“Every moment spent in my company is a risk to your life,” he argues. “Forget this, Brielle. Let us return to Carterhaugh in the time we have left.”
“I’m not giving up.” How could I sleep knowing he has used his waning strength to ensure my safety at the detriment of his own life? If he cannot carry himself, then I will carry us both. “We still have a few days before the paralysis takes effect.”
“It’s not days,” he responds, the words flat. “It’s hours, and I need rest.”
Panic continues to pummel the door. I will not let it in. “Then you will rest.” As much as we must push onward, sleep would benefit him greatly, even if it’s for an hour. “How much farther until we reach Notus’ realm?”
Again, Zephyrus pulls away, but doesn’t go far. “Fifteen miles? Forty?” He shakes his head. “Whatever the number, it is too far and too much to ask of you.”
“It’s not,” I reassure him.
“You’re not listening to me. I’m telling you it’s dangerous. I’m giving you an out. Why won’t you take it?”
He reminds me of a captured bird, too fearful to fly when the cage stands open. “What is this truly about, Zephyrus?”
His emerald eyes meet mine. “Why won’t you leave me?” he whispers, low and agonized. I grasp his hand again and refuse to let go.
“Because I know how it feels to watch someone you care for walk away from you, and I would spare you that pain if I could.” With our hands locked, I squeeze tighter. “And because we’re in this together.”
His throat dips. “Together?”
I nod. It doesn’t sting as it once did. It feels fresh, like newly healed skin.
“Lie down,” I say, and help him settle into the grass, his head resting against my thigh. “I’m going to tell you a story from the Book of Fate.” My fingers slip through his hair, separating the damp curls, and Zephyrus sighs, leaning fully against me. “The story begins, as all stories do, with a dream.”
33
ASHUDDER WRACKS THE MASSIVEslab of stone where we’ve made camp, startling me awake. The low rumble of distant thunder follows.
It is dark. Zephyrus sleeps, unaware of the grit shaking free of the rocky overhang to blanket his clothes in pale dust. One tremor bleeds into the next, and the forest groans, straining to keep itself rooted to the mountainside.
Mile after mile, we traveled until reaching the mountain Zephyrus claimed would lead us to his brother’s realm. There, we stopped to rest. I promised to take first watch, but shortly after he fell asleep I must have followed, succumbing to the exhaustion of fleeing the Orchid King’s hounds. I’m not sure how much time has passed, but we must move.
“Zephyrus.” As I shake him awake, the ground lurches, tossing me sideways. Something cracks in the vast darkness beyond sight.
He stirs, props himself up with an elbow. “Brielle?” In the watery light cast by the waning moon, his skin appears sallow, his eyes deep pits.
Another shock rolls through Under. “What’s happening?” I whisper.
A gust snaps from Zephyrus’ palm to race across the valley, blasting through brush and felled trees. Less than two heartbeats later, the wind returns, dragging a fetid scent with it.
He peers out into the darkness, grim-faced. “Under demands blood,” he replies. “It must be given soon if it is to survive another cycle.”
I, too, scour the landscape. I do not recognize this part of the realm: rivers and mountains beneath the earth. “What happens if it doesn’t receive any?”
“If it fails to receive my blood, the realm will begin to collapse. It did not used to be this way, but once Pierus took control, Under grew dependent on my power. The tithe cannot be delayed for long.”
The next quake runs cracks through the stone. When the rumbling quiets, I hear it: the baying of hounds on a hunt.
Zephyrus’ breath spikes, and his pupils shrink, twin drops of blood squeezed to nothing. His smell—crisp sunlight—begins to turn, curdling like a bowl of milk that has spoiled.
“But you killed them…” My voice trails off. He’d torn those beasts apart with nothing but wind.
Zephyrus scrubs a hand down his face. “Pierus has countless hounds at his disposal. An army, if you will.”
Beneath the spreading numbness, I am afraid. I wonder when this journey will end. “How close?”
“The hounds move quickly. They will likely arrive within the hour.”
