Epilogue
Alora
Anguish, the kind that makes your marrow feel dried up from the loss of something so significant, scars my soul.
I didn’t realize in the beginning that emptiness could turn into another thing entirely, but eventually it did. Like a serpent, snaking along the edges of darkness, a malevolent desire began to slither within me.
Vengeance. Where I once desired justice for the atrocities inflicted by King Euron, now I just wanted to see him suffer like he’s caused me to do.
A chilled breath escapes my lips as I sigh, looking down the barren canyon.
We fled north, farther than even The Siltar Woods because River’s End wasn’t the fortress we had believed it to be.
The Hidden hadn’t been who I had hoped them to be.
Betrayal worms its way through my memories. They’re now stained from when the others had turned their back on me, unwilling to follow me to save him.
I dare not speak his name even now for fear that it would sever me from this realm because of the aching in my bones that screams for him, even now.
Movement in the distance catches my eye as I watch a small group on horseback make the trek up the steep trail that’s dusted in white tears from the heavens.
Frost nips my fingers as I roll the leather of Dahla’s reins between my forefinger and thumb.
I inhale deeply until my lungs burn from the freezing temperatures and hold.
Rune, Caym, and Leeson will be here shortly with the others.
Some of us stayed to fight and disembowel the rule that would collar us.
But for now, I settle my gaze on the wall of storm clouds that surround us in a bowl.
Once we passed into the ancient lands of oracles, nature had taken us this far, herding us towards whatever beckoned.
I tried to send Oak away, to save her from these chilling temperatures, but she was unrelenting until she was allowed to join me.
Her nearby cry trills into my ears and I turn my head to see her perched on a giant branch covered in snow as white as her fluffy feathers.
I focus on the expanse of land behind me and can’t help but feel in my soul that something comes.
A strange feeling washes over me as I look to the north.
A caress in the depths of my mind, like phantom fingers tracing my jawline.
Kassiel.