“Mariel, you do not want to do this.” He grabbed his own weapon, a glistening sword with a much longer reach than her tiny silver blades. “You will not win against me. You have no training. Your strength will not match mine.”
“Is that what you truly believe, Dwynn?” Her dagger flashed as she leapt toward him. Mariel had training aplenty. Her father had taught her himself when she’d been nothing more than a wee girl with a dream in her head: a kingdom full of peace with Mariel as High Queen. That dream had never come true, but she’d never forgotten her training.
She reached Dwynn before he even knew she was coming for him. Her blade sank deep into his fleshy neck, and red splattered the grime-soaked ground.
10
Reyna
The galloping hooves were thunderous. Reyna clung tightly to Enbarr’s grey mane, breathing in the pungent scent of roots, dirt, and sweat. She didn’t dare glance behind her, nor did the others in her party. They could all feel the Ruin bearing down on them like the encroaching mass of a heaving army.
They rode like that for hours, outrunning the ebony specks that fell from a sky that had been sapped of all light. At times, Reyna could not help but wonder if this was it. Had the world finally come to an end?
A single star appeared in the sky before them. And then another, quickly followed by dozens more. Hope speared Reyna’s heart, and she pushed up from Enbarr’s sweat-slick neck to guide the mare to a stop. Wingallock hooted, quickly landing on her shoulder, his talons piercing her cloak.
Reyna turned to glance behind them. The sky had cleared; no more ash drifted down from above. It was almost as though the Ruin had never even been there. Almost. There was a stretch of charred ground that disappeared into the distance. The snow and grass had melted away. A strange smoke curled from where the blackness had fallen.
She whistled a signal to the others who had kept charging ahead, too tired to notice that the terror had stopped.
In an instant, Lorcan was by her side, gazing in the direction they’d run. His chest and shoulders tall, he did not look at all the worse for wear, as if he were accustomed to fleeing for his life from an enemy that would never back down. “It has finally stopped.”
“So it seems,” Reyna said. “Although I do not trust it to remain that way.”
He frowned. “Where did it even come from? Why did it follow us here?”
“If we had the answers to those questions, we might very well be able to stop it.”
“Thane is exhausted.” He twisted to where the prince barely clung to the back of his horse, his eyes half-lidded. A flicker of annoyance went through Reyna. As the future ruler of this realm, surely he should be the strongest of them all. “So are your sister and the horses. We should try to make camp nearby.”
Reyna nodded toward the distant yellow glow on the horizon. “It is almost first light.”
“Yes,” Lorcan said, sounding troubled. “But it is near a week before we reach Tairngire. We should rest, if only for a few hours.”
Reyna turned to gaze at the warrior. His muscular body seemed to hum with power even if that made little sense. He sat tall on his horse, the light wind rippling the dark hair around his face and the distant sun casting sharp lines onto his strong jaw. The scent of him drifted toward her, leather and smoke and steel. A strange sensation fluttered in her belly. Lorcan could not be trusted, but she could not deny that his unyielding strength was…impressive.
“For someone who’s been awake all night, you don’t seem at all tired,” she noted.
Lorcan’s body went tense. “Neither do you.”
At that, he turned his horse around and trotted back to his prince’s side. Reyna watched him go with slightly narrowed eyes. There was something odd about Lorcan, though she could not put her finger on what it was, something that drew her to him. Perhaps she was only imagining things. After all, he had been at the inn when Thane had attacked her people. He had likely participated in the assault himself.
She couldn’t trust any of these air fae. And she could never let herself forget what they had done.
* * *
The Air Court’s capital city, Tairngire, rose up before them in great, gleaming shades of gold. They were still half a day away, but they were close enough that the weariness began to melt from Reyna’s body. She was tired of being on the road. The Ruin had not attacked them since their fearful race through the night, but they had still ridden hard for the city’s gates. No one wanted to risk it happening again.
As they drew closer, Reyna could not help but stare in awe at the city that stretched out before them. Even with the concentric walls looming high, Reyna could still see the impressive expanse of buildings. Tairngire was thrice as large as Falias. Clusters of stone buildings with wooden shingles dyed gold climbed up a hill where Dalais Castle perched high above them all. The castle itself was breathtaking. With buttressed walls, it was hewn from polished white stone, and golden spires rose majestically into the darkening cerulean sky.
Set on the mouth of the Bay of Wind, Tairngire was a mercantile city full of bustling canals and booming trade. It had once been the wealthiest city on the continent, but as Reyna and the rest of the party continued down the path, she began to spot pockets of blight. Rot seemed to creep through the city, stretching across sagging buildings and muddy roads.
As they approached the open city gates, several guards stood waiting with a carriage that looked as though it had been spun from the very same gold that topped the castle spires.
From the front of their party, Lorcan jumped off his horse, his boots splashing into mud, and greeted the guards.
“This has been an exceedingly long journey,” her sister whispered as they slowed. “Please do not tell me that we must stop again.”
Thane glanced up from where he sat sipping on another flask of wine. He had started on it at first light, almost as though he were steeling himself for the return to his court, and dusk now darkened the skies. “A formality. The prince and his betrothed cannot very well waltz through the gates with zero fanfare.”
