I caught my lower lip between my teeth. “Do you think it has to do with proximity?”
The soldier’s mouth fell open in confusion, but the question was not meant for him.
Arran answered by crossing his arms over his chest and stepping to the side so he could see past me and out the window I’d dangled myself from moments before.
“They are in another realm,” Arran pointed out.
“But the realms… they exist like layers on top of one another. Some places they are thinner than others.” I’d felt it when moving between them. Sometimes, it felt like a single step. Less, even. A blink to move from one realm to the other. Then others, a leap or a lunge was required. At first I’d thought it had to do with my own reserves of power or control. But the more I stared at the Spit, the more Ifeltit in my bones. The wrongness in the air. “If there is an army of them right there, but in the human realm…”
“Proximity,” Arran finished.
I nodded, palming the hilts of my daggers by habit. “How much amorite do we have left?”
“The stores we collected from the Baylaur refugees are almost depleted.”
That was the agreement we’d made. The small jewels, already fit for piercing, would be put to that purpose. The gems mined from Castle Chariot would be smelted into weapons. The survivors from Baylaur had brought through a decent stash, butI’d dispersed some of that to the villagers and elementals in Eldermist as a show of goodwill.
The terrestrial army was tens of thousands of fae strong. How would we decide who received the life-saving amorite piercing and who did not?
“Just because we give them an amorite piercing does not mean they will live. Nor does putting an amorite weapon in their hand. Even those that have both will die. Thousands of us will die.”
Thousands of my subjects. Even more of the humans.
I need to find the Ethereal Queen.
Arran’s posture tightened.I need you in this battle. Then we will start raiding the library in Cayltay.
“Flattery will get you everything,” I said, flashing a grin. The poor terrestrial soldier frowned in confusion.
You cannot delay forever.
I said it—thought it—to remind myself as much as him.
But the other end of the bond was silent.
44
CYARA
The limitations of Diana’s magic made Cyara miss Veyka even more. Diana could only take them a few hundred miles at a time, with rests to recover in between. Those rests became longer each time she cast the spell. Every new line of fatigue that appeared on Diana’s face sent Percival raging. Cyara forced herself to endure it without a single word in her own defense.
She had her reasons. But she could not expect Percival to share them. He only remained for Diana’s sake. Diana, who even after all she had endured, insisted she would help. She refused to remain in the safety of Eilean Gayl, cloistered away with the priestess and healers. What Cyara admired more was the unimpeachable goodness inside the human woman—while her own understanding of herself continued to crumble.
After three agonizing days, Diana was not the only one buckling under the ever-present weight of exhaustion.
But then, the Isle of the Dead materialized around them.
Diana sank to the ground, sucking in one ragged breath after another. Percival kneeled at her side, rubbing wide circles across her trembling back. Only Cyara stayed on her feet.
The isle was barren, not a single stalk of plant life visible anywhere. But Cyara could not banish the sense that, despite that, the island was very muchalive. Magic was here. Strong, like Avalon, but different. Sinister. An irrepressible urge to flee took root in her chest, blooming as it stretched out into her limbs and curled its tendrils along the intricate network of her veins.
“We should not be here,” Cyara whispered.
“Too fucking late for that,” Percival sneered, tugging his sister to her feet.
Diana was calmer. “It is the vestigial magic of the island,” she said. “It pushes you to leave, but to me… it calls.”
Cyara shivered despite the humidity that hung in the air. They were at the far southern end of the continent, on what would be the elemental half of the realm, if they could open a rift to Annwyn.
