Chapter Forty
Iwas nothing, and it was bliss.
I had a vague recollection of Matea wielding us away—away from Byn, and away from Dimitri.
I could still feel the strain on my zirilium—the shocking amount of power I was utilizing, of which I didn’t even know I had possessed.
Though after the darkness embraced me, my body didn’t feel as though the very fibers of my being were ripping apart.
It was a small, quick reprieve—before Matea let go of the shadows that had been holding us so gently.
And the agonizing pain returned, flooding each of my senses.
I fell to my knees instantly, unable to hold myself upright as I kept my fists clenched tight.
“Viva, let go!” Matea said, kneeling before me.
I managed to just barely shake my head in response.
“Dimitri is about to retreat, I promise. Let go,” she tried again.
But for all I knew, that was what Dimi wanted us to think.
So instead, I held on.
I heard Matea curse before she wrapped her arms around my shaking body, holding me.
It was all she could offer, and I couldn’t have been more appreciative.
Moments passed before the word retreat spread across the battlefield like a wildfire.
And then, one by one, I could feel the weather wielders I’d been grappling with slowly let go of their hold on their zirilium.
The storm overhead, which had been frozen in time, slowly dissipated as each wielder turned from their task in order to retreat.
With each wielder that stopped fighting my efforts, a small wave of relief was reintroduced to my body.
With each wave, I became more and more aware of my body once again.
Now, I could feel the sweat coating my skin, the pressure and ache of my muscles, and the way I was shaking.
And as the last of the weather wielders let go, the hold I’d been keeping on my zirilium went out like a doused torch.
I collapsed into Matea’s embrace, breathing heavier than ever before.
My hands felt numb from the strain of holding back so much power, and the reserve I’d dug my zirilium out of felt like a dried-up well in my core.
I was so focused on what I felt lacking, though, that I barely felt Byn approaching.
“Avi,” I heard. Then he was all I could focus on as his pride, his awe, his amazement washed over me—through me.
And he was feeling all of that about me, I realized with a start.
In the beat of a wing, I was passed from Matea’s arms to Byn’s as he murmured sweet encouragements to me.
I may have been across the border from Cairnyl and no longer welcome in Hollis, but in that moment—there in his arms—I knew I was home.
“Talk to me, my love. Are you alright?” Byn said, drawing back and cupping my face in his hands.
Peeling my eyes open, I was met with the forest green of his—and the immense concern and anxiety there.
Simply to ease his mind, I nodded, though when his brow quirked, I could tell he didn’t believe me.
“Find Chess,” Byn instructed Matea, only taking his gaze off mine for a few seconds.
Without arguing or objecting, I felt more than saw Matea dissipate into shadow and depart toward the forest.
Once we were alone, Byn brought his forehead to mine, his expression still etched in worry.
“What were you thinking?” he asked.
“I couldn’t let them gain the upper hand—especially not before the navy arrived,” I said slowly, my breathing still heavy.
“You’re going to be the death of me,” he murmured, pressing a gentle kiss to my forehead as I felt Matea quickly approaching with another energy.
Matea and Chess slipped out of the darkness, the trokav not at all affected as Laurence had been by traveling through the shadows.
Byn shifted to be at my side as Chess did a quick examination of me, checking things like my heartbeat, my eyes, my breathing, and my limbs for any major causes of concern.
When he didn’t find anything immediately wrong, but still saw my weakened state, he started piecing things together.
“This isn’t physical. She used up a ton of her zirilium, didn’t she?” Chess began sifting through his different pouches attached to his belt and on a strap across his chest, obviously looking for something.
“To put it simply, yes,” Byn answered for me.
“To put it not so simply, she’s the reason the storm ceased during the battle,” Matea added. “The Battle of No Rain.”
“That was Viva?” Chess asked, obviously shocked.
“I’m right here, you know,” I said, trying to put a sarcastic tone to it, though it seemed to fall short.
After another moment of Chess double checking his pouches, he finally yanked a tiny vial out of one on his hip. “Found it!” he exclaimed, then popped off the top and held it out toward Byn and me. “Here, have her take this. It’ll restore most of the energy she used to hold back the storm.”
As my husband brought the open vial to my lips, I nearly cringed away from the smell—then fully cringed at the taste as the liquid coated my tongue. It tasted like somebody had tried to make mud pies into a real thing—in liquid form.
Nonetheless, I’d taken worse elixirs in my lifetime, so I forced myself to swallow every last drop.
I could feel the liquid settling in my stomach, almost instantly getting to work.
The elixir quickly began to fill in that spot deep within myself where I’d clawed out the energy I needed to hold on to the storm and bend it to my will.
But not only did it seem to re-energize my zirilium, it seemed to soothe my aching body to a degree, too.
My muscles didn’t feel as though they’d been shredded any longer.
Inhaling deeply, I felt like I had finally caught my breath.
I looked at Chess in awe, placing a hand on his arm. “Thank you.”
“Happy to help.” Chess smiled and dipped his head.
With Byn’s attentive assistance, I carefully got to my own two feet again. I stretched my limbs, then my wings, grounding myself in the feeling of my body. As I was pulling my wings back in, I felt through the earth below a large creature sprinting toward us from the direction of the battlefield.
Within seconds, Lychen came bounding out from the edges of the ruined wall, passing by countless Southerners and navy members celebrating our victory. Though it had felt to me like the battle lasted for some agonizing days, to my surprise, it was only late in the morning.
When Lychen grew near, Teagan slid off the wolf’s back, followed by Quinn. And out of Lychen’s shadow appeared Rayven and Laurence.
Almost the entire Valwain was present—all except for Ezra.
I could see the panic creeping onto Quinn’s features, though Chess seemed to notice first.
“He’s helping my trokavs wrap and bind any wounds that are still bleeding,” he explained, motioning toward the forest behind us where the trokavs had been set up.
Relief washed over her expression, and she nodded once in thanks before getting down to business.
“We have minimal casualties—due to how short the battle was, and due to them not having the storm on their side,” Quinn reported.
“I’d imagine the same sort of news on the North’s side.
It was more so the prisoners that took the brunt of it all.
Though, once the North retreated, they finally got brave enough to tell us why—the lives of the females and children were on the line.
The prisoners that died did so with honor. ”
“Did they find—” Byn began asking, only for Quinn to finish his sentence.
“The females and children? Yes, they had been taken up into the mountain where they, along with the males, have been forced to mine for alychite and other minerals each day, dawn to dusk.”
Byn nodded, though his expression shifted from reassured to concerned within a few seconds.
“This doesn’t end here, Valwain.” He looked around at each of us.
“Dimitri will only become more determined, more dangerous. If we ever want to truly end this war, we’ll have to get two steps ahead of him.
We need to think wisely about our next moves. ”
“I… I might have an idea, but it’s quite a stretch,” I warned.
“Let’s hear it,” Teagan pitched in, and I noticed as she motioned for me to continue, there was a long slice down her forearm, still bleeding. Chess must have not noticed yet, or he’d have already patched the princess up.
“I think we should—” I quickly cut myself off as a blur of black feathers caught my eye from afar.
I gasped, realizing that despite everything else we were juggling, I’d made a promise to a stranger—to Valenia.
“We’ll be right back,” I said to the Valwain, taking hold of Byn’s hand and shadow wielding us in the direction of the black feathers.
My wielding felt a bit sluggish, causing us to move slower than I’d have liked.
I nearly lost sight of the blur of black, but I moved just fast enough to keep him in my sights.
He crossed through the hole of the wall, where the navy—which seemed to be full of kind-hearted fae despite their profession—was guiding the prisoners out of the encampment.
Some fell to their knees when they made it past the wall, as they’d never been beyond the confines of this place until that moment.
Breezing passed one of those kneeling fae, I shed the shadows that were carrying us as we finally caught up to the one I’d been after.
“Kaison!” I called out toward the young male, who was a few strides ahead of Byn and me.
He came to a stop, turning around slowly.
His frame was much too small for a fledgling of his age—ten, if I remembered correctly.
His dark hair was limp and his clothes were barely more than rags hanging onto his pale, too-thin form.
He’d most definitely lost weight since whenever the portrait of him had been painted, though it was still him standing before me.
“How do you know my name?” he asked hesitantly, his gaze shifting from me then to Byn, and then back to me. Even his voice sounded weaker than I imagined it should have.
I slowly dropped into a crouch as I pulled the portrait Valenia had given me out of my pocket. It had become slightly crumpled at the edges, but it remained whole as I unfolded it and held it out towards him.
“Your aunt sent me,” I said gently as he drew near and took the picture from my grasp. “Her name is Valenia, right?”
His head snapped up at the mention of her name, as though beyond surprised. Then he nodded.
“She… she really sent you? Is she here?” Kai began to look around.
“It’s just us, sweetheart,” I said softly. “My name is Aviva, and this is my husband, Robyn. Your aunt asked us to keep an eye on you for her—just until she can come for you.”
“Aviva as in the Princess of the North? I heard you were taken by the South, and yet…” His gaze slid to Byn, who had crouched down next to me.
“I promise, there’s much more to the story than what you’ve heard,” Byn reassured him.
Kai nodded, though he had a curious glint in his eyes.
“Would you do me a favor, Kai?” I asked him, drawing his attention back to me.
“Of course,” he responded.
“Would you be willing to come with us so I can uphold the promise I made to your aunt to keep you safe? And I promise—you will be safe.” I held out my hand toward him, palm up.
The fledgling paused for a moment, contemplating. I watched as he looked down at the portrait in his hand, his younger self staring up at him.
“Auntie Val always said names were important. That you can’t give somebody your full name unless you trust them,” Kai said, shifting his gaze toward me. “But she gave you her name. And if she trusts you, then I trust you, too. So… yes, I’ll go with you.”
I smiled as he placed his hand into mine and handed the portrait back. I slipped it back into my pocket as I lightly gripped the young male’s hand.
“You won’t regret this, I promise,” I assured him.
“I know,” Kai said matter-of-factly.
I felt Byn’s warmth in my own chest as I reached for his hand with my spare one. Walking back in the direction of the Valwain, Byn finally asked what I knew he’d been wondering.
“What was it you were going to say to the group?”
I bit my lip at the question, wondering how stupid of an idea it was. But at least if it was truly that bad, Byn could tell me and save me the embarrassment of presenting the idea to the rest of the Valwain.
I sighed, leaning toward him so Kai couldn’t hear me as I finally said what I’d been considering.
“I think we should visit the humans on the Levast Isles.”