Rune, get closer,I ordered.
But she didn’t listen. She stayed far enough away that I could hear the hisses of their whispers but not the words.
Rune!
What the hell was she up to?
Ichi bowed lower than I’d ever seen, then retreated to the barracks.
The hellion finally turned and walked over to Rune, squatting in front of her. She met Rune’s gaze, exhaustion plain on her face.
Did she get any sleep?
“I’m okay, Ronen,” the hellion said, sensing my frustration and concern. “I need your help. I need your feather. It’s to carve the rune to release Aspen.” She grabbed Rune’s muzzle. “And before you worry too much about whether I can use it, I’m half your soul. I can.”
Tell her yes, Rune. I’ll bring it.
Rune dipped her head.
The hellion smiled.
Seven Hells. How I wanted to capture that smile with my mouth, brand it into my skin—my mind.
The hellion’s resolve flickered, a sharp stab of grief hitting me.
“The infection has almost eaten all of the Eternal Forest. There is a sliver left. They’ll be here in hours, not days.”
It’s time.
Rune tilted her head back and dragged the shadows taut between us. We unleashed our power through the castle and barracks, saturating every stone, every sleeping soul and blood-banded, in our darkness.
Rune howled.
The cry shuddered through our shadows—the first note of war.
Lucille
Ronen, Aspen, their Soulhounds, and I led our military to the juncture of the Eternal Forest and Verdant Forest. Mud splattered our boots. Our weapons rattled with our movements. The Spinewalkers shook the dreary dead land. The weight of Hell’s future pressed down on our shoulders, silencing our words and honing our attention.
MJ and Alexei were at the far ends, directing our flanks and the archers in the sky. Oliver, still healing from his wound, thankfully was forced to stay back and help Sam with incoming patients. A small part of me wondered if Sam had purposefully slowed Oliver’s healing so he wouldn’t step foot on the field. If he did, I’d owe him one.
Oliver and I only had time to exchange a quick hug and our phrase. I gave myself a moment to love my best friend, to feel his comfort. One selfish moment.
As the thump of their steps vibrated through the earth and they marched toward us in the distance, I went over every decision, every step, a hundred times. Everyone was in the dark except me.
My squad, newly healed, knew to listen to my orders and only my orders. Aspen knew to follow me wherever I went, for the sake of my plan and the guardian bond. Ronen, Oliver, Alexei, and MJ all knew I had somekind of solution.
They trusted me.
They shouldn’t.
The only person who had an inkling of what I was up to was Ichi. She never asked questions when I asked for her help. She never doubted me. Whether it was because of the oath she made to me or the steely determination that sharpened with my every order, I didn’t know. But she helped me carry out the first part of our plan. The last would be the hardest—an act of a lifetime.
This was our only shot.
This was what we were created for.
Not caring who saw or heard, I grabbed Ronen’s gloved hand. He looked at me as he kept his body facing the incoming threat, his eyes black and dangerous, but no less magnetizing. I fell into them, letting them capture me, letting them fill me with a promise I could have. Home never felt so close and yet so far out of reach.
