“Promise you’ll come back,” she breathes. “Our mother will kill me if you don’t. And thenIwill bring you back and kill you myself if anything happens to you.”
My chest feels too tight to take a fill breath.
“You can do this,” she adds, whispering into my hair. “You have our mother—the blood of the queen—in you. Do not forget that.”
Ourmother. A small smile pulls at my lips as she squeezes me. “I’ll do my best.”
She nods stiffly, pulls back, and turns away from me. “Come on, let’s set up camp,” she mutters to Adrian as she passes him.
He takes a step toward me, his hand reaching up. I quickly take a step back, leaving his hand to meet air instead of my face. His fingers close into a fist, which he drops back to his side.
“Be safe.” His voice cracks.
I want to laugh at him—to tell him that there is nosafefrom this moment forward. Safety is an illusion, created by people who want tobelievethey have nothing to fear. But in this world, there is no security.
There is only what you choose to do and the aftermath. Every move I make will create a ripple effect from here on out, and I plan to make each one count.
Looking at Leda—plagued by the thought of leaving her behind to find Graylen—is the first time I feel my stomach sink. Even when I thought I was alone, I wasn’t. Not until now.
When I was following Leda and Brielle to the Shadow Lands, Graylen was right there with me. Then, in the trials, I still had my friends and family waiting for me when I awoke. And when Vidaris infiltrated the temple, my mother and Graylen found me immediately.
But this isn’t like those times.
Leda saidourmother—her blood. While I may not know what having the blood of the gods means, I’ll always know what having her within me means. My mother is a gentle but firm leader, one people respect and listen to. She made me feel safe when I arrived in Penyth, something I never truly experienced in Crea.
No matter what information she withheld from me about Reichardt and Daimon, that doesn’t change who she is deep down. And she’s a woman who makes me want to be brave.
I take a deep breath and nod, and with a final goodbye to Zeph, I head to the edge of the Shadow Lands.
Twenty-Seven
Pyrite
I havethe camp set up within moments, but the weight of two stares boring into my back makes it feel like a millenia.
“Be the supportive sister, Leda,” I mutter to myself. “Be the one that stays with the human and the flying death trap.”
A snort follows my whisper, too low for theprinceto hear but clearly loud enough for the flying death trap to hear.
Zephyr nudges at my back, shoving me forward enough that my hands fly out to stop from tumbling forward. I huff and glance at the beast over my shoulder. So many of my Aegis comrades had been surprised I wasn’t chosen to be a Rider.
Ion the other hand, wasn’t.
There’s only one thing I hate more than those that sided with Vidaris: flying.
The too smart for her own good creature nudges me again, and I suppress a squeak as I nearly topple over. She huffs a sharpbreath as if laughing. I glare at her, a smirk playing at my lips. The beast waslaughingat me.
I shake my head and crouch back down to the makeshift tent in front of me. Carefully, I tie down each of the four corners to the ground, securing it with a heavy boulder. I brought enough supplies for one small tent.
Me and Zephyr have come to an understanding of sorts. She terrorizes me, I scream. I get over it briefly and appreciate her beauty and brilliance. She scares me again by twirling me in the air. I scream again. So on and so forth.
Zephyr nudges me once more and I huff, turning fully to face her.
“What?” I ask, watching those golden rings within her too-curious of a gaze.
She twists her head to the left and shakes it up and down, stopping her two legs lightly as if to say, “Look there!”
My eyes follow her version of pointing. I sigh when my attention lands on what she’s urging me toward.
