“If you want to come to war, it’s your decision,” he said with great effort. “If you want to stay behind in the crater, it’s your decision as well. It will be safer here.”
“Will it?” I cleared my throat, eager for my skin to stop stinging. “Mrs. Mallowmere told me the eastern spring is breaking its banks.”
Ryker cursed under his breath.
“There was also a strange glimmer on one of the shards this morning,” I said.
He froze. “Near the entrance?”
“No, the opposite side,” I said, playing at us strategizing together. Or perhaps we were doing it for real. “I only caught a glimpse of it, but Nadya didn’t know what it was, either. The sun’s reflection doesn’t glow like that.”
He shook his head. “It’s too early in the year for that, the sun rises too low.”
“Perhaps it was only a weird light.”
His eyes sparked thunder. “Or someone was sending a message inside the crater.”
Chapter 23
Allie
My hair whipped around my face as the first sunrays speared the night sky, hunting down the stars one by one.
Only one remained behind, still and stubborn.
The northern star I’d thought had guided me the night I’d escaped Solkar’s Reach. When I got attacked.
I should have known better than to trust it.
My gaze travelled all along the crater’s rim, jagged and terrifying even in the hazy darkness.
I stood on the narrow ridge on the fortress’ roof, like on that first day here, when I’d been so close to turning feral. Now I was fully clothed, had the thickest boots on, yet my heart still constricted at the sheer vastness of this crater.
This massive, frightening, relentless crater with a pulsing Heart and magical lights that had almost drowned Ryker and Dax.
Which didn’t murmur anymore.
Only the harsh wind hissed, merciless as always.
Shivers raced down my spine, but I ignored them.
It was impossible not to feel like a fleck in the immensity of Solkar’s Reach. Another being it would watch struggle and die, as all mortals who had traipsed across its frozen lands.
Yet the ice on the crater walls didn’t glow as harshly.
Even the snowflakes whirling around me seemed smaller.
“What’s hurting you?” I whispered, hoping the wind would carry my plea wherever it needed to land. My throat tightened. “Who?”
I got no reply.
I hadn’t really expected one, but I sighed all the same.
My eyes scanned the edge again, as the sun rose in the same position as yesterday.
No glimmer.
No glint.
