each other, hitting the dirt in a tangle—then she howls in pain as Ivy bites her finger.
“Stop it, Rhythe,” Ivy pleads. “You have to stop. You’ve gone too far!”
His spike cuts through my sleeve, grazing my skin. I drive my elbow into his ribs and throw him off. By the time I’m on my feet again, he is too. But now he hesitates.
His gaze flickers to where Talia is losing her hold on Ivy, then to where Caelus and Kade are now locked in brutal hand-to-hand combat.
Caelus wraps his legs around Kade’s middle and twists.
They slam sideways into the hard ground, and Kade grunts, wind knocked out of him.
Caelus surges up, elbow smashing into Kade’s jaw.
The big man slumps, dazed—but not out. Rhythe watches, distracted, frozen.
I run, following patches of moonlight through the forest canopy.
Ivy shoves an elbow into Talia’s side and breaks for it too.
“She’s getting away!” Talia screams.
Ivy’s gaining on me. I reach back for her hand. She takes it. Rhythe chases me, he chases us, around the camp, through the trees—until suddenly there aren’t any more.
We’ve reached a mountain’s edge.
I hit the dirt just before the cliff ends, breath tearing from my lungs. Ivy clings to me, shaking. We stare into the void, wind howling up the mountain face like a scream. There’s nowhere to go. There’s no way this ends well.
Behind us, something moves.
I turn fast, blade raised to face Rhythe, who glares at me.
He could shove me off this mountain right now and take Ivy.
I have no way to stop him. I look for hate in his eyes, desperate to cling to something I can understand.
But his face is unreadable. This is it. This is the end.
He told Kade he would deal with me. The moment has come.
He will deal with me now. I squeeze Ivy’s hand, slick in mine, rigid at the murder in Rhythe’s eyes.
I have nothing left.
I tried, I fought, I ran.
For a moment, I loved.
It didn’t save me. It only cost me. I let go of Ivy’s hand.
“I’m sorry,” I tell her. I’ve failed her too. With nothing left, I stare at Rhythe in his cold, dead eyes and ask, “Why? I overheard you talking with Kade. I know what you’re doing. But I don’t know why. Is this whole thing about your love for Ivy or something else?”
Is it the magic?
Ivy gazes between us like she’s seeing something new for the first time. The quiet thickens, moonlight glinting on the sharpening angles of his glare.
Finally, he says, “Ivy, with me.” When he reaches in our direction, I close my eyes, waiting for the push, imagining below there is a sea. And my mother is waiting.
But when I open my eyes, he is holding Ivy by the arm, rushing her back into the forest.