Chapter 34
Gaia’s ears flicked as she made her way over the rocky terrain into Myrwood Grove.
We arrived too soon—the Grove was too close to the Heart.
An eerie hum rang through the desolate space—deep and frantic. My skin crawled with the sound. With each crescendo, nausea rolled through me until bitterness settled on my tongue. Threatening to linger.
Lioran said nothing, yet he flinched with the cascading sound. His breathing faltered
I gripped my bow, trembling as the wind thrashed against me. The quiver bounced at my back. It should have made me feel safe, protected, but it only made me feel desperate.
Gaia’s hooves crunched over debris—the land crumbling beneath us. The trees arched, their inky barren branches reached into the path.
Fyn’s blade caught a single ray of light that sparkled from the sun, before it faded again. His hand gripped the hilt. He rode beside me, without a single command from Lioran.
The Grove wailed.
Death had claimed it, but still it was alive.
“Lioran, do you hear that?” I called to him.
“Yes, try not to think on it.” His voice was flat, his words flawless—but I heard the fear through each carefully spoken word.
“What is it?”
Fyn leaned in toward me. “Some say it’s haunted by the souls that were lost here.”
“How…reassuring.”
“Yeah, it’s just a totally relaxing ride through the woods.” Fyn raised an eyebrow at me.
“Fyn. Quiet,” Lioran warned.
“I don’t hear you getting onto your wife,” Fyn called to him a little quieter. I smirked at Fyn’s words, but Lioran didn’t respond. His silence left me empty.
The air stilled unnaturally.
A loud rumble thundered once. Then twice.
The Grove roared—the sound pierced my ears. A black branched veered overhead—swiping over us.
The tree moved. On its own. Without my magic or Lioran’s.
The branches swung in a chaotic dance. Fyn’s hand jolted my back, pushing me into Gaia.
We wouldn’t make it through this—we wouldn’t leave. The Grove would claim us—one way or another. Air held in my lungs—sharp and painful as I clutched onto the saddle.
“Stay down,” Fyn warned. “I’ve got her,” he called to Lioran.
Lioran couldn’t stop the Grove—he couldn’t save us from this.
We had to find a way to survive it.
Low lying branches grazed at Gaia’s leg. She quaked beneath me. Her fear pulsed through me, in time with my own. I gasped, unable to breathe through it.
A tree cracked as if an axe had been taken to it. Heavy limbs crashed between the horses—parting our group until only a handful of us remained together. Cora’s cries echoed behind me, I let the sound drown out my own.
Branches beat the land—deep and insistent.
With an echoing crash, a branch swung toward Lord Mavik, severing him from the saddle. He was gone. The Grove had taken him.
“Fyn!” I cried, reaching for him. He held my hand as we steadied our horses. There was nowhere to go. I held my free hand steady and reached for the Grove. I called my magic, willed the Grove to listen to my pleas, but nothing answered. As if that part of me was already gone.
I pleaded with it, tugged at it deep within me. It fizzled before it even left my fingertips.
“I can’t stop it.” Each breath caught, more rapid than the next.
“We’re going to make it out of here,” Fyn said as he squeezed my hand in his. I closed my eyes—I couldn’t handle the sight of it any longer.
One by one the branches beat the land like a war cry. The ground quaked in time with each crash. Suddenly, it fell silent. Fyn tugged my hand.
I opened my eyes and watched the branches snap back into position—as if it never happened at all. When I looked for Mavik—he was gone.
His horse stood without a rider in the middle of the Grove. Debris surrounded us.
“We need to look for him!” Lioran cried, dismounting from his horse in time with Lord Orion. He glanced back at me. His chest swelled as his hand covered his mouth, before he took off running.
There wasn’t time to demand he stopped. He wouldn’t have listened even if I had.
Before they even entered deep into the brush, Lord Mavik walked out of the woods. His hands desperately gripped his sword still at his waist.
“I’m alright.” Lord Mavik shook his head. “I’m not even sure what happened.”
None of us were.
Memories of his blond braid whipping through the wind would never leave me, but there he was—unharmed.
He climbed back on his horse as if it never happened.
“How?” My voice quaked.
Lioran’s gaze caught mine as he raced back to Veylar. I had never seen terror run so deep beneath it. “I don’t know,” he said as he mounted his stallion. “We need to keep going.”
“Some of the lords wish to leave.” Lord Orion called to us. His eyes avoided Lioran’s.
“Then let them.” Lioran looked back at me. I swallowed hard. “If you wish to head back, then go!” He yelled to the party ahead. No one moved. “I can’t guarantee you’ll make it through here. Go, if you must.”
They turned back. Three of them left.
Their names had been uttered, but I wouldn’t remember them.
Maybe I’d never even see them again.
“They’re leaving?” I didn’t know why I questioned it. I would have left if I could.
“Let them,” Lioran seethed. He wouldn’t hold it against them. He knew their fear as well as he knew his.
There weren’t enough of us to weather whatever came next.
The Grove wouldn’t stop here. It wouldn’t let us proceed untested.
Mavik and Orion stayed beside Lioran. “We will deliver you safely,” Mavik said. “You have my sword, Prince Lioran and Princess Aelira.”
“Thank you.” My lips quivered as I spoke.
He was taken from his horse. He could have lost his life, and yet he remained.
They would abandon us, but he would not.
My eyes met his and his head lowered.
The Grove’s cries became unrelenting screeches. We marched the horses onward. Gaia’s ears pinned back. The branches rotated in a nearby tree, as if they were watching. Waiting to strike again.
A howl reverberated through the haunted space. The heavy mist that clung to the air thickened. A low hiss crept over the ground. Black smoke rose from ash. My insides twisted.
A beast formed. Steady, black legs gave way to iron claws. Its muscles taut. The smoke faded until I saw its head. The creature assembled piece by piece as if it was sculpted. Every hair on my arms raised as it stalked closer. Each threatening breath it took released puffs of steam.
Its inky fur glittered under fragments of sunlight that cast through the canopy of barren branches overhead. A bone-rattling roar released from its mouth—its canines glimmered, dripping with crimson.
With each step, it stalked slowly toward us.
Fyn drew his sword, followed by Mavik and Orion. My fingers wrapped around the shaft of my arrow as I set it in place. I pulled back the strings with vibrating force.
Lioran didn’t move.
He didn’t even reach for his sword.
The creature’s black bulging eyes shifted toward him.
I needed him to move, to do something. He couldn’t just sit there unarmed.
“Lower your weapons,” Lioran warned, his voice steady.
“I can take it,” I said.
With a swift pull of the strings, I could save us all.
“Put it away, Aelira.” Lioran’s hushed words hit me like screams in the darkness. “Now.”
Lioran’s hand raised—a golden glow that whirled at his fingertips. I felt his magic like it was mine. Until it vanished.
The beast paced in front of Veylar, unfazed by Lioran’s wordless commands.
Its eyes locked onto mine—it called to me, threatening me. It sneered, its fangs still dripping with its latest kill. The stench carried between us.
My magic pulsed violently, loosening my grip on the bow, but still I would not lower it. The trees around me whirled as my view distorted, darkness crept in at the corner of my vision.
Lioran’s hand lifted—he tried to call his magic again. The string of the bow rubbed my cheek raw as it hovered against my skin.
The creature darted for Lioran. I froze. Inky smoke engulfed him—I couldn’t see him anymore.
I wailed, crumpling in the saddle—my sobs echoing in the Grove.
“I’m fine!” he yelled. Dust settled back into fallen ash.
“I don’t… understand.” Cora pulled her horse up behind Gaia. “What does it want from us?”
“You don’t know?” Fyn settled back in his saddle.
My chest convulsed. The air was too heavy to breathe.
“It’s thriving off fear, uncertainty…We need to keep calm,” Cora warned.
“What if that’s what it wants?” I asked.
My breath stilled—what if it only wants us to question what’s real and what isn’t? If we grew confident that each threat would resolve without harm, then it could break us with something unexpected—something we wouldn’t defend ourselves from.
“We need to keep going.” Lioran’s voice quaked.
“We have to trust what we know to be true—trust ourselves. Nothing else matters.” Cora’s voice shook with each word she spoke.
Veylar fell back beside Gaia. Lioran’s eyes met mine. His hand gripped mine, bringing them to his lip. “We will make it through this. We’re going home.”
After all I had seen, I didn’t know if I could believe it. Each of the Grove’s threats were cruel—they made my fear run deeper. It wouldn’t have to try much harder to break me.
I was already cracking.
I mirrored Lioran’s breath, trying to keep steady on Gaia—so I wouldn’t faint. I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t find the words for the threat looming over me. His hand tightened on mine.
“I’ve got you, my love.” He knew. My words weren’t needed, Lioran sensed whenever I was fading—when I couldn’t control each breath.
“Breathe, Aelira. Just breathe.”
My chest rose slowly. I quaked as I exhaled.
“What if we don’t even make it to the tree?” I asked.
“Aelira, look at me,” he commanded. “Remember when you told me you were picturing our future?” He struggled to say the words. “Keep picturing it. That is what we are fighting for. Someday we will have it…all of it, but I need you to hold on. No matter what happens. So you can live it with me.”
I nodded, as the tears fell. He leaned in his saddle toward me, wiping them away.
“I’m here with you. Until the end. And even then, I will find you again.” He spun the ring on my finger until the emerald faced me.