The strongest always flanked the pack.
Ryker would lead us forward and I’d guard our hides. Whether he was pleased with that decision, I didn’t care.
Sylvester’s dark feathers shone above us as he glided seamlessly over the troops, as if checking everyone was accounted for.
Ryker climbed to the top of the last watchtower, which separated the city from the wilderness, overseeing the departure.
The town square felt empty and worried behind us.
As we passed the city’s threshold, Ryker raised his hands toward the sky, eyes sparking. The ground murmured and screeched underneath my feet. I missed a step, but nobody else seemed to have noticed, keeping the same precise rhythm.
As he fisted his palm, tugging on the air itself, a purple shimmer blew in the wind for the briefest moment, and a translucent dome covered the entire city.
Whatever he had done, I hoped it would keep them protected.
But the crater had felt irked to be called upon. I told myself I’d only been imagining things. Again.
It was an easier thought to deal with as we marched to war.
Chapter 33
Allie
“I’m really not trying to start a fight, but I’m morbidly curious.” Dax asked between chattering teeth as night fell upon us. “Is this frozen wilderness truly where you want to spend the rest of your existence in?”
I grit my teeth and yanked on the tent hide that kept fighting against us in the wind. “When did you hear me say that?”
I’d never envisioned myself living here all the time.
Not when Evie’s marriage had seemed like her dreams come to life.
Not when Ryker had promised me half of this land.
Not when we’d laughed in the washroom, clinging to each other, a memory which now only served to haunt me.
I honestly hadn’t let myself think too hard about that future, not with every day bringing a fresh danger. Deep down, though, I could admit that in the most optimistic outcomes, I always figured I’d find some way to halve my time between the crater and Aquila.
Until now, I hadn’t realized how naive that little nugget of a plan was.
“Without Aquila and the islands, I just figured that’s what you wanted.” Dax shrugged and pulled on the other end of the flapping hide too hard, almost throwing me off balance.
“Careful,” I said, trying to keep my annoyance at bay.
It wasn’t his fault the sun had turned into a storm just as we’d stopped for the night. Or that I had blisters and aches from marching all day.
I’d never walked the distance to the passage. I’d been brought here in a coffin, escaped in a carriage, brought back in Ryker’s arms, and then made the journey once more sitting comfortably in a wolf-drawn sled.
It made Dax’s journey from the rim, in an unknown land, that much more impressive.
But I wouldn’t tell him that right now; he was getting on my very last nerve.
Perhaps I’d made a mistake telling him Ryker suspected he was more skilled than he let on, because Dax had turned up his theatrics, and they werenothelping us now.
Everyone else had already pitched their tents, started fires, and were already eating the jerked meat Mrs. Thornbrew had carefully packed for us all, while we hadn’t even touched the stakes yet.
Dax huffed at the tent and fiddled with it as if he’d never seen one in his life. “You should have just let your brooding giant set it up when he asked.”
Ryker had, indeed, offered to help us–in a matter-of-fact, detached tone. It had been tempting, but, like a proud fool, I’d said no. Hadn’t even thanked him for offering–or, gods forbid, asked him to use his power to ease the strain of the journey from my tired body.
