My jaw locks. “Where?”
He obviously senses my growing impatience, and he’s smart enough not to test the limits. “The capital kingdom. It’s not far. Two days’ walk. One if you’re quick.”
“Then I suggest you be quick.”
His bushy brows lift and he looks around as if at a loss. “We can’t take you. We need to see where the Stone Swords have gone.”
“There’s nothing to see on the other side of that bridge. I killed them. So you’re taking me.” There’s no room for argument.
He blanches. “Whoareyou?”
“Slade Ravinger.”
“Slade…” His eyes dart to the side, as if he’s reaching into the corners of his mind, trying to pull out a recollection. “I’ve heard of a Slade…”
The yellow eyes of the magical fae go wide, and the clump of teeth in his palm falls at his feet. “Wait…SladeCull. You’re The Breaker’s son? You’re…TheRot?”
I haven’t heard anyone call me that in a very long time.
When I don’t contradict his statement, the leader’s face goes pale. Everyone in the group seems to lose their breath.
My reply is stabbing, stark and quiet. “Ravinger. Not Cull.”
I see him visibly swallow.
“Auren Turley is paired withyou?”
“Yes,” I reply, knowing exactly what they’re all thinking. How can the fates have bonded her to someone like me?
But there’s something they don’t understand yet, though I have a feeling they will soon.
There isnothingI won’t do for her.
Auren is life. I am death.Thatis why the goddesses paired us together.
She is the gleaming power of light, and she needed her antithesis to stand at her side. Because she’s the golden sun of warmth and growth, while I am decay and darkness, with a magic that comes from the deepest core of the earth.
There is no growth without rot. There is no sun without the dark sky. And there is no me without her.
But even if we were never paired, it wouldn’t matter. Because I would have made her mine, whether the goddesses deemed it or not.
And I’m going to find her.
So I turn and start to walk. “Let’s go.”
CHAPTER 23
AUREN TURLEY
I jerk awake at thesound of footsteps in the corridor, and I go instantly alert. Shooting a quick glance over, I see it’s daytime. I slept hard after shoving that rot into my ear and destroying one of those tunneling worms. The effort it took was staggering.
My teeth grind together as a fresh wave of anger etches in. But this anger energizes me. Fuels me. My head might be aching, but I’m furious enough that I can shove that away and ignore it. They’ve meddled with my mind, taken my memories, and locked me in this dungeon.
Anger is just the tip of the iceberg for the emotions I feel.
I push out of the bed and get to my feet, my expression hardening as I stand against the wall. I hear a guard speaking to someone, and then a key is shoved into the lock. My muscles tense in preparation as the cell door swings open, and Una walks in.
The guard slams the door shut behind her, and she glances at the bed. All I see is her chessboard brown hair set off against her scalp until she swings around. Blue-striped eyes lock onto me, and her thin lips turn down into a frown.
