“I tried to reach you again, but he was muting my powers,” he said roughly. “I’ve been going out of my fucking mind!”
“I’m all right, Kalen,” I said into his chest, relaxing at the familiar scent of mist and leather and steel. “But we need to move. Now.”
He pulled back and searched my eyes. “What happened? Where is he?”
I held up Kalen’s sword. The blade was dripping with Orion’s black blood. “He said if I could hurt him with this sword, he’d give us a day’s head start to Endir.” I shrugged. “Turns out his wings aren’t as impervious to blades as the rest of him.”
“I see.” A muscle in his jaw ticked. “I don’t want to run, though, love. I want to rip his head off.”
“We can do that later,” I said, quickly tossing a glance over my shoulder for any sign of Orion. I knew that if Kalen saw him now, wounded as he was, he’d go after him. “But I have an idea that can only work if we go to Endir now. I think I know how we can win.”
* * *
It took another couple of days to reach Endir. The mists had cleared, and we could see the blood that painted the dirt outside the gated city. I stepped over a broken arrow, my throat tight. All I could think about was my mother. She’d died out here because of her long-held fear of the Mist King. It had taken me a long time to stop blaming myself for what had happened to her. She never would have been here if not for me. If I’d taken more time to convince her that Kalen was on our side…
But no. I couldn’t go back there. I couldn’t live in the past and keep beating myself up for my bad choices. The only way to become a better me was to accept it and move forward. I couldn’t fix the past, but I could make a difference for my future.
For everyone’s future, I hoped.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Kalen said. I could feel the weight of his gaze as I moved carefully across the bloodied ground. “You’re wondering if this bloodshed is from that night we lost your mother. It’s not. It’s too fresh for that.”
I tensed. “Then there was a recent battle here. How many died? Can you tell?”
“A few. But even the loss of one life is too many. I should have been here.”
“Could it have been…?” A lump lodged in my throat. I didn’t want to voice the thought aloud for fear the universe would hear me and make it true.
“Yes. It was likely those who fled here from Dubnos.” Kalen knelt and placed two fingers against the blood. It was still fresh enough to paint his skin. He brought his stained fingers to his nose and sniffed. His lip curled. “A beast. That’s what this blood is from.” He glanced around. “There are a few other places where the blood’s a different color. Lighter than this.”
I followed his gaze and noted he was right. The splatter he knelt beside was much darker, like the shadow of blood. The other smaller patches were bright red. So the Dubnos lot must have run into a beast on their way to Endir. Judging by the blood, they’d killed it, but the beast had taken a few fae or humans with it when it died.
“We need to get to Endir.” I turned back toward the city and moved quickly, my worry for Nellie, Toryn, and the others like a gust of brutal wind against my back.
But when we eventually reached the bolted gates, the guards called to us in jovial tones.
“Oi! Glad to see you two are here!” A tall, armored woman with flowing yellow hair leaned out a window and grinned. “Everybody’s been making bets on when you’d get here. Andifyou’d get here.”
Kalen surprised me by grinning right back. Sometimes, with all his brooding and scowling, I forgot he had a mischievous side when around his constant friends. Sometimes it was easy to forget he even had friends. Kalen Denare was larger than life. A king of kings, it often felt like.
But around his companions, he was just a fae man who would do anything for his kingdom.
“Judging by your smile, I’m guessing you bet we’d return right about now, alive and well,” he called back to the guard.
“I always bet on you, Kal.” She shifted to me and nodded, still smiling. “It’s good to see you well, too. Your Highness.”
Surprised, I cleared my throat. I didn’t know how to respond in a situation like this. Back in Albyria, I’d been instructed to stay silent when addressed and keep my eyes trained on a spot above the subject’s head. But those were Oberon’s rules, and I’d never been meant totrulyrule. None of the mortal brides had been. I didn’t know what real queens did.
But I also hadn’t realized anyone knew about our marriage. No one except…
“I see Fenella has been spreading the word,” Kalen said. “I’d been waiting to make the formal announcement first.”
“Ah, she just wanted to give us some good news is all. Plus, it made the humans happy. You know how it’s been tense around here. The news calmed the whole thing down, ‘cause we’ve got a real alliance now.” She ran her fingers through her hair, then brought back her smile. “Anyway, I’ll let you both in. I can tell it’s been a long journey. And I’m sure you’d like to see your sister, Your Highness.”
“Yes, about my sister…” I said, hoping to ask the guard how Nellie was. But she’d already started rolling up the heavy gate, and my words were drowned beneath the rumble and creaking of the wood. Once she’d raised it enough for us to duck through, I followed Kalen into the streets of Endir.
We wound our way toward the castle, across the bridges and past the markets—now shut for the night. Everything was silent and still. I noticed several homes were occupied that hadn’t been before. Washing lines were draped between buildings, and mist-resistant greenery crowded window boxes.
“These are the homes I suggested we share with the humans from Teine,” Kalen said, nodding toward a house that had two pairs of boots sitting on the front porch, bottoms coated in dried mud. “I’m glad to see some of them decided to take up that offer.”
