30.

  Faelwen

  Morning came slowly, brushing the edges of the world in pale gold behind grey clouds. The rain had finally eased sometime during the night, leaving behind a hush of damp earth and trembling leaves. The air smelling of wet, damp earth. My muscles ached from the cold, and my bones still carried the echo of the soul wandering.

  I noticed the pain in my stomach was quieter now, dulled to a low hum instead of that molten agony. Relief washed over me.

  I shifted, blinking through the remnants of sleep, and my eyes fell on Ash and Spook curled together near the dying fire. In sleep, they looked so peaceful. Over the past few weeks, the walls between them had softened, shared danger forging an unlikely bond. The sight drew a quiet smile from me.

  A low rumble of movement drew my attention just in time to see Artemis padding into the room, fur damp, muzzle streaked with dew. He carried a hare between his jaws and dropped it squarely onto my lap with all the pride of a conqueror. Then he sat, tail thumping once against the floor.

  I caught a hare, his voice rippled through my thoughts, bright and proud. I laughed, the sound startling in the still morning air.

  “Good job, buddy. I didn’t think there were still creatures brave enough to wander through this wasteland.”

  Exactly, he replied, eyes glinting with renewed self-confidence. Now you can cook it.

  I shook my head, still smiling. “Fine, fine.” I reached for the skinning knife and set to work, my fingers moving with practiced ease. There was something comforting doing such a mundane job. As if you slowed down for a moment. No chaos in your mind. No stress.

  Soon the scent of meat and herbs began to fill the chill air. We alle needed something warm before facing the road again.

  The Temple of Herdus lay ahead, and though I’d tried to push it from my mind, the memory of the drake’s shadow from the past days lingered. There would others, I knew. The thought made my stomach tighten again.

  You think we should leave the horses? I sent the thought toward Artemis. if we travel on foot, we’ll be harder to track. That way we can be stealthier.

  He tilted his head, studying the boys as they slept, then leaned forward to lick Spook’s face. Spook groaned and shoved at him.

  The horses are faster, Artemis countered, dodging Spook’s hand. If another drake finds us, we’ll need them to flee.

  “Ugh gross,” Spook muttered, sitting up and wiping his cheek. His movement stirred Ash, who blinked awake just as their eyes met. For a heartbeat they both froze, then Ash quickly turned away, clearing his throat and putting distance between them.

  “If you wanted to cuddle, you could’ve just asked,” Spook teased, a grin curling across his face.

  “Shut up,” Ash growled, glaring into the fire as if it might spare him from further humiliation.

  “Grumpy puss,” Spook murmured under his breath before dragging himself toward me. I couldn’t help the laugh that slipped out, quiet, genuine and much-needed.

  After a warm meal, we set out into the cold night once more. The air bit our cheeks and the wind howled across the open fields, but we’d agreed to leave the horses behind. On foot, we could melt into the shadows when danger came too close. Hide in the small forests or the underbrush of the dunes.

  The main roads crawled with the Fiend’s armies, their moans and screams vibrating the air, so we kept to the narrow trails through clusters of trees and forgotten paths that smelled of salt and pine.

  By day, we walked in silence save for Artemis’s constant stream of complaints. Too few breaks. Too little food. Too much walking.

  He longed for a hot meal and a warm bath, simple luxuries the world no longer offered. By night, we huddled together in abandoned sheds or under the starlight, not daring to light a fire. The rhythm of the days blurred together, walk, rest, wake, and walk again until the sun lowered.

  We walked over the dunes till the edge of the sea came into view. The ocean was a ghost of a memory: the smell of salt, the distant cry of gulls, the steady heartbeat of waves against the shore. It carried me back to gentler days, running barefoot through the surf with my parents and Mira, laughing as the tide chased our ankles. We built castles and destroyed them, swam until the cold numbed our lips. The scent of the sea had always felt like freedom.

  Now walking along the dunes, I felt that pull again. To run, to sail, to disappear. To leave behind all the loss and the burden that bound me here. Start anew.

  But I knew I couldn’t.

  By the third night, the dunes offered our only shelter. The sky was mercifully clear, but the cold bit deep. Thankfully the past two days the clouds held in their tears. But that didn’t stop Spook from complaining. He cursed the sand under his breath, brushing at his clothes with growing irritation.

  “I despise sand,” he muttered darkly. “I hated it in Zan’kareth, and now I despise it even more.”

  Artemis shook himself violently, sending a spray of sand through the air.

  “Hey!” Spook shielded his eyes.

  “I don’t like being in the open,” Ash murmured, scanning the dark horizon. “No cover. If the drakes come…”

  “It’s one night,” I interrupted gently. “Tomorrow, we’ll reach the Temple of Herdus.”

  He didn’t look convinced. His worry hung heavy, pressing against the edges of my patience until my thoughts began to dull under the weight of exhaustion.

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  “I’ll be back,” I said finally, and walked toward the shoreline. Artemis followed, silent as a shadow.

  The sea stretched before us, vast and alive, its waves brushing softly against my boots and his paws. The last light of the day scattered across the water, painting the surface with shards of gold and ember-red.

  Each wave seemed to take a piece of my weariness with it, washing the heaviness from my chest. Looking out over the endless sea had a calming effect. I couldn’t quite explain why. Maybe Nendir was granting me a moment of peace. A breath between battles.

  What would it be like to leave it all behind? To sail into that endless horizon and start anew? I wondered.

  “It often seems like the best choice,” a voice said beside me as if he’d read my thoughts. I turned, startled. Spook stood there, hands tucked in his pockets, his expression quiet and faraway. His voice carried the same calm, wry edge I’d first heard in that tavern in Westray.

  “To leave everything and begin again,” he continued. “It feels like freedom.”

  “And yet, I assume you think it isn’t,” I said, watching the light fade from the waves. He glanced down at me, his blue eyes catching the sea’s reflection.

  “My parents thought so. Leaving Veridia was supposed to save them. us. But it was harder here. Building a new life with nothing but the clothes on your back.”

  “I knew you weren’t born here, but you never told me where you were actually from,” I smiled faintly. “But you’re right. Running doesn’t always solve your problems. Sometimes it just creates new ones.”

  He smiled then, a small, weary smile.

  “We’ll make it through this, little fox. And when it’s done, we’ll find a place to rest. A quiet one.”

  “Settle down?” I teased. He tilted his head, smirking. “You think I’m going back to the Basilisk after all this? Gods, no. I’ll buy a small cottage house on the edge of the woods and live my life in quiet peace.”

  “That sounds nice. I might do the same.” I smiled. “I know I’ve said it before,” I lowered my voice, “but I’m glad you came with me, Spook. I’d like you to stay in my life.”

  He stepped closer, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. I leaned into him, the warmth of his coat and the steady rhythm of his breath grounding me. Together, we watched the stars bloom over the sea. Silent, endless, and achingly beautiful.

  ? ? ?

  An ear-shattering growl tore through the night, shaking me awake. The ground shuddered as a drake slammed down only a few feet away. Wings snapping open like storm-forged banners, eyes burning with molten rage. We were on our feet in an instant. Magic cracked in the air, wild and desperate, as I summoned a shield of light.

  Fire erupted from the creature’s outstretched maw, blazing over us in a river of flame that hissed and curled against my barrier. Heat licked at my cheeks. Ash, Spook and Artemis huddled close behind me, their silhouettes flickering in the searing glow.

  “Run!” I shouted through clenched teeth, my arms trembling with the strain.

  “I won’t leave you!” Ash’s voice snarled beside me, dark with defiance.

  “RUN!” I commanded again. For a heartbeat our eyes clashed. A flash of lightning between storm and flame, before Spook seized him by the collar and dragged him back. Artemis bounded after them.

  They reached the top of the dune just as Ash turned, raising his hands. The air trembled and dark words reached my ears. Black veins crawled across his skin as forbidden power coursed through him. The drake froze mid-lunge, wings twitching as the paralysis clawed its way through its body. For one breathless moment, Ash looked like something ancient. Terrible and beautiful.

  Then the spell cracked.

  “Ash!” I tore across the sand toward them as the beast roared free behind me.

  “Split up!” Spook barked, veering left with Artemis at his heels. Ash and I darted right. The drake hesitated, then lunged after Spook. It landed before them with a ground-splitting crash.

  “BUDDY!” My scream tore from my chest as I faltered, the world narrowing to the sight of Artemis and the monster. Artemis didn’t hesitate.

  He leapt, slashing at the creature’s exposed underbelly, his fangs glinting silver in the dawn light. The drake howled in rage.

  Spook darted in, a flash of steel, his daggers striking with deadly precision. Ash’s voice rose again, weaving dark syllables through the air; the drake stiffened, muscles locking in place.

  I tore the bow from my shoulder. The string pulled tight until the feathers of the arrow brushed my cheek. Magic flooded through me and the arrow shimmered blue-white as I loosed it. It screamed through the air and buried itself in the drake’s eye. Frost exploded outward, freezing scale and sinew in an instant. The beast reared back, screaming and its tail swept wide. It struck Artemis.

  The impact cracked like thunder. He was thrown aside, limp, a trail of sand scattering in his wake.

  Something inside me broke. A knife of pain lanced through my chest, raw and absolute.

  Buddy?

  Silence. No voice. No bond. Nothing but the echo of his absence. The world blurred. I ran before I even realized it, Ash’s shout lost to the roaring wind and the drake’s roar.

  Spook danced around the creature’s snapping jaws as I dropped to my knees beside Artemis. His body lay still… too still. His grey fur matted with blood. My shaking hands searched for a heartbeat and found none.

  “No…” My whisper fractured. Horses thundered in the distance. Voices shouted in a language I didn’t know. Arrows whistled overhead, but the world had already narrowed to a single point. Him.

  My companion. My soul’s shadow. The one being who had never left my side.

  I pressed both hands to his chest and closed my eyes. Let the magic come to you. Aeon Tempus’s words surfaced like a distant echo through the fog of desperation.

  So I waited, though my heart screamed to hurry, until I felt it: a flicker. The Weave stirring beneath my palms. The air shimmering with faint, old magic.

  Magic coiled around me like water, rippling through the ground and the sky. I became its vessel, a bridge between this world and the hidden one. The energy poured through me, searing and cold all at once, tracing the broken lines of Artemis’s body. I found the fractured bones, the fading heartbeat, the slowing flow of blood. Carefully, reverently, I wove the light through him. Mending, binding and restoring him.

  Each pulse of magic felt like it cost me a breath of my own life, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t.

  And then…

  I’m here, little one.

  His voice brushed through my mind, soft and steady. Tears burned behind my eyes as I cut off the flow of magic and opened them. Two golden eyes met mine, dulled by pain but alive. A sob broke from my throat as I pulled him close, burying my face in his fur. His heartbeat thrummed against my cheek. Steady, real, there.

  I’m here, he said again and I wept harder. The world around us came rushing back. The dying cries of the drake, the clash of foreign voices, the sound of victory and loss all at once. Then a dark shadow fell over me. Hands gripped my shoulders and yanked me back.

  “What in the hell were you thinking, Faelwen!?”

  Ash’s voice cut through the haze, sharp furious and trembling. I looked up at him. His eyes blazed, but beneath the anger I saw the terror he felt of almost losing me. “You could’ve died!” he shouted. “This was reckless!”

  “I know.” My voice came out soft, hoarse. I reached up and brushed my fingers along his cheek. “I know it was reckless. But if it had been me lying here instead, would you not have done the same?”

  He didn’t answer. Knowing damn well he would have, but too stubborn to admit it. His jaw clenched, the fury in his gaze faltering.

  “Is he alive?!” Spook’s voice cracked as he dropped to his knees beside us.

  “Yes,” I answered. Relief washed through me as Artemis gave a weak growl, and Spook gathered him into his arms.

  “You stupid wolf,” he whispered, pressing his forehead against Artemis’s. “I told you to stay close to me.”

  A low, warning rumble was the wolf’s only reply. That’s when one of the strangers approached. Tall, broad-shouldered, his amour battered and marked with the emblem of a golden sun entwined with a star on a red background. His helm shadowed half his face.

  “Khe Du ?l?” he asked, his voice thick with accent.

  “Ethilorians,” Spook murmured, before switching tongues with surprising ease. The exchange was short as he probably didn’t know many words.

  When the man understood, his eyes widened. Switching to broken common, he said, “I am Lieutenant Ivor. We bring you to High King. We need stones to fight Fiend.”

  The world still swayed around me, exhaustion settling deep into my bones, but I nodded.

  We followed Ivor to the waiting riders, Spook carrying Artemis, Ash keeping close to my side. The wind smelled of smoke and blood as we mounted the Ethilorian horses. And beneath the bruised dawn, we rode toward the heart of the war.