I ate quickly, grateful for Vanya’s company.
Eirnan arrived as I finished up, bringing two scouts with him, their cloaks rimmed with frost. Their faces were gaunt, but their eyes were bright as Vanya waved them into the tent.
“We found the tunnels,” one of them said without preamble. “Hidden beneath the north face of Nygard Peak. Collapsed in parts, but passable if we dig. We saw smoke on the ridge too—Heliconia’s army is close. We can only pray the gods keep us from their notice before we can get to the opening.”
The others had arrived by then—Thorne and Daegel, Keres joining us with her usual scowl. The fire crackled between us, painting our faces gold and shadow.
“She looks ready to mobilize them,” Eirnan’s scout said grimly.
He’d thrown his cloak back to reveal a youthful face at odds with the lines and wrinkles etched into it. My heart ached for him.
“She’s moving faster than we thought,” Thorne said.
“No, she was always moving toward this; she was just doing it quietly for a time,” I replied. “She wasn’t only licking her wounds in Concordia after casting the curse. She was creating this army. Training them. We’re only just catching up.”
Daegel leaned over the map, tracing the path north with one gloved finger. “If we go through the tunnels, we’ll come out behind the war camp. Strategically, that will likely put us closer to the prisoner, but it’s less defensible as an escape.”
“Which means we’ll have to fight our way back through once we find Lesha,” Keres said.
I shook my head. “Not if we don’t give them the chance.”
“You have a plan,” Slade said.
“We’ll go in quietly. Daegel can use his shadows to shield us.” Daegel nodded. “The rest of us will focus on taking out the eyes and ears—sentries, scouts, anyone who might raise the alarm. We’ll get Lesha before they know we’re there. Once we have her, we have to assume they’ll have found us out. So, we go out with a bang.”
Slade cleared his throat. “And by a bang, you mean?—”
“Furyfire,” I said, flames licking inside my veins at the permission it’d heard me give it.
They all studied me, nodding as if they’d noted the power I intended to unleash and found it acceptable.
“Your flame will only alert them to your identity, Your Highness,” Eirnan warned. “The army will turn its full force on hunting us down.”
“I don’t intend for there to be an army left when I’m done.”
He bowed his head slightly. “Then we’ll follow your command, Aurelia of Sevanwinds. Until the end.”
His words sank like a stone in my chest. Until the end. The same phrase Rydian had used hours ago, his voice breaking under the weight of it.
I forced myself to meet Eirnan’s gaze. “Let’s make sure it isn’t our end.”
The meeting ended, and the others began to file out.
I caught Slade before he could follow.
“Have you seen Rydian?” I asked.
“He took the night watch guarding the perimeter,” Slade said. “Should be back soon to break camp with us. Don’t know when the bastard ever sleeps.”
He shook his head as he strode out.
I followed and saw that the camp had come alive—tents disassembled, ropes loosened, supplies packed; the muted rhythm of purpose. The frost had begun to melt, but even underneath the watery autumn sun, a distinct trace of winter swept down from the mountains.
I turned northward, toward the horizon where the peaks gleamed white in the distance. Nygard Peak rose from among them, taller than the rest. Somewhere beyond it, Lesha waited. On its ridge, Heliconia’s army was gathering, her power growing stronger with every heartbeat.
My hands curled into fists. For the first time since the curse, I wasn’t afraid of what I was going to face. Rydian was right; I’d been giftedthe power to claim this realm as my own. It sang in my blood. Whispered in my heart. Clung to the fabric of my soul.
So, I would use it. For the survival of the fae of this realm, not the victory of a war between the Fates and Furiosities. The gods could write whatever ending they wanted. I would be the one to set the page on fire.
