Chapter Thirty-Nine
Maxim
The vampyrs are following me, and this time, I can’t use my fire against them.
But that isn’t my only problem.
As I push myself to move faster across the rocky ground on the southern side of the bloodlands, the pull in the other direction—the pull toward Thyra—is fucking unbearable.
At the corner of my eye, I imagine I can still see the thread that connects me to her, its power stronger with every passing minute.
Until I deliver Aeliana Vividari to my people, I can’t resume my pursuit of Thyra.
Antony’s eagle, the giant blue beast named Azul, follows me from a distance, keeping himself to my left.
In the opposite direction are the vampyrs, creeping more quickly after me and now gaining on me.
The barren landscape has cooled after I turned parts of it to lava last night, only a faint glow brightening the sky in the distance. Not nearly hot enough to deter any vampyr now.
It seems the dark creatures have realized I’m fighting my flames, determined to subdue my fire, even if they won’t realize it’s because I can’t risk burning the woman I’m carrying.
Aeliana is breathing steadily but hasn’t otherwise stirred within the dragon’s hide. Not that I thought she’d wake up.
As far as I’d heard, she died seventeen years ago when a vampyr tore the Vividari tribe apart. The last thing I expected, when I ran into that tunnel in the bloodlands, was to find her curled up against the side of the tunnel wall.
The look on Antony’s face when he realized I was holding his mother…
Fuck, it was painful to see.
I don’t doubt his determination to keep her safe. The same way he was protective of Thyra, doubting my ability to keep my fire under control if I were to seize her.
He’s right.
This fucking curse has a hold of me.
I’m living by luck, every breath threatening to burn to ash what I’m desperate to keep alive.
Right now, Aeliana’s starlight strikes across the rocky ground on my right, her brightness shining from the open end of the dragon’s hide.
I can’t carry her over my shoulder—which would allow me to break into a run—because I can’t risk even a strand of her hair coming into contact with some part of my back and catching fire.
I also can’t close up the hide completely because she needs to breathe.
If she were conscious, it wouldn’t be a problem. She could walk on her own, and I could shield her with the hide if needed.
As her starlight cuts back and forth across the ground, sudden shrieks break the heavy quiet. The putrid scent of scorched flesh tells me some of the vampyrs must have gotten too close to the light.
The fucking things are gaining on me.
I bare my teeth and push myself to go even faster.
The bottleneck where the darkness narrows is straight ahead.
But now a shape moves within it.
Pulling to an abrupt halt, I narrow my eyes, trying to see through this darkness that renders me close to blind.
A sudden blast of fire bursts across my view. A distinctive crimson color.
Kaiba!
A moment later, my cousin swoops across the air only twenty paces in front of me, riding his golden serpent. Another serpent soars through the air behind him but comes from the other side of the darkness.
I can’t stop my grin.
They’re cutting from one side of the narrow pass to the other, coming in from both sides of it, burning anything in their path before swooping back out.
Clever, but I don’t think they’ve seen me.
Like me, they’ll struggle to see in the dark, needing to focus on the path of their flames and the circles of light they can create.
I crouch low, plagued by the reality of my situation.
I can’t reveal that I have the dragon’s hide.
I promised Ortansia, the leader of the Tol-Dakri warrior tribe from whom I took the hide, that I would keep my possession of it a secret.
The only reason she handed it over without a fight was because I assured her that her tribe wouldn’t know the hide was missing.
I can’t risk angering Ortansia or her tribe.
But I also can’t risk touching Aeliana without the protective shield.
Dammit, but unless I want to roll Aeliana out of the hide and leave her lying on the rocky ground—while I back the fuck away from her as quickly as I can—I’m going to have to reveal to Kaiba that I have the hide.
Hell, Antony knows about it, and he’s my enemy. I should be able to trust my cousin, who has proven himself to be loyal to me.
Remaining crouched and conscious of the vampyrs swarming at my back, I raise my voice. “Kaiba!”
His flames flare a moment later, cutting across the ground not two paces ahead of me as he soars back into view.
It’s a damn good thing I didn’t place Aeliana on the ground, after all.
Kaiba’s golden serpent slides to the ground a moment later, its form barely distinguishable in the darkness as his flames die. The final flickers of his fire reveal his sharp focus on the vampyrs behind me.
When I saw him yesterday, his arms were shaking with exhaustion from fighting the vampyr swarm and his clothing was scorched and torn, the damage to the fire-resistant material a testament to how hot his flames were burning.
Today, his dark-brown eyes are bright, and he wears fresh clothing, his mask and hood both pulled back to expose his face.
“Cousin!” he shouts before raising to his lips the horn he carries at his waist and uses to communicate with our warriors.
With several short bursts of sound, he sends them a signal to stay where they are.
Kaiba is one of only two Ember Fae who are brave enough to approach me.
As Kaiba leaps to the ground, fire flickering around his hands and lighting up his form again, his serpent hurries back into the air, smartly removing himself from my presence.
Carefully, I place Aeliana on the ground, still fully wrapped.
“Cousin?” Kaiba’s footsteps slow, even more cautious now. “What is that?”
Rising to my feet, I back away from Aeliana, fighting the clench of my jaw.
It’s driving me fucking crazy that I’m a threat to both her and Kaiba, and yet my enemy—Antony—can stand in my presence without fear of death.
A cruel twist of fate.
“Douse your flames,” I say to Kaiba. “This woman must not be harmed.”
Kaiba bends carefully, his voice hushed, but the glow of starlight becomes stronger when his flames disappear. “This is a dragon’s hide.” His focus snaps up to me. “A Tol-Dakri legend. How did you get this?”
“It’s better I don’t tell you, cousin. Once you take hold of the fae concealed within this hide, place the hide back on the ground. I need to take it with me.”
As Kaiba reaches for the edge of the dragon’s hide, which is currently tucked beneath Aeliana’s back, the glow from her starlight casts across his face.
He blinks rapidly, his jaw dropping again. “This light…”
Slowly, he opens the hide.
Starlight streams from beneath the covering so bright that Kaiba flinches, then freezes, one hand gripping the hide, the other hovering within the light. “This is Aeliana Vividari.”
The fact that he recognizes her speaks volumes.
I wasn’t lying to Antony when I insisted I’d seen Aeliana meeting secretly with my aunt when I was a boy.
The two women greeted each other like friends.
Worried friends. Their expressions drawn and tense, their furtive glances and whispered conversation telling me they feared being seen together. And overheard.
If I had more time, I would grill Kaiba on what he might know about Aeliana and why she met his mother in secret all those years ago.
Instead, all I reply is, “None other.”
Kaiba’s eyes are wide. “Where did you find her?”
“In the bloodlands,” I say. “Hidden in a tunnel deep in a mountain. I don’t know how long she was there, how she survived, or what caused this hibernation state she’s in.”
“She’s our salvation from this darkness.
” Kaiba exhales heavily as he leans back on his heels, seeming to indulge in a moment of relief before he focuses again.
“I have to get her to my mother as quickly as possible. Or bring my mother to Aeliana. Whatever might have caused Aeliana’s condition, we need her to survive. ”
If I could safely rest my hand on my cousin’s shoulder, I would. He knows what to do, and I trust him to get it done.
But first, a new danger.
“Get her away from me as quickly as possible.” I back away as I speak, unwanted fire flickering around my fingertips, a rush of flames triggered by the scent of scorched vampyr blood.
Instead of obeying me, Kaiba slowly replaces the dragon’s skin over Aeliana.
I’m wary of his uncharacteristic rebellion. “Kaiba?”
“You’re going after the Oracle.”
Four days ago, when I first learned of Thyra’s whereabouts, I swore the warriors I took with me to secrecy. But her presence in the Iron Kingdom has undoubtedly become common knowledge.
I guess there’s no point in denying it.
“I am.”
Kaiba raises his gaze to mine as he says, “I understand how important she is, but we need you here, Maxim.”
My scowl is instant. “You need me far away from the living.”
“Not true.” Kaiba shakes his head emphatically. “The Iron Fae we captured… His name is Riven. He delivered alarming news.”
I didn’t know the prisoner’s name until this moment, but I gave Antony my word I’d keep him safe and unharmed.
“What news?”
“Riven told us that right before the darkness hit the tower he was guarding, an Iron Fae assassin arrived. One of his own people. Riven came upon him murdering one of his comrades, for which Riven took quick revenge.”
The back of my neck prickles. I witnessed a similar murder on my way through the bloodlands.
“Before the assassin died, he gleefully volunteered that he was sent by Antony’s youngest brother, Hadrian.”
I nod. “Hadrian controls iron dust.”
Kaiba jolts. “You knew?”
“Only since last night.” I scratch my chin in thought. “So Hadrian is taking out as many of his brother’s loyal soldiers as he can.”
No doubt sending assassins to each of the Iron Towers.
“I may not give a fuck about Iron Fae,” Kaiba says, his voice becoming a snarl, “but if iron dust were to get into the sand, we’d never get it out.
It would swirl in the hot breezes. It would spread across Ember.
You may have a chance of burning any iron that might enter your lungs, but we don’t.
Our people would choke on it, Maxim. They’d bleed from the inside out. Our land would run with blood.”
He’s on his feet now, his impassioned speech hitting me hard, but not only because of the horrific possibilities he’s describing.
Iron dust and blood.
Four days ago, Thyra told me to wait.
She instructed me when to come for her. At the time, I didn’t understand the events she was describing, but one part of her command was clear: I was to come for her then and not before.
“Fuck.” I jolt as the memory of her voice echoes back to me.
Come for me when the sun turns bitterly cold, and the sand bleeds iron. Come for me only then. Not before.
She wasn’t stalling.
She was warning me.
Four days ago.
I’ve had four fucking days to figure out the riddle in her words, and instead, I spent that time defying her. Chasing after her. Obsessed with taking control of her.
When the sand bleeds iron.
“Every granule would become toxic.” I can’t stop the dangerous surge of my fierce fire, triggered by my fury that a horror like that could become possible.
Hadrian could attack at any point along the wide border between Iron and Ember. He could attack many points at once.
I don’t know what Thyra meant when she spoke of the sun turning cold. That would seem an impossibility in the Ember Kingdom. But the second part of her warning is now very fucking clear to me.
I can’t abandon my people. Not if my fire could be the defense they need.
Just as Aeliana Vividari can beat back the darkness, I can burn iron.
What’s more, if I stay, I can be true to my promise to Antony. I can hunt the traveler named Stanimir. I can help keep Thyra alive from afar.
As I make my decision, I seek the giant eagle Azul, who has been quietly following me, staying far enough behind me that he could escape my flames.
He’s gone. I’m not sure when he left or where he will have flown to. Certainly, he would not be welcomed into the Ember Kingdom and now that Hadrian has taken control of the Iron Kingdom, the bird will be in danger if he’s seen there, too.
Well, he is not my concern.
My focus must be on my people.
Gritting my teeth, I tell myself to wait. Wait for Thyra.
Denying the pull to the north and battling my every instinct to go after her, I say to Kaiba, “I won’t leave you. But I can’t endanger you, either. I’m still a threat—”
“Not with the dragon’s hide, you aren’t.”
Damn.
But to use the dragon’s hide openly, I’ll have to break my promise to Ortansia.
If I’m not careful, fighting one war could mean starting another.