Still in Galaythia.
And that was almost worse.
Galaythia wasn't safe for someone like her.
Every dark thing that wanted her would feel her eventually. Even if they couldn’t track her.
She would have known that. But she took the risk anyway for her family.
Guilt settled into my chest like weighted stone.
I'd pushed her too hard. Held on too tightly. Tried to control a situation I couldn’t control.
And now she was gone.
The door opened.
I didn't turn. Didn't need to. I knew the sound of Alaric's measured footsteps. Like mine, it was the kind that announced your presence without demanding it.
He stopped a few paces behind me.
"It failed," he said, his voice low and ragged.
There was no preamble. No attempt to soften the blow. Just the truth, delivered flat and grim.
My jaw tightened. I turned to face him, finally meeting his gaze. "Ready to tell me‘I told you so’?" The words came out sharper than I intended, laced with bitterness I hadn't meant to let show.
Alaric didn't flinch. "That's not going to help anyone." The calm tone he took with me was the same one he used when he was talking someone down from a fight they couldn't win.
I hated how reasonable he sounded.
Hated that he wasright.
"You're still angry with me." It wasn't a question.
Alaric's expression didn't change, but something raw and unguarded flickered in his eyes. "Fuck yeah, I am. You neverlisten.” His voice was edged with rage. "You never include me. You make decisions alone—always fucking alone—like the rest of us are just pieces on a board you're moving around."
He took a step closer, his frustration bleeding through the cracks in his control.
"Why choose me as your Bloodsworn? Or your Veythral? If you don't trust me—your own fucking brother—enough to actuallytalkto me before you make choices that affect all of us?"
His brutal honesty hit harder than I expected.
Maybe that was because he’d sounded like Arielle—ready to quit and walk away from following my lead.
"You knew I wouldn't agree to sending Elariya back," I confessed.
Alaric seethed. "I hoped you'd see sense."
"Sense?" I echoed, the word tasting bitter.
"Yes.Sense,Wolfe." He gestured sharply, his frustration boiling over. "The mortal lands are contained danger.Controlled. We could've monitored her, kept her safe from a distance. But this?" His voice dropped, deadly serious now. "Her loose in Galaythia,alone, with the enemy seeking her, is so muchworse."
I bowed my head.
The weight of everything pressed down on my shoulders. Every choice I'd made, every mistake I'd convinced myself was to protect Elariya. But it was to no avail because it played into my own selfish desires to keep her.
“I have to find her, Alaric.”
