Hare and the others stop, everyone’s eyes now on the city’s entrance. “No,” Hare says, shaking his head. “There’s no holiday. I don’t know what this is…”
“Looks like fae from the neighboring villages are swarming in,” Fang adds, glancing around at the groups along the road traveling toward Lydia. Some are coming from the direction of the forest, others past the other side of the plateau.
“We should go see what’s going on,” another says.
“There could be trouble. You know Carrick has been more violent than ever,” Fang says, looking to Hare. “The rise of the movement has shaken him. He could be pressing his thumb down on the capital. Could have found some of us…”
They all hesitate. Hare looks to me.
“Go,” I tell them with a jerk of my chin. With them in the city, I won’t have to worry about any of them dying for following me.
“We could split up…”
The reluctance in their faces is actually quite profound. That they’re even considering splitting up so that some of them can stay with me. Their sense of loyalty on Auren’s behalf is shocking.
But with the fae flooding into the city, it might be the perfect time for me to walk right up to the palace gates, since the king might be distracted.
My power thrums with impatience, but I fist my hands and hold it back. “Go to the city, ensure your people are safe, and—”
Something in the distance makes me stop, and my eyes suddenly widen. My words slice off as my breath grips tight.
Then my fucking heart clenches in my chest, because there, in the city, something appears in the air.
Like a flare in the swallowed dark. A soft golden light illuminates from the city’s depths, its rays breaking through the high treetops like sunlight.
I stagger back.
Because there, Auren’s aura shines from the city’s core.
Leading me to her.
My bond doesn’t just sing inside my chest now—itpeals. Thunders. Releases with a clamor that even the stars can hear. The song it plays is the perfect rhythm of her beating heart. Just like the beacon that first led me to her in the Barrens, she calls again to me now.
I nearly fall to my knees in relief and elation.
“Auren.”
I say it like a breath. Her name yanked from the deepest parts of me. My jaw aches and my eyes burn, and I’m floodedwith every emotion I’ve felt since we were ripped from one another.
My steps turn sharply toward the city road.
“What are you doing?” Hare asks, he and the other Vulmin hurrying to keep up. “I thought you were going to the palace?”
“Not anymore.”
“Why?”
“Because Auren isn’t in Glassworth,” I say, not bothering to slow down.
Fang comes up on my other side, twisting his ball of teeth at his neck. “How do you know?” he asks. “How do you know where she is?”
I glance at him.
How do I know?
Because I’d know that light anywhere, whether in the depths of darkness or in a sea of stars. Her brightness, hersoul, sings a song I’d follow anywhere.
I know because she’s my other half, and her aura is leading me back to her.
