“We need to run,” Eyden said, not sounding pleased about it either. He couldn’t drift anymore, too depleted.
Elyssa remained stoic, her eyes fixated on the temple and who was still inside.
“This isn’t defeat,” Eyden added, putting his hand on Elyssa’s shoulder until she looked his way. “We’ll come back. But right now, we need to go, otherwise Amira’s sacrifice will be for nothing.”
Elyssa swallowed. Somehow, she looked smaller now, younger, more fragile. Her attitude usually made her seem invincible, but not now. Not with what she’d lost.
Elyssa nodded anyway, regaining some of that fierceness. “We can’t go to camp.”
Lora read between the lines. They couldn’t lead the guards there.
Eyden followed the guards’ fast approaching steps. “Anywhere is better than here.” His gaze went to Ilario, who was kneeling next to Damir on the ground. “Ilario, we need to go.”
Ilario stared up at him. “We can’t leave him.”
Damir’s eyes fluttered, his chest rising shallowly.
“It didn’t get his heart. We can’t leave him to be killed,” Ilario said.
Eyden shook his head. “He’s aguard.He’sLayken.”
“Iknow,” Ilario replied, clearly angry at himself as he let out a frustrated breath. “I know, but Ican’tleave him.”
Eyden still hesitated. He’d followed Layken, had seen what he’d done. Varsha might not have been his fault, but the other fae had been.
Tracking the guards, Lora said, “We don’t have time for this.” She glanced at Ilario, understanding his pain, then sought out Eyden. “Lay—Damir’s coming with us. Let’s move.” Eyden didn’t take one step.
“If we don’t get fucking moving now, Iwillgo back,” Elyssa argued, her restraint close to snapping.
Blowing out a breath, Eyden bent to grab one of Damir’s arms. Ilario took the other. He and Eyden shared a brief look, gratitude flashing in Ilario’s emerald eyes.
They started forward. Rhay followed behind more slowly.
“Hurry up, Rhay,” Lora urged him. Eyes drifting from the guards to her as if he couldn’t make up his mind, Rhay finally picked up speed and joined them, probably realising there was nothing,no one,left for him there.
They left Parae, running through Chrysa, not caring who noticed them. There was no time to hide or be careful. The town seemed weirdly normal. Fae stumbled down the narrow streets, laughing, enjoying the night.
It struck Lora then. They didn’t know. No one knew about any of the life-altering events that had just transpired. To them, Karwyn was still alive. Tarnan wasn’t a Sartoya. The border spell was still in place.
What Lora wouldn’t give to be in their place, oblivious to the danger lurking before them and the doom hanging over their heads. The pain etched into Lora’s heart.
There was no point left in hoping for the irreversible to have a different outcome. Lora could only look ahead. And what she wanted to see more than anything was Tarnan dead.
A thought raced through her mind as they kept moving forward blindly. “Tarnan made the border fall for a reason,” Lora said, her gaze catching Eyden’s. “He’ll stop at nothing to get that agreement.”
Eyden read her eyes in the chaos of their escape. “We have to get to it first then.”
“What are you saying?” Ilario asked, dragging Damir’s half-awake body forward with Eyden’s help.
Slowing down, Elyssa walked beside Lora. “We’re going to the border, aren’t we?” Her hazel eyes were a mix of fear and determination. With Elyssa, fear never won.
Eyden turned his head to the dark sky for a brief moment, not slowing his steps. He met his sister’s gaze again, loaded with emotions dating all the way back to their childhood. “Yes, we’re crossing the border.”
Elyssa didn’t even flinch, but Lora saw the tear in her eye. Knowing her parents died crossing, this couldn’t be easy for her.
With the guards on their heels, no one protested. Damir was waking up more now, and they picked up speed. The woods encircled them soon enough, and Lora almost lost her breath when she noticed the faint shimmer of the portal on the outskirts of Chrysa ahead of them.
Once indigo, the border now shimmered a metal grey, and the closer they got, the clearer Lora could see into her old world. Before, no one could tell what lurked on the other side. Now, it was like a thin fog distorted the ongoings of Earth, but Lora recognised a beach.
