I had left the city. The realization made me forget everything else. I tilted my head back to look up at the open sky. It was the same sky I saw every night, but there wasmoreof it. I was flying beneath it, flying away, and there was still ever more. The walls that had encircled me my whole life were rapidly fading behind me. Smaller and smaller, like a child’s toy left by the sea. How had that city seemed so large before?
Miles of rolling fields stretched out before us. The road we galloped over curved and dipped toward a dark smudge on the western horizon. Woods, perhaps? Gods, I’d never been in the woods before.
A giddy laugh bubbled up in my throat, and I had to swallow it back. I wasfree. Perhaps this was why Renwell and Fatherforbade me from leaving. Because they knew I’d never want to come back.
I used to imagine what it would be like to leave Aquinon and explore the world. To be someone other than Emilia or Kiera Torvaine. Forsaking my name and legacy to roam the world with no expectations.
Like Aiden had.
Yet he’d come back.
Just like I would have to. I couldn’t leave Everett and Delysia behind. Not unless they were safe. And now I had Maz, Ruru, and Melaena to worry about as well.
No. This was a short freedom. But that wouldn’t stop me from enjoying it.
I breathed in the cool night air, scented with wet grass instead of the sea. What did the rest of the world smell like?
Mother’s voice echoed in my head from a day we’d been walking through her garden as she showed me her herbs and flowers.
A thousand scents in one garden, Kiera. Each one presses a new memory to your mind. Imagine, a garden of a thousand memories.
If her garden had held that many, then a multitude could have existed outside our small world.
My chest ached, and I leaned against Aiden’s back. He stiffened. I pulled away, but his hand reached back and gripped my knee. A silent reassurance.
I held him closer, inhaling his familiar scent. I wished I could tell Mother that a scent carried more than just memory. It could carry a whole heart’s worth of emotions as well. Like every time I was in her old room, an ocean of grief and longing, love and guilt enveloped me.
And how, whenever I was this close to Aiden, I felt the crash of something similar. Not as deep and wide as the ocean. Morelike a hidden pool under a waterfall. It was new and secret. Feelings, like water, kept pouring into it.
I didn’t know deep it went. I didn’t know what else awaited me there. But being near Aiden made me want to jump in and find out.
After a while, the horses slowed to a walk. No one pursued us.
Helene and Isabel looked limp with exhaustion, but Helene held her posture well, as though she’d ridden before. Nikella was shrouded in her cloak once more, carrying her staff like the spear it held within.
I had so many questions—about her and Renwell, and whatever she threw on the ground. About where we were going.
But it felt wrong to break the silence. As if breaking it would alert the guards to where we were.
We rode until my muscles ached and my thighs burned. The rolling fields ended in a thick glade of trees with twisted trunks and chattering leaves. The Hollow, if I remembered my maps correctly.
The creak of old wood and the muted clop of the horses’ hooves made it sound like we were alone in this dense, gloomy world.
Until light emerged ahead. Lopsided buildings of wood and thatch were clumped together under the trees. A carved sign out front said Fairglen. A small village I’d heard travelers mention as a stop on their long journeys.
Hay-filled paddocks with horses, donkeys, and cattle looped around behind what looked like four inns and a tavern. Whoever lived here must run the only five businesses that made this a “village.”
Even this late at night, everywhere seemed brightly lit and full. No guards. No Wolves.
Aiden maneuvered us next to Nikella. “We should rest,” he murmured to her.
“No, we should keep going. They might not be far behind.”
“Ifhe comes after us,” Aiden countered. His head turned to Helene and Isabel. “He already snagged his bigger prize.”
Helene drew up near us. “We have a family estate. In the heart of Pravara. We could go there.”
Aiden shook his head. “That will be the first place they check. We need to get you somewhere safe they don’t know about.”
