I shake my head. “No bridge. It’s all gone.”
“So that’s it, then,” Rissa says as she slips down off of Osrik’s timberwing. She sniffs and swipes beneath her eye. “They’re stuck in Annwyn.”
My voice feels as hollow as my chest. “Yes.”
Digby swallows hard and dismounts before starting to pace through the snow like he doesn’t know what else to do with himself.
“Did you see anything else?” Lu asks.
I open my mouth and then close it again, my gaze drifting behind her toward the fog. “No, but I heard voices. I tried to call back to them, but I think it was a trick. It didn’t seem right.”
“Voices?” Lu repeats, looking horrified. “You heard bodiless voices in a void, and you thought you’d just stick around in there to listen to them? That it was a good idea tocall back?”She lets out a sigh before muttering something about me being an idiot.
I don’t disagree.
“Believe me, I’m not going in there again.”
“You’re lucky you came out,” Digby says, eyes creased with stress.
I don’t disagree with that either.
We stand around in a circle, and I know we’re going to have to return to Fourth now, even if it feels so wrong.
I drag a trembling hand down my face, like grief is shaking me where I stand.
But then I hear voices again, and I go rigid. My eyes swing around to the others. “Is that in my head from the fog, or can you hear that too?” I demand.
“Hear wh—” Lu’s reply abruptly cuts off when the breeze carries the sound again. Her eyes go wide. “That’s not the fog. Someone’s here.”
I whirl around, but Lu is quicker. She starts hurrying forward and we quickly follow her through the snow. It’s so thick that it nearly reaches our knees.
Lu reaches a snowbank that’s formed into more of a hill. When she disappears around it, my panic spikes. What if thisisthe fog? What if there’s some sort of curse in there and I brought it out with me? What if these voices are tricking us and Lu just up and vanishes?
Shit.
I surge forward with a burst of panic and speed. I’m ready to start shouting her name, but as soon as I get around the bank, I spot her, and relief bursts through me. But then I grind to a halt next to where she’s stopped.
Because it wasn’t the fog playing tricks on us. There is someone here. Two people, in fact.
One of them is a man with straight black hair and a murderous look on his face, while the other is a beaten and bloodied woman on the ground.
When I see his foot pull back like he’s about to kick her, I surge forward without thought.
It’s not until I grip him by the arm and toss him away, not until I look over at the woman that I realize…
They’re fae.
CHAPTER 66
EMONIE
I’m lying in a pitiful heapin the snow.
I passed out for a little while, right around the time I saw the bridge explode. I think my heart might have exploded with it, so my body just crumpled. As if no part of me was capable of facing the fact that the bridge was destroyed.
Because that means I’m trapped in Orea forever.
I’m lucky that I was already hobbling away when the land started disintegrating. If I’d still been in that fortress where the Orean came back and tried to convince me to go with him…I’d be swallowed down Orea’s gullet right about now.
