“Relax! It’s me.”
I blearily blink at Ryatt as he comes into focus.
“Fuck. You look...” Ryatt trails off, apparently unable to vocalize just how bad I appear. “Did you just do what I think you did?”
“Rip another tear in the world to save Auren? Yes.”
“Fuck,” Ryatt says. “I never should have said what I did before—that Auren should come here. I was so fucking wrong.”
If I didn’t feel like death, I might reel back from shock. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you admit you were wrong.”
“Come on, I gotta get you out of here,” he says with a grim expression. “You’re in no position to defend yourself like this. When that barrier comes down, those fuckers might try to come for you.”
I look over my shoulder at the monarchs and nobles, at the handful of guards.
They’re fuckingluckyI’m too weak to use any more power, that the shield was up and didn’t let me rot them to dust. Because if things were different, if I weren’t so wrecked right now, they’d be dead. Based on their faces, they know it.
Queen Kaila looks nervous. King Merewen is downright terrified. I think the new Fifth King might’ve shit his pants.
It only gives me the smallest twinge of satisfaction.
I glare at them all, and they fucking know. The next time I see them, I’ll kill them.
The kid is still lying on the floor, but as I watch, he gasps and coughs, the first signs of him waking, and as soon as he does, his barrier begins to ripple, like a blanket being shaken out in the wind.
“Time to go,” Ryatt urges. Turning away, he tosses my arm over his shoulders and all but drags me toward a timberwing. “Can you ride on your own? We’ll go faster if you can ride in your own seat.”
“I can ride.”
“You sure?” he asks dubiously.
“I said I can ride,” I grit out.
“Okay, okay, asshole. Let’s go.”
“How are you here?” I ask as I stumble to the beast. I hate to admit that I wouldn’t have been able to walk this short distance if it weren’t for Ryatt holding me up. “Whose timberwing is this? Where’s Argo?”
“Our soldiers caught up to me—just like I told you they would when I found you in that desert. Argo’s on his way back to Fourth as we speak,” he tells me. “Probably already on a ship. He’s in good hands, I promise. One of them is an animal mender.”
Relief fills my chest.
In a forceful move, Ryatt shoves me up onto the saddle of the squatting timberwing and starts to quickly buckle me in. “We can catch up to the others, ride the same ship. I doubt any of these fuckers will try a damn thing once we’re behind our borders.”
But I shake my head, my hand snapping out to grip his wrist. “I’m not going to Fourth.”
Ryatt pauses, jerking to look behind us at the shield as it starts to snap and fray. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“I’m going to Deadwell.”
He frowns, opens his mouth to say something, but then realization dawns. “You’re going to the rip.”
I nod. “I have to find her, and I’m not going to have the strength to use any more raw power. I can’t open another rip right now.”
Ryatt shakes his head. “Deadwell is a long ways from here. We’ll have to change out the timberwings.”
“You’re coming with me?” I ask, surprised.
“I’m your brother. Of course I’m fucking coming with you.”
