I slid from my horse, legs trembling beneath me. We’d ridden hard for two days, but it wasn’t fatigue that made me shake. It was the weight of what I was leaving behind. It was the home, the kingdom that no longer felt like mine, the father whose voice I could no longer trust.
Isolde crouched over the small flames between two stones, dried brush catching the spark she ignited from the flint and her healer’s dagger. “You should eat,” she said without looking up. “You haven’t touched anything since dawn.”
“I can’t,” I whispered.
“Suit yourself.”
I sighed, turning to look at her. “Not going to force me?”
“It’s pointless to force you to do anything you don’t want to, Réalta. I’ve known that since you were a child. It would be foolish to believe I could start doing it now.”
Isolde sat back and hummed the same melody from before as she coaxed the flame. The tune threaded through the open air and trees like a promise—a hope perhaps of healing this world and all those lost within it.
When Wyndfall returned, he dropped a bundle of twigs beside the fire and sat across from me. The lines around his eyes deepened in the flickering light as he took in a long, steadying breath.
“You shouldn’t blame yourself for what’s happened,” he said.
“How can I not?” I asked. “If I had seen what Minaeve was sooner… If I’d spoken against her—”
“She’s had centuries to practice her deceptions,” he cut in. “Your heart is honest, and you haven’t succumbed to a lust for power. That’s why she hates you.”
I stared into the flames until they blurred. “My father doesn’t even look at me the same way anymore. When she stands beside him, it’s as if I disappear. This war isn’t right.”
Wyndfall reached out and took my hand, the gesture gentle and comforting. “You haven’t disappeared. You’re seeing the truth and trying to do what’s right for your people.Sometimes, the gods take us off the throne to set us on the right path.”
I wanted to believe him. Gods, every beat of my heart and breath in my lungs hung in the hope that I was making the right decision. Leaving Zircon City and breaking from my father could be the end of everything or the start of a grand new beginning.
“Now rest,” Wyndfall said. “I’ll keep watch.”
I nodded, thankful for his belief in me. Grateful for his loyalty and trust. Without him, I wouldn’t have a small battalion of brave men and women soldiers preparing to fight against the crown and side with me as the rightful heir.
“And then I’ll take the second watch,” Isolde said. “Don’t think for one second you’re going to exhaust yourself and then ride all day without falling off your horse.”
I smiled at my companions.
“Now sleep, Réalta,” Isolde said firmly.
For once, I didn’t argue and placed a bedroll near the fire, settling in for the night.
The right path.
Wyndfall’s words echoed as I tossed and turned, wrapped in my cloak, trying to fall asleep and watching the stars shift above the black branches. The cool earth beneath me was foreign. I hadn’t spent many nights, if any, sleeping under the stars like this. But something about being here, about what we were doing, felt right.
By tomorrow, we’ll reach Agate Bay. And from there, I’d board a ship and leave for the Inner Kingdom, to Skylar, to offer an alliance and the truth about why the war with the shifters began in the first place.
Sleep claimed me in the night, but it was anything but restful. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw my father’s hand clasping Minaeve’s.Mycrown lay atop her midnight hair, and the Heart of Valdor sat between them as a symbol of their power and unity.
But it was wrong. All so very wrong.
We rode again before dawn. Frost glittered on the grass, and the air was sharp enough to bite. Wyndfall led us through the last of the forest, down into the lowlands where the road met the cliffs. To the west, the sea spread vast and silver beneath the rising sun.
Isolde rode beside me, her healer’s pouch bouncing lightly against her hip. “The High Fae and shifters will listen to you,” she said quietly. “I believe they’ll want this alliance as much as we do.”
“I hope you’re right,” I murmured.
“I usually am.” Her smile was small but sure. “And Queen Skylar, she’ll listen. She’s your family after all, and that means something.”
A part of me still couldn’t believe it. I just hoped she was willing to listen to what I had to say.
