COMMANDER RYATT
My adrenaline hasn’t stopped spiking.
I know I’m still in a state of shock, but it’s because death was certain. I stared into its eyes and ran straight for it. Expecting to crash into it with everyone else.
So when the bridge suddenly exploded and collapsed a chunk of the world with it, my mind struggled to keep up.
I’mstillstruggling. Just like Lu, Os, Digby, and Rissa are. Even Argo keeps whining and scraping his talons through the snow in agitation.
Head turning again, my gaze casts toward the space where the bridge was. My eyes not wanting to accept the sights of the gaping air.
With my heart pounding in my chest, I glance back at the unconscious soldier from Second. I tie off the bandage over the wicked gash on his leg and then slip the supplies into the pack on the ground.
Everyone else has been treating wounds too. We’re lucky some of the timberwings kept their packs on them, because we had just enough mender supplies to treat the most serious injuries.
As soon as I finish, Osrik lifts the man I helped onto the back of a timberwing where another Second soldier is already waiting, ready to secure him.
King Thold comes walking over just as I clean my hands in the snow. “That’s the last one?”
I nod. “Last one.”
Although, even now that we’ve tended to everyone, I don’t know if they’ll all make it. We did the best we could. All I can hope is that they survive the flight home and get to a skilled mender.
He nods and brushes snow off his cloak, his own hand wrapped in a bandage too. “You fought well. Orea owes you a great debt.”
Maybe I’d feel pride at his words if I didn’t feel so shocked. If my pulse weren’t still racing.
It can’t be gone.
“Orea could not have done it without you, King Thold,” I manage to say. But really, all I want to do is fly over the crumbled land. To search the space where the explosion happened.
The need is like a fist against the door of my soul, knocking relentlessly.
The snowy snake wrapped around Thold’s neck flicks its pale pink tongue in my direction as if it’s sensing my agitation. It’s as unnerving as its pink eyes that stare at me.
Queen Kaila comes striding over to Thold. Tendrils of her black hair have been ripped from her braid, and her timberwing suffered a minor wound on its leg, but other than that, she came away from this battle unscathed. She managed to stay in the air the entire time.
Her face is lit up in a satisfied smile. “The war is officially over. We won.”
A couple of soldiers behind her call out in joined celebration, rejoicing in this inconceivable triumph—and theyshouldcelebrate. Because this means Orea will survive. That Oreans won’t be massacred and wiped off the face of our world.
But this victory came with a price.
“The bridge,” Kaila says, nodding to where it once stood. “There was a moment, just before it was destroyed…I believe I saw Queen Malina standing on it.”
I blink, remembering that I also saw someone there. “I think I did too.”
“Queen Malina?” Thold asks in shock before a thick silence spreads. “Do you think she was somehow responsible for destroying it?”
Kaila lifts a shoulder. “Who knows?”
“If that’s true, then she saved our world,” Thold says.
“Wesaved our world,” Kaila retorts. “We fought for it, and we prevailed. Now, we can alert the rest of Orea. Let people know the danger is gone and that we’ve defeated the fae once and for all.”
I take in Kaila’s demeanor. Beside me, Osrik tenses, and I can see Lu pause where she’s wrapping a timberwing’s leg, her head turning to look at the queen with a hint of distrust.
“Orea is in disarray,” Kaila says to Thold. “We may find ourselves no longer at war, but it’s still been devastated. Fifth and Sixth have fallen, and with Malina and the new King Fulke gone, these kingdoms need leadership.”
