The only sounds in the clearing were the humming of the tree and thepyrokinibbling at the moss, searching for the last remnants of rations.
Then something pierced that quiet hush. Echoing towards me, though it still sounded far away.
“Vienne!”
I would recognize that voice anywhere.
“Vienne!”
I wondered how long he’d been searching for me.
Then Devina’s voice whispered in my mind,Perhaps his entire life.
I didn’t even tense when I felt her presence nearby. I didn’t even question it that I could hear her, that she could speak to me now, unbound by dreams. After everything I’d felt and experienced during my lifetime—and especially in the last month—how could I think anything was beyond the realm of possibility?
Because nothing was.
Hold on, Vienne, Devina whispered as I closed my eyes.Hold on and I will bring him to you.
Chapter Forty-Four
It had been nearly two days since Vienne left my horde and I was no closer to finding her.
The constant panic and worry made me want to bellow with rage. I felt like a feral beast, pacing in its cage, as I pushed Nillima harder, guiding her through the ancient groves that I had been searching endlessly since last night.
Nillima was reaching her breaking point. I knew that. I’d pushed her hard.
“Please,” I begged her, my rough voice filling the glen. Black trees surrounded us like guardians to this place. “Please, Nillima, we need to find her.”
Nillima’s pace quickened, as if she heard the desperation in my voice.
But another stretch of time passed and there was only more forest. Even with Lokkaru’s words ringing in my mind, even with what she’d told me about how to find the heartstone, we were lost. Completely lost.
It was as if the forest shifted around us, creating a new path for us to journey down, as if to lead us away. We went in circles and yet, no place seemed familiar. It was an eerie, spine-chilling place, an ever-changingplace, and I’d purposefully not peered into the shadows too closely as we passed them because I knew what I would find.
Agony burst in my chest when we circled around again. The moon peeked through the canopy of vines and branches and silver light exploded in the clearing.
“Help me!” I roared. “Kakkari, help me!”
But Kakkari had no reason to help me.
Though I was aVorakkar, a horde king of Dakkar, Kakkari had not listened to my prayers for some time.
Nillima’s breaths were ragged. My heart felt like it was close to bursting. I stilled Nillima and she took her brief reprieve gladly. Closing my eyes, I pieced back the fractured edges of my mind that had wandered as we had roved. I needed to be whole right now. I would never find Vienne if I wasn’t.
“Help me find her,” I whispered and then I felt the familiar prickling on the back of my neck. Something that had always happened when my sister was near. Once, it had been a comfort. Then it had become a fear.
But now?
I opened my gaze, seeking hers in the shadows once the moonlight disappeared.
“Devina,” I rasped, my heartbeat thudding in my throat. “Help me.”
I would try anything. Before, I had feared this. But now I needed to give into that fear, to accept what a part of me had perhaps always known, if I was to find Vienne again. If I was to ever see her again, hold her again.
“I have only ever wanted to help you, brother,” Devina’s voice came.
I saw her eyes glowing in the darkness. My own. Her mouth moved but I heard her words as if they had been whispered right into my ear.
