Page 168 of Of Masks and Fury

“We should go. The others will be waiting.”

We put everything away. Trew gathered the maps from his desk, and we slung our bags over our shoulders. Leaving his office, we met up with our friends outside.

Pherin launched from my shoulder, spiraling up toward the sky before diving back down to land on Trew’s outstretched arm. Gavelle flew in and settled beside her.

The two companions touched beaks, a gesture so tender it made my chest ache.

Twin flames bond twice.

“I sent word ahead,” Trew said. “Helena should have the dragons prepared by now.”

We strode toward the forest path that would take us to where we housed the dragons.

No one spoke.

The answers we needed lay somewhere south, in a place my mother had hidden from the world.

Trees closed around us.

Behind us, Caldrith castle waited. Eva’s cell. The prisoner who’d said don’t forget us. Twenty-three people counting days.

Ahead, whatever my mother had hidden in the south.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

ISI

As we flew south, the wasteland unfolded beneath us like a wound that refused to heal.

I sat behind Trew on Lakast, pressed against his back, my arms wrapped around his waist, my cheek resting against the hard leather of his tunic. His familiar scent mixed with the rot rising from below, a jarring contrast that made my chest hollow out. His body heat radiated through the leather, fighting the chill seeping up from the corrupted land.

Pherin perched on my shoulder, her tiny talons digging into the leather armor Naveah had crafted for me.

Ugly land,she said in my mind, sharp with disgust.Bad smell. Fly faster.

I couldn’t agree more.

What had once been fertile territory now stretched out in patches of cracked desert and fetid swamp. The few skeletal scruffy trees that remained clawed at the sky like bony fingers. No birds sang. No insects buzzed. The silence was absolute, the kind of quiet that came after something had been stripped away and would never return.

I tightened my fingers on Trew’s tunic.

He felt the movement and turned his head enough that I could see the line of his jaw.

“One day, the land will restore itself,” he said, his voice pitched low enough that only I could hear over the steady beat of Lakast’s wings. “It’ll be beautiful again.”

I wanted to believe him. Fates, I needed to believe him.

“There were villages here.” His hand came up to rest over mine. “Families. Farms that grew the sweetest berries in all the courts. Children who played in meadows that bloomed with wildflowers.”

He stroked my knuckles, a gentle rhythm that steadied the frantic beat of my heart.

“When we’ve sealed the veil and destroyed whoever’s controlling the Skathes, those people will come back. They’ll rebuild. Plant new seeds. Live in peace.” His hand squeezed mine. “I promise you that.”

King right,Pherin said.

To our left, Kyreth flew with Lexie and Derren on her back, his sword jutting up his spine. Levar clung to Lexie’s shoulder in his badger form, his dark eyes scanning the wasteland below with the same wariness I felt. To our right, Wairen carried Kerralyn, with Keek tucked into her pack, only his whiskered nose visible.

We’d been flying for the entire day. The sun hung low on the horizon, painting the devastation in shades of orange and gold that would make it look beautiful if I could squint hard enough to avoid seeing the decay.