Mirroring him, I groaned as I peeled myself from the riverbed. Sighing, I said, “None of you would be in this mess if it weren’t for me.”
“No. You don’t get to do that. Do you hear me?”
I started, surprised by his conviction.
“Thismess”—he motioned all around us—"isourmess, andyou’recaught in the crossfire. Not the other way around. The blame is more my burden to bear than yours. I’m not proud of it, but it wasmyancestors—and all those of the seasonal courts—who sought to steal the very essence of us. Of the Celestial Court." Voice lowering, he said, “Of you, Lady Nyleeria. A grave mistake that cost us so much, and one the Autumn Court still has yet learned after all this time. So, no”—he shook his head—"you don’t get to claim this as yours. If anything, you should hate us for the burden that’s been unfairly thrust upon you. I’m beyond sorry you’re the one forced to shoulder it, and ashamed that my kind still covets it for their own."
It was my turn to shed tears brimming with emotions, and it was truly the first time I’d truly been validated in feeling wronged by theunfairnessof it all. It was comforting in a strange way to know fate’s web had ensnared us all, making me feel less isolated. I felt seen. Not for being the spark, but for the human girl who’d never stood a chance of having a perfectly mundane life. “Thank you for saying that, Kaelun. It means more than you could know,” I said, voice thick.
He nodded, then took in our surroundings. “Now what?”
“Well…” I said, dragging out the word. “I assume you can’t use your unara now that we’re not protected by Sidrick’s?”
He shook his head. “By that reasoning, my brother wouldn’t be able to use unara to mask us; it doesn’t work that way.”
“Wait? What? Are you saying that not even a High Lord can sense when someone uses an unara?”
He nodded.
“Does that mean they wouldn’t be able to sense arcane magic?”
Kaelun shrugged, then seemed to think it over. “I don’t know. Maybe? Either way, I’d rather not test it.”
I chuckled. “I wasn’t planning to. Though I really,really,wish you could just valen to the border.”
He pulled at his neck. “Yeah. Me too. I don’t know how you humans do it.”
“Well, for one, we have horses. For another, we normally don’t have magical beings able to track us to the ends of Lumnara with hellhounds and ways to appear out of thin air,” I deadpanned.
“Hellhounds.” He grinned. “If that’s not their official name, it should be.”
“Speaking of,” I said, grunting as I stood, “let’s get as far away from Wymond’s evil spawns as possible.”
“By evil spawns,” he said, lifting himself off the hard ground, “you mean the hellhounds, right?”
I threw him a mischievous grin. “Actually, I meant his two over-confident lap dogs.”
That got a real laugh out of Kaelun, who threw his hands over his mouth to muffle the sounds. “Gods, I never did like those two.” A shiver wracked his body as if agreeing. “They’re so…”
“Condescending?” I threw over my shoulder as I started down the stream.
“To start, yeah. And they’re that way to everyone. Aunt Fiora refuses to join events they attend. Actually, when you came for the summer solstice, that was the first, and only, time I can remember her going in my lifetime.”
I tried not to think about how emotionally and physically spent I was as the sun began to paint the morning sky pink, spurring the songbirds into action. Tarrin claimed it would take a solid eighteen hours at least to reach the border, and while Kaelun and I had walked through the night, we’d been on our feet for over twenty-four hours without resting. While that may have been impossible as a human, it was no picnic as a fae either.
“Lady Nyleeria?” Kaelun asked from behind.
“Hum?” I said, feeling myself sway.
“We need to rest. My unara is flickering out, and I can barely sense your magic.”
He was right. We were dead on our feet, but my mind was convinced that we’d only make it if we never stopped. Was it reasonable? Absolutely not. But fear rarely danced with logic.
“Just a little farther,” I murmured.
“No.” The word was firm but weak. “There’s a small recess up there that’s well hidden.”
My gaze dragged up to where he pointed, and I almost wept at how far it seemed. “Okay,” I conceded. “But just for a little while.”
