Chapter 25
SORROW
Apologies for the tears. I’m home. This time they allowed me to gather all my children together – under Romero’s watchful gaze, of course.
Gods, I wished I’d been blessed with the power to halt time.
To hold each one, to kiss each forehead and hear each heartbeat.
I don’t know how much longer I can bear this torture.
— LETTERS FROM ISBETH TO RAINE BERNARD, DISGRACED EARL AND LEADER OF THE MIDNIGHT INSURGENCE
Pablo’s jaws crushed the throat of the wind Anomaly with a sickening crunch. They deserved their grisly fate after raising Raine to the treetops moments before.
I cursed at the splintered images, desperate to make some sense of whatever was going on.
Matthias had failed to raise the alarm. Pablo returned to my side, hackles raised as I called the wolves lurking within the woods to our aid.
I didn’t want to think about why Matthias hadn’t warned us.
Part of me clung to the belief he’d fallen asleep.
Messed up. Even that his allegiance to the empress had turned him traitor.
But then another thought wriggled through my mind just as the poison worked through his.
That he was hurt.
That the sickness had overwhelmed him, or he’d been hacked down by a Carushan. That his body lay lifeless on a ledge I couldn’t see.
No, I thought as Pablo answered the howls of the pack bursting through the trees, hauling the empress’s Anomalies to the ground. He can’t be dead. He wouldn’t leave me.
He had far too much to make up for.
A weak wall of fire exploded from an injured Anomaly, forcing the pack to retreat to the tree line, snarling and eager to spill blood. A ribbon of violet slammed into my chest, and I winced.
Death had hit the empress’s camp.
I tamped the threads down, habit lunging to the fore of my mind.
For eight long years, I’d battled their hunger for the fallen.
Despite knowing I’d unfurled their rich plum ribbons on a blood-soaked beach to escape the empress – and my husband – my instinct was to recoil, to hide.
I closed my eyes, inhaled a cooling breath, and allowed them to unspool.
They barrelled into the first corpse they came across – the wind-wielding Anomaly from what I sensed – and I opened my eyes as he rose once more.
Splintered images crashed into my mind. A woman with long blonde hair kisses us, our hand wrapped around a pink chubby fist. We see the tightest little blonde curls and her stomach swollen once more.
A sob caught in our throat. We’d not see them till they cross to the other side to join us. To—
No. I forced myself to the fore. It was I who commanded death.
I turned him, us, to face his comrades, fighting away the images of warm smiles, shared fears over rolled dice.
We smirked as their panic seeped into the air.
We raised our hand and pulled forth a fierce wind, spinning the threads of lemon within our palm.
I sucked in a breath as they spun faster, harder, the other Anomalies bracing their feet as we laughed.
Twigs, leaves, spinning amongst the tempest and, finally, hurled it towards them.
The Anomaly slumped with a sickening thud as the violet ribbons abandoned his spent form.
They hovered, refusing to return to me, desperate to seek out the next corpse.
Fury tore through them as I demanded their return.
My gifts had proved to be unstable and I couldn’t risk them going awry in the heat of battle.
The vision of Mama, her nails bloodied, tearing into Enfys’s terrified face, caught me, stealing my breath and, with a grunt, I called them back.
They slithered towards me. A woman, her severed head barely clinging to her spent form, rose.
She wailed as visions of her final moments swamped me, blood spilling down her body, as the remains of her eyes found Raine.
The one to end her. Us. Stumbling, she lurched.
Staggered as my threads defied me, I cried Raine’s name.
I snarled as the creature beyond my command raised her nails, eager to tear the life from the rebel as they’d claimed hers. I screamed their name into the swirls as she reached out—
An arrow split her remaining eye. She crumbled as the threads heeded me, ire still writhing through them.
They burst into motes of shimmering dust before reforming as, with sweat coating my forehead, I called them home.
Pablo leapt, taking the corpse as Raine turned, their expression lost in the chaos.
‘Sorrow!’
A sob bubbled up my throat at Matthias’s faint voice. The realisation that he lived hit me. Thank Evella. I’d raise him again just to kill him myself if he died on me.
I turned in the direction of his call, but the wind still raged.
I shielded my eyes, blinking against the swirling dust and debris.
My heart jolted as steel crashed and pained cries carried in the air.
The purple slammed angrily against my ribs, raising a few fleeting strands of silver with them and I gasped, tamping them down and shutting the door, trapping them in my core.
Pablo settled beneath my fingers and I curled them against the comfort of his fur, desperate to make out what was going on around me.
‘Where’s my fucking husband?’
I halted, my breath catching as two wolves lowered their heads, snarling at the edge of the valley.
A silver ribbon, tattered and tarnished, slipped free from my core, surging towards the creatures.
The wolves writhed, howling as my ribbon slammed into them, my pulse thundering as I sought control.
Pablo turned towards his snarling brethren and leapt, dragging one down while the other jumped onto his back.
Terror grasped me, before he threw off his attacker.
Raine placed their hand on my arm, and I spun round.
I shook my head, pointing to the beasts Pablo battled.
Raine narrowed their eyes, and I cursed my inability to sign.
They squinted, eyes widening in horror as they spotted bronze eyes glimmering in the dark.
More wolves spilled into the clearing. Wolves who’d heeded my call, but as they padded towards us, their fangs coming into focus, I had no idea who, or what, controlled them.
Raine grabbed me as I cried my husband’s name. If he got caught by those wolves…
A hand slipped into mine, warm and blood slicked. His hair, tangled and damp, fell across his green eyes, his chest heaving. A huge bruise bloomed on his swollen jaw, but still a weak smile trembled on the corner of Matthias’s mouth as his gaze met mine.
‘My gift, Matthias, the wolves. They’re turning on us. There… there may be more. I’m not strong enough.’ His brow furrowed as his smile slipped, bruised jaw set.
He let go, signed frantically at Raine. They signed back and Matthias cried out the warning to retreat, quickly taken up by the other rebels.
He grabbed the leader once more, signed something and Raine recoiled.
The rebels flew into action as we realised the empress’s forces had already retreated.
I cursed. My distraction had given them an excuse.
Reform and take us out. Matthias laced his fingers with mine, tugging and drawing me away.
For a moment, I dug my heels in. Could I even trust him? But then Matthias turned, flashing the smile I craved, and tucked an unruly strand of dark hair behind my ear. Squeezing his strong hand, I gave him a fragment of my faith and allowed him to lead me to safety.
A wolf snarled, his teeth nipping my boots and Pablo turned, his jaws latching onto the wolf’s neck.
Blood spewed down his chest and I screamed Pablo’s name.
A sliver of darkest violet escaped, desperate to claim it.
We had to get away. Another wolf lunged, meeting Pablo’s jaws and let out a pitiful whine as my wolf turned.
This chaos was mine and mine alone. I clutched Matthias’s hand tighter, my lungs burning as we tore across the uneven ground.
He swore as another wolf lunged, whining as the hilt of Matthias’s sword slammed into her skull. ‘They’re everywhere.’
Matthias tugged me towards the trees. What was he thinking? Why go where more wolves hid in the shadows?
‘No.’ A chill raced down my spine.
Matthias gripped my chin, turned me to face him. ‘Do you trust me?’ he asked.
Something shattered in my chest. He swallowed as my hesitation told him more than words could.
‘The wolf then? Do you trust the wolf?’
The distracted wolf tearing out the throats of his kin?
‘Yes, but he…’ Matthias’s eyes darkened and fear prickled across my flesh.
He gripped tighter, and my body tensed. Pablo’s name died on my lips as Matthias dragged me through the swirling darkness.
I glanced at Matthias, my heart stuttering. His gaze roamed my face, a grin hooking up his mouth at my expression and he reached out. I grimaced, my hand knocking his aside. A shiver tore down my spine. My fingers twitched, desperate for the security of Pablo’s fur.
‘We’ve lost everyone,’ I said. ‘Pablo. I need Pab. We should head back.’ A grin, feral and dark, spread like a stain over his face. ‘Matthias…’ I pulled my arm back, but his grip only tightened as he started to take an upwards path. Away from the rebels. Away from everyone.
‘Matthias. Please. Pablo. You know I need—’
‘Ifan’s up there. Sleeping,’ he said.
Ifan? I dug my heels in, a sob catching in my throat. The brothers were working together. They had to be. ‘Mother can help him. I just need to get him to her.’
He was calm. Too calm.
‘Matthias. Stop,’ I snarled. He raised his stubbled chin, refusing to glance my way, his pace increasing on the dusty path. How had it come to this? Would I have to turn my powers on the man I loved?
‘Matthias!’ I screamed his name, my heart splitting as I knew this wasn’t my husband. I dug my pathetic nails into his hand. Cursed him. But the beast leading me to my doom didn’t even look back.