I keep my mind focused on Auren instead. Thinking of her with every breath I take. My hand delves into my pocket every so often to feel her piece of ribbon, and with every step, our pair bond thrums.
go go go go
I’m coming.
I keep going until there isn’t just a hint of Annwyn in the air anymore. Instead, it nearly chokes me. Its scent is nostalgic. Bringing up memories I mostly tried to forget, and yet, I suck it down with gratification in its familiarity.
I’m not sure how much time has passed by the time I finally reach the end of the bridge.
Slowly, the fog lifts away, like fingers gripping the corner of a curtain and pulling it back. My heart pounds as the last of the haze dissipates, and I brace myself for what’s to come.
Then, I step off the bridge and into Annwyn.
A place I never thought I’d return to.
My body responds, recognizing the land. Something prickles my fae senses and pumps through my body. I look down, seeing my blackened veins return, spreading down to my wrists, my power no longer feeling like it’s being held back.
I take in a breath, and my lungs feel fuller. Like this is the air the fae are supposed to breathe. My gaze disperses, taking everything in, noting the light purple sky. But that’s where the beauty stops, because the land I stand in is…
Dead.
That’s the only way it can be described. I thought the dirt bridge was drab, but this is different. The ground here looks leeched. Like all the color has been drained and the land has bled out, leaving it nothing but a pale, lifeless corpse.
Clumps of grass are withered and white, the soil equally colorless and parched. There are hills and mountains and a city clustered in the valley near a wide-mouthed riverbed. It should be a land of beauty.
It’s not.
Because that mountain, those hills, the city, even the river, it’s all dead. Ashen and unnatural. Not a single tree or blade of grass grows. Even the river has run dry. As if it was all scorched and then never recovered. Never came back to life.
Even from here, I can see the city looks empty, the buildings decrepit. There’s nobody in the streets, no sign of movement or life. Beneath the sweet scent of Annwyn’s air, there’s a lifelessness that reverberates up from the ground and hangs down from the clumped, pallid clouds that are stilted in the sky.
This is a different sort of death than my own power, but something just as fatal has taken root here. And by the looks of it, the infection is spreading.
Miles away in the distance, I can see the expected vibrant fields and green forests and impressive mountains. But this disease of the land is encroaching on that lush, colorful beauty. And the death stems from here, right at the entrance of the bridge.
Seventh Kingdom was destroyed when the bridge was first broken. It wiped out the entire kingdom and every living thing that resided there. But it looks like that destruction landed on both sides, because Annwyn seems to have suffered the separation too, with this crawling, growing death.
A death that feels angry. Feelshungry.
Maybe this is why the fae have repaired the bridge and invaded Orea. I never heard about the land dying. It doesn’t seem like it’s happened recently, either. I can sense how far the death reaches, and something tells me it’s been happening for a long time.
My expression hardens. It appears my father broke far more than just the path from Annwyn to Orea. Not that I’m surprised. He enjoys breaking things.
Thingsandpeople.
Pulling my grim gaze from the dead city, I try to determine which way to go. Then, something in the distance catches my eye. A column of rising smoke.
“So there is life amidst the death,” I murmur.
Different paths branch off, though they’re nothing more than simple trails in the ash for me to follow. Taking the one that leads toward the direction of the smoke, I start walking.
The smoke is my guide. I follow it without stopping, and as I get closer, I see its source.
A bonfire in the middle of an army base camp.
There are only a few dozen fae gathered here. Maybe the rest were all sent across the bridge to wreak their havoc.
I’ll be wreaking havoc of my own.
