by K. A. Linde
He sighed, but he could deny her nothing. It was how they had fallen in love in the first place. Trulian headed toward the dragons to find his beloved Androma.
Then, Mei went in search of her Zahina, tramping through the dirty war camp. She was in mud up to her ankles and wanted nothing more than to rid herself of this place. Nothing had gone as planned. No one would listen. Ten long years, they’d been at war with no end in sight until tonight. Tonight, the war could end.
It would end with the genocide of her people.
She brushed a hand back through her hair. She wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for her daughter. She had joined up like the rest of the youth who thought they could make a difference and had no idea of what war was actually like. So self-righteous and certain that they were going to change the world.
Fae should have been slow to go to war and quick to retreat. Their long lives afforded them space to see reason. But no one would see reason.
The tent flap shoved open before Mei could do so. Her daughter stepped out. They were nearly the same height with the same black hair and dark brown eyes. She had none of her father in her. Only twenty turns of the sun and dragon bound. How had she failed her so completely?
“What do you want, Mother?” her daughter sneered.
“You know why I’m here.”
“I won’t go with you. You’re a coward.”
Mei winced. The words hit hard despite the youth in them. She didn’t know what Mei had sacrificed for her.
“You have no idea what you speak of.”
“I know that I’m here to help us win this war against those barbarians. What are you doing, Mother?”
Mei clenched her hands into fists. She wouldn’t rise to the insult. Zahina would never admit to having a mother from tribe Charbonnet. “Please, come with me.”
“Where? Where are you running off to? How dare you run away from your obligation to the Society.”
“I have no obligation to the Society,” she snarled. “The Society only cares for itself.”
Her daughter took a step backward. “You include me in that assessment.”
“Yes,” she bit out.
“Then, we’re done. Trulian will never leave either. How does he not see you for what you are?”
“Your father has nothing to do with this.”
Her daughter narrowed her eyes. “He is not my father.”
“We don’t have to go through this again.”
“I have no parents.”
“Please,” Mei whispered, broken.
She knew what she had to do. She had to go to Cavour. She had to put up the wall that would end this war. She didn’t know what would happen when she did it, if it was even possible. But she knew what would happen if she didn’t try.
She had seen it.
Everyone would die.
“Please,” she repeated.
“Good-bye, Mother.” The girl turned away from her and flipped the tent flap back open.
“Zahina, please…”
But she was already gone.
And Mei had to save the world.
On the back of Androma, Trulian found her. She climbed aboard, and then they were flying. Mei clenched tight to the dragon. She feared little since the visions had taken her at such a young age. But dragon flying always made her dizzy. As if she were that much closer to the spirit all around her.
They landed outside of her hometown of Cavour. She had been no one when she was plucked from obscurity due to her affinity for spirit. For years, she’d trained with the ambassador to take her place. Leaving her hometown for the city of Kinkadia, where she’d met and fallen in love with Trulian. But Cavour would always be home.
War had not been kind to the once-beautiful village. Dragon fire had destroyed near half the place in one go. Only the mountains had saved the people within, leaving the humans and half-Fae to fend for themselves against a war they didn’t want.
“I am sorry,” she said.
“Mei, are you sure?” a voice asked behind her. She had told him her plan on the way over. “These people… they don’t deserve this.”
“They don’t.” Mei whirled around. Her heart constricted.
Trulian had been the first to believe in her. His resistance meant that maybe even she was crossing the line.
“Can you even do it?”
She bit her lip and ran her hands back through her nearly black hair. “I don’t know, but what other choice is there? You know what they’re going to do if we don’t stop them. You were in the meeting, Tru.”
He glanced off to the mountains beyond her head. “This can’t be the answer. They’re monsters, but…”
“It’s the only way. I’ve seen it.”
“Seen it?” He frowned. “Again? You didn’t tell me.”
“Oh, Tru,” she whispered, all the secrets that lay between them clogging her throat. All the visions she’d never dared to tell him about as her mind shattered day after day along the campaign.
“Please,” he pleaded.
“Step back. I must work,” she said. “To save our very souls.”
And then before Trulian could talk her out of it, Mei lifted her brown arms toward the tri peaks of the House of Shadows. A bright, blinding light built between her palms, and she unleashed.
Power emanated from her hands and flowed around her home. Cocooning them. Protecting them. Isolating them. She poured all of her heart and soul into the spirit magic. Her people would be safe. The Society wouldn’t remember where the mountains were any longer. They couldn’t destroy her home. They couldn’t destroy everything.
“I’m sorry,” Mei whispered to Trulian just before the magic took her life force with it, draining every ounce of herself into the wall.
Trulian shouted, having just realized that she was not coming back. But Mei was too far gone to stop. The wall would stay up. It would stay up until it was time for it to come down. And she would make sure of it, even in death.
51
The Shift
Arbor
Wynter raised her hands over her head. “Do you feel it? Do you sense the shift? It is coming.” Her voice rose. “It is coming!”
Arbor almost yawned as she stared out at the emptiness. The wall wasn’t something she could see as much as Wynter claimed to be able to. But she’d dragged a dozen of her best acolytes out to the wall on horseback to watch her wave her hands around. The people were getting restless. It had been nearly a year since Kerrigan had been here and performed her miracle. Arbor had asked Fordham to return for Geivhrea, hoping it would reenergize the people. But he’d had plans.
She couldn’t exactly explain her reasoning and why it was dire. The people wanted—no, needed something to believe in. Wynter was the face, but Arbor was making it all happen. The king was slipping from popularity. If she played her cards right, then she could depose him anytime now. Maybe they wouldn’t even have to wait for Fordham and Kerrigan to return.
“It is coming!” the acolytes chanted.
Arbor glanced at Prescott on the other side of the clearing. He rolled his eyes at her. She tried to hide her smile. Pres didn’t do the best job at hiding his disdain from Wynter. It hardly mattered. Sometimes, it actually made it better. Pres would come in all cold and aloof, and Arbor would bring the praise. It raised her in Wynter’s esteem with little work.
As long as she could keep Pres safe. He was the only person she had anymore. She’d kill Wynter and end the rebellion before she’d let her hurt her brother.
She had just looked down at her battered nails, wondering how much longer she was going to have to endure this, when a gasp rose from Prescott’s throat. She jerked his direction at the sound. It was so unfamiliar from his normal teasing voice.
Then, she gasped too.
“Are you seeing this?” she said, directed to no one in particular.
But Prescott was suddenly at her side, ditching the blonde who had been on his arm for the event. “I see it.”
Wynte
r raised her hands high. “The time is now.”
And the time was now.
Arbor watched in fascination as the wall came into perfect focus. It shone a bright blue light, and for the first time, she could see the map of veins that ran through the entirety of the endless wall. They weren’t cracks, like Wynter had said. They were more like vessels to carry the energy through. And they were beautiful.
“What you see before you is the wall,” Wynter said. Her voice was reaching a fever pitch. “As I have told you all this time, it is visible, and it is weakening. Even you can see it now with your own two eyes.”
The acolytes fell to their knees before Wynter. They bowed and praised her for her magnanimous behavior. For letting them see the wall as she’d claimed.
But Arbor remained on her feet. Wynter hadn’t done this. She was a prop for Arbor’s rebellion but not worth anything more than that. How was this happening?
“Soon, we will be free!” Wynter cried. “Soon, we will stake our claim. Soon, we will show the world who we are.”
Then, as Wynter turned to face the wall, the whole thing shimmered.
Arbor gasped again. It was as if she were looking up at a kaleidoscope of starlight. Then, the wall burst in the air and rained down all around them. She held her hand out, and a piece of the wall touched her and then disappeared entirely.
“Are you seeing this?” Pres asked her.
“I can’t believe my eyes,” she breathed.
Wynter stepped forward. “It is time, children,” she bellowed. “It is time.”
She crossed the divide where the wall had been for a thousand years. Pres slid his hand into hers, and together, they joined her outside of the wall.
Outside of the wall.
She’d never believed any of Wynter’s ramblings. But here she stood, on the other side of the wall. Whether she had done it or not was irrelevant. She had a dozen witnesses who would say she had accomplished it.
Arbor smiled devilishly and looked to her brother. “It’s time.”
“Sister,” he said, bowing at the waist and kissing her hand.
“Let’s go show the world what we’re made of.”
52
The Sickness
CLOVER
Clover found Amond where he always was—in the loch den. “Get up. Get up. It’s an emergency.”
Amond nodded his head and took another puff from the pipe. “Has Dozan sent for me?”
“Yes! And he’ll have your head if you’re too high to work your magic.”
“My magic works because of the loch, little mourning dove,” he said as he rose to his feet. “Surely, you, of all people, know that.”
“Why would I know that?” Clover asked, hustling him toward the door. “I’m a human. I don’t have magic.”
“If you say so.”
Clover shook her head and rolled her eyes. “My dad was a clockmaker. My mom was a littlings school teacher at the Laments church. No magic on either of their sides.”
“Religion has a magic of its own.”
She scoffed, “I have no religion either. It died in the fire.”
Five years ago, when Kerrigan had been brutally assaulted, Clover had been inside the Laments church on the Square with the rest of the orphans. She was the only survivor, hiding among the dead in the catacombs. She made her way to Dozan after that. But magic hadn’t saved her that night, just her own ability to hide.
Amond ignored her comment but thankfully followed her upstairs. He stepped inside, and Dozan ushered him forward. Amond revealed the blue orb of his magic and ran it over Kerrigan.
He shook his head. “The magic sickness is progressing rapidly. She won’t last through the night if we don’t find a way to stabilize her.”
“Then stabilize her!” Dozan demanded.
“I am not trained in this. My expertise lies elsewhere. You would need a skilled Society healer for this sort of precise work. I am a bit more of a broad stroke,” Amond told them with no ego.
Fordham crossed his arms. “I’m taking her to Helly.”
“You can’t!” Clover said. “She just escaped.”
Dozan put a hand on Clover’s shoulder. “I agree with Fordham.”
Fordham blinked. “You do?”
“If we do nothing, she dies. I can’t live in that world.” Dozan stepped back. “Take her. Do whatever you can.”
Fordham nodded, an understanding passing between them in that second.
“I can’t carry us both through the shadows at that distance,” he said. Clearly, that fact grated at him. “I’ll have to call Netta.”
“Well then, I’m coming with you,” Clover said.
Fordham didn’t object. He picked Kerrigan up in his arms and strode toward the door. Dozan followed behind them, his eyes never leaving Kerrigan. Clover had doubted his affection toward her friend for a long time. She’d wondered what exactly his game was. Had cajoled them both to just have at it again to try to get over this insufferable sexual tension. But that look in Dozan’s eye wasn’t like anything she’d seen from him before. Under all of his bravado, he actually cared about Kerrigan.
They both did.
People still milled around the outside of the Wastes when Netta flew in. Gasps echoed all around them as the crowd made a dash to escape her landing zone. Fordham didn’t break stride. He nodded at Netta and used his shadows to move Kerrigan onto the dragon’s back.
“Are you coming or not?” Fordham asked.
Clover looked up at the imposing beast with a speck of fear. She’d seen dragons all of her life, but it was different than getting on one. She had to douse that dread for Kerrigan.
While Fordham arranged Kerrigan on Netta, Clover figured out how to make the climb and then settled herself behind Fordham. Without a word of warning, Netta pushed off of the ground and into the air.
Clover screamed as her stomach fell to her toes and then back up. “Holy gods!”
She couldn’t believe her eyes at how small everything looked. It was both exhilarating and terrifying all at the same time. And over too soon.
Netta landed in an aerie empty of dragons. She wondered where everyone was. Fordham once again used his shadows to drop to the ground and marched forward without looking back.
Clover slid down the dragon’s side and patted her. “Thank you.”
Of course. I look forward to seeing you again under better circumstances.
Clover eeped at the voice pressing into her mind. She had known dragons did that, but whoa!
She rushed after Fordham. She was tall, but she had to jog to keep up with his long strides. Kerrigan lay unconscious in his grip. Her eyes were closed, but Clover could see her eyes moving under the lids, as if she were seeing something none of the rest of them could see.
They wound ever lower through the mountain. Clover knew the path to Helly’s apartments. She had been there before and ran ahead to knock.
There was no answer. Then after another insistent knock, Helly opened the door. Her face was pale, and her normal pristine appearance had faltered. Her hair was loose to her shoulders. There were bags under her red-rimmed eyes.
“Clover?” she asked. “What are you doing here?”
“It’s Kerrigan.”
Helly straightened her shoulders. “What about her? Have you seen her?”
Fordham stepped forward. “Can you help her?”
Helly’s eyes rounded. The wreck she’d been a moment ago vanished. “Bring her inside.” She let Fordham and Clover pass. “What happened?”
“She had another one of her blackouts. We had a healer nearby, but he didn’t know how to stabilize magic sickness. He said that you were capable of that.”
“Yes,” Helly said, asking no other questions. “Put her on the couch. Clover, fill a basin with water. Fordham, I want you to hold her down.”
“Hold her down?” he asked.
“Don’t ask questions. Just do it,” she snapped.
And no one asked any more questions. No
t for the two hours that Helly worked on Kerrigan and tried to get her to stabilize. Not when she took magic from herself and fed it into her body. Not when she asked for Fordham’s magic as well. Clover had nothing to offer in that regard, but she ran every errand Helly commanded.
Finally, she stepped back. “That’s all I can do.”
Fordham released Kerrigan, who had finally stilled. Even her eyes had ceased moving.
“Is it enough?” he asked.
Clover’s nerves were raw at the question. There could only be one answer. Kerrigan had to survive. She had to.
“Only time will tell. We’re going to need to keep feeding her magic every hour, on the hour. I have a few honeycombs that should help.”
Clover’s eyes widened. “Honeycombs?”
“The legal kind,” she assured Clover. “They hold my own magic. I keep a stash for when I need to perform particularly difficult healings. I’ll use them now to keep her stable.”
“How long can she stay like this?” Fordham asked.
Helly shook her head. “I’ve never treated magic sickness in someone this young. I’ve never seen it in someone this young. It could be hours or days.”
Fordham nodded. “Thank you for your help. I’ll wait here with her.”
“If you aren’t in training, your absence will be noted.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Then, make an excuse for me.”
“You know what they’ll think if you’re gone. You can’t afford it.”
“I’ll stay,” Clover said, putting a hand on Fordham’s arm. “You can trust me to look after her.”
He deflated and nodded before departing. Helly and Clover exchanged a look once he was gone.
“How bad is it really?” Clover asked.
Helly sighed and shook her head. “We’re lucky she’s not already dead.”
53
The Spiritcaster
Kerrigan spun in a circle. She was in the spirit plane.
She wanted to scream and scream and scream. To fall to her knees and weep for what Mei had been forced to do to her own people. All this time, she had been told that the House of Shadows had been contained for their own good. A thousand years of isolation for their part in the Great War and the sin of wanting to continue with slavery. But it had all been a lie.