“I was right,” Jules said again.
There was a blast—someone taking down a ward. And then another.
I pushed Jules’s hair off her forehead, and adjusted her in my lap, supporting her head.
“What? What were you right about?’ I asked. I couldn’t tell if this was something to do with a vision, or if she was simply hysterical from what had happened. It reminded me almost of what my mother had said when she died.
It was right.
Then Jules looked up at me, her eyes suddenly clear. She was lucid. She knew where she was, and who I was.
“About this. I told you,” she said. “I told you.” She was nodding her head vigorously. “You said it was impossible. But I knew. I knew we’d see each other again.”
My heart pounded, remembering the last time I saw her. She said as much. I hadn’t believed her—I never planned to return to Bamaria. And then she’d said something to me, the same thing she used to write all the time in her letters.
Anything is possible.
My eyes watered and I nodded. “You were,” I said, my voice breaking. “You were right, Jules. You were so fucking right.”
She sniffled, and closed her eyes.
And then the gryphon’s wings expanded, a gust of wind blowing against us. There was one final burst of light—Lyr’s stave glowed. Blue light exploded, a burst of magic raining down. It was the kind of magic only an Arkmage could command. But it had been all Lyr. The final ward standing between us and freedom had been demolished. We passed through it with ease, and flew into the night.
Away from the Palace. Free.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
LYRIANA
We were silent for the first hour as we escaped. I no longer felt the fear I once had of flying like this. It was hard to feel fear of any kind after what we’d just done. After all we’d achieved.
But the weight of it could not be unfelt. We had attacked the Emperor of Lumeria. Avery Kormac, the leader of the wolves, of the soturi occupying my country. And we had just freed and taken two of his most valued prisoners. A chayatim. And Emperor’s Theotis’s murderer.
We’d left Imperator Hart behind, disobeyed, and escaped from our blood contracts. Evaded arrest for vorakh. And by now, everyone knew it.
At least, everyone who had the power to hunt and hurt us knew it. They’d be after us. Probably for forever, until we died, or we left the Empire for good. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t even imagine what would come next. But I didn’t regret what we’d done at all. I only regretted leaving Kenna behind. She’d become a friend, and now she was alone with those monsters. But Dario had assured me she wouldn’t have left with us, even if we’d been able to reach her in time.
I tried to bask in our victory. We were free, we had escaped, and we had Jules, and that was all that mattered.
I sat near the gryphon’s head silently with Aiden. The air was cold, but refreshing, as we flew south. I could feel, even from here, the temperature rising. And in the sky, the stars were twinkling wildly. I took a deep breath, and turned back to see my friends, my family, all working together to bandage and wrap everyone’s injuries. Tristan and Meera were diligently tending to Galen’s wounds with the limited first aid supplies we had in our belt pouches. I couldn’t help but grit my teeth. I wasn’t allowed to use my full healing ability—not yet.
Rhyan and Dario were working on Jules, crouched behind me. Beside me, Aiden was desperately trying to stay awake. He’d been nearly drained from all the glamour magic he’d used, and our takedown of the wards. He was on the lookout for more. But we hadn’t seen any other gryphons or ashvan for most of the past hour.
I turned back and watched anxiously as Rhyan wrapped Jules’s hand in a piece of Dario’s cloak that he’d ripped off.
As if sensing me, Rhyan looked up. Our eyes met and a thousand messages seemed to pass between us. Love. Gratitude. Concern. Memories of our bodies tangled in bed, burning together. Rhyan whispering he loved me in the dark. Calling me his soulmate. Growing so overwhelmed with emotion, he’d asked me to marry him.
I smiled, and looked away. Because he was coming between me and the one thing I wanted right now. The one thing I’d wanted since the night of my seventeenth birthday.
Jules.
I was going to be farther than Lethea if I didn’t get to see her soon, if I didn’t get to touch her. If I didn’t get to heal her. My hands practically itched with the need. She could be fine now. Awake, calm, without pain. I didn’t care what it did to me. I’d take it on. For her, I’d do anything. And I wanted to heal Galen, too. Desperately.
Suddenly, I felt Rhyan’s arm around my shoulder, his body pressed to my side. His body heat was a welcome contrast to the cold of the night sky.
“Partner,” he breathed, and hugged me to him.
All at once, I buried my head against his chest, and made a noise that was dangerously close to a sob.
