Rylo saw her walk in the room and shouted, “No! No morehumansfor me today. Go find your wretched sister and take care of her yourself!”
Avery stood aghast, not sure what to make of Rylo’s loss of composure. “But—you caught her! Where is she?”
“I disposed of the nuisance down along the rocks at the base of the tower. Where she’s gone from there, you know as well as I do,” Rylo drawled, turning back to the book in his hand. He seemed to glow faintly, or maybe it was just the damp and dreary weather that brought out a brighter gleam to his skin.
“Why would you do that? She could throw herself off the falls again!”
Rylo let out a dry laugh. “I was trying to show a modicum of kindness to your injured sister by bringing her back to her room, and she was very ungrateful for my hospitality. Now go. As I have already said, I do not want to see another human again today.”
“Um… Okay,” Avery mumbled as she walked out the door. She shouldn’t have taken his order. It wasn’t very queenly of her to just go along with what a bully like Rylo said, but she was already in the long, dark passageway through the center of the tower that led to Rylo’s private library. It would be best to just go to her room and see if Morgan made it back. Plus by now she was absolutely exhausted from all the stairs she’d climbed down and up and now down again. Her calves burned and she realized that she was losing some of her previous endurance with this life of comfort and luxury in the Towers. She’d need to start getting outside again, and if she was being honest with herself, Avery had been feeling increasingly restless with all her inactivity.
When she finally made it back to her room, she found her sister asleep in the bed, still in her clothes. Her lip was swollen and there was a bit of blood at the corner of her mouth.
Avery tried not to disturb her, but Morgan sat up and stared at her sister. “I’m not okay, Ave,” she muttered before she sank back into the bed.
Avery stood by her side, gently touching her sister on the arm. “Morgan, what’s happened?”
“All of this, starting from the attack. I’ve lost myself. And that magic that I have feels like a wild animal. It’s like it’s feeding on my fear. I almost killed Rylo and myself, and do you know how I responded? Ilaughed!I fucking laughed and there was no way of stopping.”
“What do you mean?” Avery asked. She kept her tone soft, like the voice she’d use for an injured animal.
“My magic came pouring out of me, or whatever those smoky shadows are. They wrapped themselves around Rylo and the feel of his panic rising was—it was intoxicating, like I could just swallow his fear and feast on it. Dammit, look at what this place and these creatures are doing to me! I’m already turning into a monster!”
Avery could see what her sister meant. Ever since arriving here, probably further back to the attack at Quartz Mountain, Morgan had become so far removed from herself that Avery hardly recognized her steady, thoughtful sister. Her sister who thrived on order was replaced with this woman who was letting herself sink deeper into a darkness that seemed to fester like a wound.
“And you tried to go home without saying goodbye?” Avery’s voice cracked as she asked.
Morgan nodded, closing her eyes. “Ican’tstay here, Ave.” She opened her eyes, shaking as she continued, “Every time I see the fae, I feel sick or full of rage. I’m not okay here, and I need to get home. I can sort of understand why you might choose to stay, but I can’t do that. I’m not an angry or violent person! I’m helpful and practical and all of that has been turned upside down in this world. I just can’t keep doing it.Please,help me get home.”
Avery’s stomach clenched. Her sister was hurting, and was desperate to get home. Just like she’d been. When she arrived in Aeritis she’d been alone and scared, desperate to get home. She remembered how broken she’d been when she couldn’t get through the portal at Quartz Mountain, how she even begged Savine to end her suffering.
Now she knew returning home wasn’t what she actually wanted. The thought of helping rule an entire country terrified her—she wasnotqualified to be a monarch. But, Savine had offered to let her play a smaller part on the sidelines, and she owed it to both of them to explore what was between them.
But Morgan didn’t have a Savine here, and she had experienced trauma at the hands of the fae that Avery hadn’t—not even being kidnapped and forced to kill Weston had been as horrible as what Morgan had experienced. To be trapped in Aeritis, experiencing the unwieldy magic that her sister possessed must be terrifying. Avery had no interest in seeing her sister die at Sapphire Falls, but she also couldn’t let her suffer here if there was even a chance that she could get through the portal.
She nodded to Morgan. “Yeah, okay. We’ll try and get you through tonight. Kyla and Rue have that crazy good fae vision and can keep a lookout, plus can see if you go through the portal. Susan can control water, so maybe she can direct you into the flow of the falls.”
Morgan sprang up and wrapped her arms around her sister. Tears flowed between them, but Morgan wouldn’t let go. Finally, she sank back onto her pillow, grief and exhaustion etched onto her face.
“Thank you,” she whispered before she closed her eyes.
Chapter 12
Savine
Orofine residents shouted curses toward the source of the wind as Savine looked up from the ground. All around him, his followers were toppled over by the gale. Some of his warriors even had their elk toppled over on them, crushing them as the beasts struggled to stand. Savine leaped to his feet, drawing his sword with one hand and his essence with the other.
The King's Residence of Latiah stood up the steep and wide path that snaked through the residential streets and bustling shops of Orofine. Now that they were just outside of the interior walls to the building, Savine knew exactly who had dared attack his rebels. Davian was the cause of the wind that had knockedso many of his followers—and himself—to the ground. He’d expected an entire force of resistance as he strode into Orofine, and he wouldn’t let one man stop him from claiming his throne.
“On your mounts!” Savine shouted to his disheveled rebels.Thiswas not how he wanted to enter Orofine. Looking weak and powerless in front of the folk of this city. More so, he and Raikin planned to put Davian quickly in his place, dispelling him of the title of Sage and passing the honor to Raikin.
Around him, Savine’s warriors got off the hard ground, dusting themselves off and settled back onto their elk. Only a few seemed injured enough to need medical attention, including a man who’d been stabbed in the side with his own elk’s antler. Savine approached the man, murmuring words of comfort for the bleeding warrior. The man’s eyes already had a distant glaze to them as he looked past Savine and up to the clear autumn sky overhead. Fortunately, a healer from the crowd was at the injured warrior’s side in moments and Savine took his place on Jari’s back.
“Do you see how the loyalists still defy their true king?” Garnel roared, and the crowd responded with jeers and shouts at the loyalists.
Savine squeezed Jari’s side and the war elk was immediately running through the streets, the throng of the crowd separating as his rebel warriors reclaimed their city. Another bitter blast of wind threatened to topple them, but Savine cast his essence out, creating a wall of thick foliage that cut the wind.
From the King's Residence, Savine heard a jeering call toward him. “You are not welcome here, traitor! We shall not acknowledge you as king!”
