You’re hungry, Rhyan? Aren’t you? Very hungry.
My mind flashed. Morgana ordering me to take Parthenay. To do what I wanted to her. Anything I wanted. She was underneath me, screaming, and crying. Her blood on my lips. Pain shot through my head, and my chest tightened. My vision blurred. I couldn’t breathe.
“Rhyan.” Lyr grabbed my hand and squeezed. “Look at me,” she said urgently. Her palm rested against my chin, her fingers stroking my cheek.
I met her eyes, my chest still hurting.
“Breathe,” she said quietly, just to me. “Breathe. I’m right here. We’re in Glemaria. We’re alive. We’re okay.”
I watched her chest rise and fall, and breathed with her, squeezing her hand back.
The images faded, and I nodded. Relief spread across her face, her thumb rubbing back and forth on my hand. We stood there another moment, just watching the gryphon when Lyr squinted her eyes. “He …” she frowned. “He looks familiar.”
“Um,” I swallowed, “he’s actually the gryphon I had tattooed on my back.”
“This is the gryphon?” Lyr asked. She looked quickly back and forth between us and grinned. “I see it.”
“Spend a lot of time looking at his back?” Dario asked.
Lyr glared.
“Yes,” I said. “And he’s Afeyan, that’s why he looks like this. The gryphons from the Star Court come in every color you can imagine.”
“Like Mercurial,” Lyr said dryly.
“Like Mercurial,” I said, more than aware of the anger in my voice. I was surprised that bastard hadn’t shown up yet to gloat, or call in another fucking favor. But that was coming. Something to worry about later.
I turned my attention back to the gryphon. “I found him as a baby outside my window a few years back. Took care of him—well, Artem did. He had a broken leg. But he healed, and he was with me when I escaped. My only friend in exile.” I looked at Sean. “At least, at first.”
Sean smiled, and gripped my shoulder, his eyes full of emotion. “A good friend then.”
“Well,” Artem said. “You all better go. And win. Please. I have to be on my way—to the actual Alissedari.Rhyan,” he pulled me back to him, and squeezed my hand, “You weren’t supposed to come back. But you’re here again, and this time, I have a good feeling, lad. But if I’m wrong, well—I’ve lived a good life.” His eyes landed on Lyr’s. “My lady, be safe.” He went over to one of the smaller gryphons that had landed with him.
I turned to Sean and Lyr, my throat tightening, but it was time. And I stepped forward to address our soturi.
“This is it,” I said. “I am so grateful to everyone who has come this far. Who has come here with us. Everyone who stands before me now is here for a reason. Because you all believe in a better world. In better leadership. In standing up to tyranny. We have seen horrors that no one should see, that no one deserves. It’s time to stop those who enable such horrors, who help to bring them about. It’s time to stop my father. To stop the man who has allowed far too many to suffer our fate. The man who has controlled the North, keeping too many oppressed and in danger for too long. You all know what to do. You all know where to go. And I know that in a few hours, we will claim victory as ours.”
I looked at Lyr and nodded. She stepped forward.
“Rhyan and I,” Lyr said, “will be right behind you. You go now with our full support, and full confidence. As well as our love. We all took an oath to stop the threat. And, today, that is exactly what we’re going to do by ending the reign of Imperator Hart. Today, we free Glemaria.”
Everyone cheered, and then Sean pulled them into formation while Dario and a Glemarian soturion named Rory began to round up the gryphons, feeding them some of the snacks we’d carried with us.
The soldiers began to climb onto their designated gryphons, some in groups as large as twelve on the biggest gryphon, while most had been placed into groups of six.
Lyr pulled out her sword, and at once, under the sunlight, it lit with flames, bright red light filling the meadow. Then she began to chant. “Ani petrovaRakashonim, me ka el lyrotz, dhame ra shukroya, aniam anam. Chayate me el ra shukroya.
Ani petrovaRakashonim!”
Golden light exploded from inside her armor, lighting her up from head to toe, her hair a fiery red.
There was a thundering in my heart right then, my throat tightening. Because she looked just like … just like Asherah. Like my soulmate. And I had a flash of her. A flash of Asherah lifting her sword and riding into battle. In the same moment, I saw recognition in Meera’s eyes—Cassarya. And Jules—Hava.
I wasn’t sure, but Dario also had a strange look on his face as he watched her, like he’d seen this before.
I blinked and the vision faded, and she was Lyr again. She connected the sword to her stave—Asherah’s stave—and then she took Aiden’s hand, her stave connecting to his. A flash of blue light streamed between them. Then they went to work, glamouring each gryphon with an illusion spell. Slowly, each beast and the soturi they carried began to fade from view, their bodies blending into the surrounding field and trees.
It was a huge spell, and an even bigger undertaking. Glamour this advanced wasn’t even studied, except by Aiden, and Ka Shavo in Bamaria. Lyr had practiced with him until the early hours. We’d decided that for a spell this large, and that had to last as long as it did, Lyr had to call on all her power. And if all went according to plan, this would be the only time she would have to use it today.
