She snarled. “I know they exist now. I will find them with or without you taking me to them.”
“From the palace?”
She laughed good and hard at that, and it almost made me leery of telling her no. “Oh Faolan, if they exist out here, they wouldn’t be very good rebels if they didn’t also exist in a place they could actually gather intel to enact change.”
“Stop making good points.”I sighed, my fatigue catching up on me.
“How much further can you go?”Her question was leading.
“I don’t know. Maybe for a while.”It was a lie, I was done, but I would at least push on until we could land safely.
She internally rolled her eyes, I felt it. Goddess, this bond would kill me when I had some distance between us. “And when you can’t go on any longer and leave us in a dangeroussituation because you don’t have a choice where we stop, how will that feel?”
“I resent your logic.”
“But it’s sound.”
“Fine. We will go to them. But I’m not letting you join, and I’m also not leaving you there,”I shot back.
“As if I won’t do as I please.”
I muttered about her being infuriating as I closed my eyes, seeking out the magic that would lead me to their hiding place. The ends of the trail were hidden, and with the amount of blood I’d lost, it was hard to stretch out my mind, but after flying around in circles, I finally found it.
I nearly cried. My wings sagged, though I forced them to keep beating.
“Are you okay?”Calytrix gasped and gripped my scales tighter.
“Yes,”I said, not sure it was the truth, but I had to be. “It’s not much further.”
I followed the trail as far as I could, before it led to a place I couldn’t fly. Out of choices, I came in for a very undignified and unsteady landing. I tried to minimize the risk to her. This was not a good first landing for her to experience, but it was out of my control. We hit the ground harder than I wanted and I rolled, aiming to tip her into some brush if I could. But she was already off my back before it came to that, performing some kind of dismount she was clearly familiar with and jumping clear of my wing before I could tuck it. I barely got my fae form back with the last of my magic, falling to my knees in the sand in the process.My wings could not shift back while they were still impaled, so they hung limply at my back.
Calytrix ran to my side, grabbing my arm. “Faolan.” The strain in her voice killed me.
“I’m fine,” I barely managed. “Just tired.”
“Don’t think I believe you,” she said as she helped me to my feet.
“I promise I will be okay.” I tried to free myself from her grasp, but she wrapped an arm around me.
“I’ll believe it when I see it.”
We walked like that, following the threads of the trail. It felt old and dead. Not like when I’d last been here. Fear crept up throat.
What if they’d left? Been discovered? Moved locations?
Anything could have happened in the last half a year.
If they weren’t here—I blocked the thought from my mind—I’d figure it out. I had to. I couldn’t let harm come to her. I vowed it.
The last of my power detected the movement a fraction of a moment before a sword poked in my back.
I froze and Calytrix cried out, spinning to put herself between me and the sword. I couldn’t stop her. I didn’t have the power to move that fast, and besides, I could scent the male upon us now. He was a friend. I hoped he would be still after I made the introductions.
“It’s okay,”I soothed to her mind.“They are friends.”
“Friends don’t hold swords to each other,”she snapped back.
“They are protecting their territory, but they won't harm us. Trust me.”
