Graviter hangs back behind us. According to him, if he takes off at the same time, the strength of his wing beats will knock Torva off course.
She doesn’t disagree.
Before we took to the air, we retrieved our satchels from the edge of the forest, along with our fur coats, which we quickly pulled on.
Using a piece of broken tree bark, I scooped up the discarded black hammer and three medallions and dropped them into the toolbox Asha brought with her.
The device she pulled from my heart rests in there, along with her grandmother’s silver medallion. That medallion was the last object that Asha’s grandmother ever forged, and she poured all of the goodness of her heart into it. It helped Asha to overcome the darkness of Malak’s medallion for a time.
Last of all, we gathered up the two onyx spears we brought with us. When Asha fought a monstrous wolf that rose up in the wasteland on her final day in the city—the day she saved me from death—she turned that creature to stone. It had tusks protruding from its face. Each tusk is long and thin and gently curved with a sharp tip at its pointed end.
She used the tusks as poles to fashion a sled on which she dragged me to safety, but they’ve been useful as spears since then.
The substance they’re made of has proven to be unbreakable. Asha’s magic can’t shatter them.
Now, Graviter carries them in his talons as he finally rises into the air behind us—and that’s the last I see of the snow-covered cliff and the tree Asha healed before I’m forced to face fully forward.
It’s impossible to speak, as any sound I could try to make would be drowned in the rush of wind, but I described the location to Torva before we left so she can recognize it within the western mountains.
For the next hour, we travel farther west before turning to head southward. We’re closer to the coastline than I’ve ever been, a salty tang filling the air.
Father once described the sea to me, the way the waves crash against the shore and the wind brings the taste of salt and brine to your tongue.
Soon enough, the salty taste gives way to the crispness of snow once more.
Torva angles a little west again, veering far wide of the cursed city that becomes visible in the distance, a mere blob that I could put my thumb over.
While the fae call the cityVadlig Odemark, meaning ‘the cursed wasteland’, Thaden called itSvikari Traidor. The Home of Traitors.
Now I wonder if he came to the city thinking to free Asha from me, only to find her fighting for me. He would have come to see her as a traitor.
The sun is setting by the time Torva flies back toward the western peaks from the far side, her body casting a final shadow across the trees below us before the light fades altogether.
My heart squeezes hard within my chest as I glance down at the rooftop of my old home and the smaller buildings that rest alongside it.
Torva glides for a moment, circling the clearing before she picks a spot where she slips smoothly to the ground.
Snow has built up along the long side of the cabin, although not as much as I thought there would be. At its far end, I can make out the structures that appear to have remained intact—the smokehouse and forge.
As soon as Torva touches down, Asha adjusts her position and I can imagine her arms and legs are even more sore than mine. I have my wolfish strength to call on while she has had to rely on her now-human muscles to cling to the dragon’s back.
Despite my physical discomfort, I have enough insight to know that my now-wooden movements are caused by more than the ride.
My father’s statute has remained in the clearing.
His back is to me and I’m grateful for that, because I’m not ready to face him yet.
He’s located closer to the cabin’s entrance on the far side, giving Torva plenty of space to move around within the clearing at this end.
She folds her wings and crouches low, her question urgent. “Is Milena still alive?”
“She is,” Asha calls, quickly checking Milena before dropping our satchels to the snow and turning carefully so we cancoordinate our movements to slide off Torva’s back with Milena secured between us.
Carefully, we lay her on the snow beside Torva, the fur still wrapped around the Blacksmith.
A moment later, Graviter’s large shadow looms over us.
We hold on to each other while he glides to the snow in a rush of wind.
