by Everly Frost
He paces directly out to the center of the Lake before he stops and scrutinizes its surface, his expression taking on an intensity that makes me wary. He moved with purpose, as if he has a plan, but I’m not sure what he could intend to do.
He catches my eye. His lips tug upward in a dangerous half-smile. The determined look on his face makes my heart stop flickering.
What is he about to—?
With a roar, he rises up, his halberd gripped in both fists before he crashes down onto one knee, driving the staff onto the surface of the lake.
Light magic blasts across the frozen water in every direction, knocking Evander and me off our feet and driving us back against the marble steps. Our armor protects us from the bone-crunching impact, but it’s not the danger to myself that I’m worried about.
I scramble forward in time to see a giant crack form in the ice, spreading out in both directions from Nathaniel’s position. The earsplitting shriek of breaking ice merges with the reverberating hum of light magic, causing vibrations of power to shoot through me.
In the center of the lake, the ice opens up beneath Nathaniel’s feet.
He plummets from view so quietly that it stops the light within my chest.
I can’t see him. I need to see him.
“Nathaniel!” My body and soul wrench me toward him.
I run, slipping on the frozen surface, skidding, forcing my legs to move. My cold breath rasps in and out of my chest, grating against my throat. I slide the last five feet, hitting the edge of the ice and leaning over it, barely keeping my grip.
A shallow flood of water rushes around the bottom of the frozen chasm, spinning like it always did, while the walls of the valley rise up, jagged on both sides, at least thirty feet deep.
Nathaniel stands in the middle of the chasm. I search for signs of injury, but his shoulders are drawn back, his head and torso upright. His weapon is lodged in the ice wall on his right-hand side at the bottom of a long cut that descends all the way down, as if he plunged the blade into the ice to slow his fall and land safely.
He looks up at me.
His hand rises.
My diamond heart glitters inside his fist.
All sound dies in my throat. Even from this height, his dark gaze can burn right through me.
Without hesitation, he removes the daggers from the front of his harness, bends to the water at his feet, and drives the blades one after the other into the bottom of the lake. They form a circle right where I imagine my heart used to rest.
Then he unbuckles his harness underneath his pelt and repositions the straps so that they wrap around the diamond before he secures the rock to his chest. Wrenching his halberd from the ice wall behind him, he takes a moment to consider the ice on the side on which I lie before he turns the weapon around. He taps the dagger side of the halberd against the ice wall. Using the spike, he carves out a shallow hole before he creates another one on the right, spaced apart and higher than the first.
He draws back his arm before plunging the dagger side of the halberd as high up as he can. Then he begins to climb, painstakingly carving out new footholds, plunging his weapon into the ice, and returning to the surface, one step at a time.
Finally, he is within reaching distance.
I grab his hands, helping him pull himself onto the surface, his body painfully close to mine as we lie on the surface, the pressure of his arms around me excruciatingly wanted.
I roll away from him before I don’t have the will to separate from him.
While I rise lightly to my feet to stand a few paces away, he recovers more slowly, his chest rising and falling with exertion. His boots are covered in a fine layer of frost—the water that splashed around his feet must have frozen over on the way up.
He takes two steps toward me before he drops to a knee and unbuckles his harness so that my heart drops into his hand.
He holds the diamond up to me.
“You deserve to have the choice,” he says, holding my heart in his open palm.
I told him that my heart is broken, that I never suspected that the diamond belonged to me, that it never called to me.
I wasn’t afraid of it before, but I am now.
Beneath the surface of the glittering rock, starlight flickers, beating in time with the power inside my chest. It dances within the diamond as if it’s completely free, an essence that was taken away from me.
My hands form into fists before the urge to take the heart becomes too strong.
“If I take it back, will I become a Lucidia again?” I ask. “Will I lose the form of a woman?”
Nathaniel is quiet. “I don’t know, Aura.”
“I can’t take that chance,” I say.
“Life is full of chances.”
“But not like this. Not one that could change me so much.”
The corner of his mouth rises, the darkness in his eyes increasing. “Every choice changes us.”
Pain strikes through my chest at the truth in his statement. Nathaniel made a choice to come to Bright to find me. I made a choice to challenge him, not knowing it would bind our fates.
Long ago… Imatra made a choice to pull me from the sky and Nathaniel’s father made a choice to try to save me.
Every choice has led to now—to Nathaniel holding my broken heart in his hands, offering me the chance to be whole again, whatever whole will be.
He rises to his feet, his hand lowering, but not to his side. He reaches for my fist, his big palm closing over mine, the contact between us making me shiver.
His hand is cold, too cold, from the ice he climbed.
On impulse, I pull his palm to my chest, trying to warm him.
At the same time, the rock presses to my heart.
Silence fills the air around us, a deep silence like waiting for a waterdrop to hit the bottom of a well.
I expected to feel sadness, fear… maybe hope. I thought my heart would burn and my emotions would rocket out of control, but… the diamond remains hard, jagged, and foreign where it presses against my armor.
Confusion is the only emotion flooding through me.
I raise my eyes to Nathaniel.
His forehead is creased, his head tilted, as if he expected more too. When I took the shard from him, it had burned its way inside me, unstoppable, an explosive force that connected with me instantly. But this time…
“It doesn’t know me,” I say.
A tear trickles down my cheek and now sadness wells inside me. “You kept the piece of my heart alive by holding it close to you. You taught my heart your humanity, your emotions, and your will to survive. In return, my heart gave you some of my light and kept you safe. This diamond is nothing more than stone with old magic trapped inside it. It doesn’t know what a heart really is.”
Nathaniel allows me to nurse his hand against my chest a moment longer than he should. He finally pulls away, clearing his throat as he leaves the diamond in my fist.
“You should keep it with you, where it’s safe,” he says.
I’m suddenly aware of Evander hovering at my side. He won’t understand what’s going on right now, but Nathaniel turns to him anyway. “We need a pouch. One that Aura can wear while she fights me. This diamond can’t leave her side.” He turns back to me. “Ever.”
Evander gives Nathaniel a nod before he races away, leaving us in the quiet.
We back slowly away from each other again and wait while the cold air brushes our cheeks and the whisper willows continue to sway.
Finally, Evander races down the stairs again. He has barely broken a sweat when he reaches us, his strength and stamina honed by years of training.
He hands me a leather pouch attached to a narrow belt.
I try to find my voice. “Thank you, brother.”
Sliding the diamond into the pouch, I secure the belt to my waist before I place my fingers to my lips and whistle for Treble.
I need to take to the air, to feel the final freedom of flight.
Evander mimics my call, bu
t with a different sequence of sounds to draw Cadence to him. Now that the Lake is cracked down the middle, the safest place to land is at the side near the steps.
When Nathaniel prepares to join me, I hold up my hand to stop him. He halts, but he doesn’t appear surprised.
“You’ll ride with me,” Evander says quietly to him, inclining his head toward the clear patch of grass on the other side of the steps.
Nathaniel’s gaze drops to the surface of the frozen water for a moment, but when he looks up again, he doesn’t show any emotion.
Treble approaches first and I burst into a run, leaping upward to catch his wing and swing myself onto his back. My thunderbird casts a questioning glance back at me, but I shake my head. “Nathaniel will ride with Evander now.”
Treble keens, a sad sound, but I also sense him communicating silently with Cadence as she soars into view, and I’m grateful, since Treble will be able to tell Cadence that she can trust Nathaniel.
I lean across Treble’s side so I can see Nathaniel as Treble banks upward and circles the lake.
Lightning pulses around Cadence’s wings as she sails toward the patch of grass where Evander stands with his arm raised. Once she lands safely, Evander removes her saddle, and she extends her wing to accept Nathaniel onto her back. He sits apart from Evander as they rise into the air.
The two birds crack their wings in unison, settling into position side by side as they soar into the air. We will have to remain below cloud cover so that Nathaniel and I can see each other at all times, but we will need to fly quickly now to make it to the border by midnight.
I pull my fleece close to my body, lean forward over Treble’s neck, and accept the rush of wind across my face, allowing it to wash away any remaining doubt about my path ahead.
Chapter 22
We soar across Eteri City, passing over the frost-covered homes and trees before we sail between the crystal peaks, picking our path carefully through the newly jagged passes, avoiding the damage the glitter bulbs caused.
Along the way, Evander turns around on Cadence, and he and Nathaniel talk. I can’t hear what they’re saying, but Evander appears to be asking questions and Nathaniel seems to be answering them. Every now and then, my brother glances my way, sometimes with surprise, other times with sadness. I suspect he’s asking Nathaniel for all of the answers I didn’t have time to give him before. It looks like Nathaniel is telling him everything.
I find myself filled with an unexpected sense of relief, thankful that someone will know the truth about my time with Nathaniel and the story about who I am and how I came to be.
By the time we reach the other side of the crystal peaks, Nathaniel and Evander have fallen silent.
Moments later, I sense disturbances in the air both behind and in front of us.
Up ahead, countless squadrons of thunderbirds fill the sky with a rainbow of lightning while still more have landed within the flower field on the Bright side of the border, forming a formidable force in the air as well as on the ground.
At the same time, the air behind us fills with an eerie crimson glow and the sound of enormous, beating wings.
I glance back to see the Vanem Dragon soar in our direction, surrounded by the remaining thunderbirds from the northern mountains, whose colorful lightning crackles across the sky above them.
My breath catches when I see that the thunderbirds have riders, but their riders are not dressed like the Queen’s guards. These fae wear simple clothing. Many of them are male with dark brown hair shot through with forest green highlights.
They’re Springtime and Harvest fae from the mountain community.
“Crispin,” I whisper, picking him out where he rides with Talsa.
Serena and Mia also fly their thunderbirds close by.
The sight of them fills my chest with warm flickers. Crispin said he would do what he needed to do. I guess that meant returning home so he could bring the mountain fae back with him. They are not aligned with Imatra and will be a supportive force for both me and Nathaniel.
The Vanem Dragon blocks the moonlight as he sails overhead, his wing beats upsetting the air around us, forcing me to grip Treble’s back as hard as I can and lean low over his neck. I inhale the dragon’s fiery scent as he sails past, a reminder of the woodfire in the cabin where I grew up, and of cold winters spent shooting starlight into the night sky—never knowing that’s where I came from.
As we draw closer, I can finally see Cyrian’s forces on the other side of the border—a hundred hunters positioned within the remains of the glitter field. Behind the hunters, a pack of wolves and—to my surprise—three bears are chained to poles at the edge of the Misty Gallows, all of them resting on their haunches so obediently that they can only be spelled by dark magic.
Half of Cyrian’s hunters congregate around three large iron contraptions—machines of a kind I’ve never seen before. They’re each at least thirty feet high with a base and frame made of iron poles that support a long, metal beam attached to an axle. A metal sling hangs from the end of the beam while two large steel bins sit beside each machine. The structures appear so heavy that they’ve gouged tracks into the earth leading up to their location. The machines must be some sort of weapon, but I’m not sure what they’ll do. I’m suddenly reminded of Mathilda’s warning yesterday morning when she told us that Cyrian had been drawing large amounts of energy from his environment in the last day, but she didn’t know why.
The Vanem Dragon soars ahead of us and lands in the wide stretch of field hundreds of feet wide that remains empty between the two armies. Even when he folds his wings, he makes the humans and fae appear miniature as he prowls along the wide gap between them.
As Treble flies over the fae army, Imatra comes into view below me, standing at the head of her soldiers on the ground. She’s dressed in her crimson armor, her hair tied back this time.
Opposite her across the field, Cyrian also stands at the head of his men, dressed in full battle gear with a double-headed axe in a holder across his back.
Crispin and Talsa, along with Serena and the fae aligned with Crispin, break off from us, their thunderbirds veering left to land at the eastern end of the gap between the two armies, staying clear of both Imatra and Cyrian’s people. I’m not sure what Imatra will make of Crispin’s appearance—or Serena and the others—since Imatra wanted them all dead, but she won’t be able to retaliate as long as the Vanem Dragon is in control.
I lean over Treble’s neck and ask him to land as close to the Vanem Dragon as he can. It’s best if Nathaniel and I avoid our monarchs as much as possible.
When Treble lands lightly, coming to a stop near the dragon, I leap from his back, somersault to the ground, and then rise to my feet, clinging to the sensation of the rushing wind against my cheeks.
Turning back to Treble, I wrap my arms around his neck. “I love you, Treble. I need you to take to the sky now and fly clear of this battle. Don’t fly back to me, no matter what happens. Even if I call you. Okay?”
He shakes his head at me, butting his forehead against my torso, refusing to leave, but I stroke his neck, my voice lowering. “Remember when you were angry with me two nights ago for leaving you behind? Nathaniel told you that I would take risks, that you would spend your life worrying about me, but you’d love me anyway…”
I swallow the lump in my throat. “I need to know that you’ll be alive at the end of this. Please, Treble. Do this for me.”
Treble closes his eyes. He nudges his head against my shoulder for a moment before he keens softly in agreement.
“Fly clear of Imatra’s birds,” I say. “Seek shelter in the crystal peaks. Don’t come down from the northern mountains until Nathaniel is king. He will protect you. Now, go!”
Treble beats his wings, making a cracking sound that thuds through me as he rises off the ground and soars into the sky. I follow his careful flight along the clear gap between the armies, out past Crispin’s birds, and then east as he flies wide of Imatra�
��s army and safely away.
I let out my breath, relieved that none of the other birds attempt to intercept him, grateful that Treble will be safe now.
I’m grateful that he won’t be here to see my end.
Cadence landed while I was speaking with Treble. As Nathaniel steps carefully down her wing, he removes his sword from the harness at his back and hands the weapon to Evander. I’m not sure what he’s doing until he slides his halberd into the empty slot where the sword used to be. He had to carry his weapon before, but now his hands are free.
Evander remains behind with Cadence as Nathaniel strides toward me. I’m already as close to the Vanem Dragon as I need to be.
Nathaniel stands taller than all of the fae and humans on either side of us, his broad shoulders held back, moving with the same stealth with which he attacked me on the morning he walked out of the mist. His expression is shadowed, his hair falling across his face adding to the darkness in his eyes.
He is as merciless now as he was in the moments I first set eyes on him and I’m grateful. I pull myself upright, setting my own emotions in place. Only three days ago, I wore a careful mask over my emotions, teaching myself not to feel anything. Since then, Nathaniel has brought every emotion out in me, but now I need to bury my feelings again.
My arms and hands are relaxed, but I’m poised to react at any moment, my senses heightened and the glow around me increasing. I am stern and unreachable.
Nathaniel’s dark gaze rakes across my face and lips as he draws level with me.
We turn in unison and take a knee in front of the dragon.
The Vanem Dragon’s growl thrums through me. “Rise, Aura of the Lucidia, who has discovered her true self. You are old magic. Far older than me. You will not bow to me again.”
I lift myself, meeting the dragon’s deep brown eyes. Fire burns inside the beast’s mouth as he lowers his head to mine.
He inhales, and his eyes close for a moment. “It is an honor to meet a Lucidia. I only wish I had sensed your true nature sooner, but it was hidden from me, the same way my sight went dark on the night you were born.”