What if I went and couldn’t come back?
That would put my family at risk.
But Wolfe.
He’d been in that place for nearly a week. He’d be dying.
The thought gripped my insides, and my heart squeezed.
I couldn’t say no before. And I couldn’t do it now.
I couldn’t come all this way, stand here and watch the path to him laid out before me, then turn my back on him.
My heart wouldn’t allow it.
I stepped forward, and they all looked at me.
“Time is of the essence, remember.” I gave them a gentle nod.
Alaric studied my face. “Are you sure you want to go?”
“Would he do it for me? Wolfe?”
“In a heartbeat.” Alaric didn’t even have to think.
“Then I’m going.”
A gentle smile floated across his lips. I got the impression it was one of those rare, heartfelt smiles you wouldn’t see too often on this warrior. “You do us a great honor, Elariya Grayson. I hope you know that.”
I nodded.
Alaric turned to the dragons. “Guard the path for us then head back to Vyrenth Hollow.”
The dragons bowed, and Alaric snapped his fingers and opened another portal.
And I prayed to whoever was listening that we’d find a way back.
Chapter 10
Elariya
“Of Ashes and Darkness”
The portal spat us out, and we went tumbling into a world drained of life.
The warmth that had followed us from the Southern Isles died the moment we crossed the threshold, replaced by a cold that had nothing to do with temperature and everything to do withabsence.
The endless gray was more foreboding than in my dreams. It wasn’t the soft gray of storm clouds or morning mist but the dull, lifeless gray of something that had never known color.
Ash drifted through the air like snow that would never melt, coating everything in a fine layer of desolation.
It was as if joy itself had been leached from this place, leaving behind only the hollow echo of what warmth might once have been.
“Everybody okay?” Alaric asked, but his voice fell flat, sounding muffled and wrong.
We all nodded, but it was clear we were far from okay.
“Has anyone ever been here before?” Arielle’s voice was shaky.
