From Shadow and Silence, page 10
I hadn’t had too much time to myself since we had arrived, nor had I had any time to be alone with Easton. We had both led this charge, trying to do whatever we could while planning for the inevitable.
Strong hands slid around my waist, and I rested my head on his chest, just for an instant before pulling away.
I saw uncertainty in his eyes when I looked at him. I tried to smile, but I knew he likely knew it wasn’t real.
“We’re starting the meeting.”
“I figured, I’m on my way.”
“I’d say you could rest a bit more, but we both know you don’t sleep any more than I do.”
“I wish that wasn’t the case. Let’s get this over with.”
“They’re just going to keep yelling about the same gripes over and over. Every plan we make gets thrown out the window with each of the Gray’s movements.”
He was right, but I was trying really hard not to think about that.
Over the past two weeks, we had waited for The Gray, had fought in small skirmishes, and not just the primary battle that had taken so many. Only we weren’t getting anywhere with any of it. The Gray was hiding in the Shadow realm, and we had to find a way to lure him out.
That’s what today’s meeting was about.
“I love you,” I whispered.
Easton blinked as if startled by my words. He leaned down, brushed a kiss on my lips, and then squeezed my shoulders.
“I love you, too, Priestess.”
“So, let’s figure out how to save the world.”
“Again,” he said, winking. He looked almost like the man I had met at the Fire and Earth border all those months ago.
It almost seemed trivial now what that wink and smirk did to me.
Because despite that, it now felt as if there was no hope.
And that was something I needed to push from my mind.
When we made our way to the war room, I realized the fighting had already begun.
Teagan and his father were at each other’s throats, yelling about something or another, and I knew it was something they needed to get out of their system. They were grieving the Lady of Fire, and there was nothing we could do about it.
But it was exhausting.
They seemed to notice that we were standing in the doorway and, thankfully, stopped bickering for a second.
“Any updates?” Easton asked, and Justise shook his head. He sat near the back of the room, his stump bandaged and what remained of his arm in a sling. Ridley had done what he could to heal the scarred flesh, but no one could regrow a limb, not even with magic.
Justise was now a Wielder with one arm. Not the first. But as the blacksmith of the people, one who was the most talented weapons maker anyone had ever seen, I knew it likely hurt him more than just the physical pain. He would figure it out, though.
We all would.
I had to keep that thread of optimism alive because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t last long.
“There was another attack on one of our camps,” Rhodes said, his hair messier than I’d ever seen it. It appeared as if he’d run his hands through it over and over again. His silver eyes looked dull, and I saw lines of strain at the sides of his mouth and bracketing his eyes.
We had all aged over the past months, but I didn’t think Rhodes had slept since we arrived at the Fire Estate.
I only slept the little I did because I was so exhausted after the meetings, and fighting, and healing of each day. I could barely keep my eyes open. Honestly, if I didn’t fall asleep next to Easton, his warm body near mine as he told me I would be okay even if neither of us believed it, I didn’t think I would go to sleep at all.
“Any casualties?” Easton asked, and I could hear the anger and fear in his tone. Even though he sounded so crisp, so cold and calculating, that I wasn’t sure the others would be able to hear what I did.
Maybe it was because I could feel him inside my soul, the bond that neither of us knew what to do with pulsating.
“Four,” Luken gritted out. “All Danes that couldn’t fight against the onslaught of power.”
I closed my eyes, let out a breath, and sent a prayer up to the sky, hoping that whoever might be listening could send us some help.
Only I didn’t think that would happen. I was the foretold savior, after all.
“We need to go to him,” I said, and everyone looked at me.
“To the Shadow realm?” Easton asked.
“You know we do. The Gray won’t come out. Why would he? He doesn’t have to. He has so many people on his side that he’s either brainwashed or who think they’re disenfranchised and agreed to fight us. And some believe the lies and think that it’s still Obscurité versus the Lumière.”
“And what about those who went to his side?” Teagan asked, his voice stern.
“They did that because there was no hope,” Wyn said, and I saw Easton flinch, but nobody said anything for a moment.
“Because of Lore?” Easton asked. “Or because of me?”
“Stop it,” I snapped. Everyone looked at me. “Lore used the crystals and stole people’s Wielding. Innocents died because of him. Not because of you.”
“You know that’s not the case,” Easton said, his voice so low that it sent shivers down my spine, but everybody else heard him anyway.
“We don’t know what’s coming. Nobody does,” Wyn said, her voice slow. “So, I guess we need to go to the Shadow realm.”
I looked at her and let out a long breath. “It’s the only way to get him to fight on our terms. He’s not going to come out here, and his people won’t stop while he’s their leader, even if some of them might know who’s pulling the strings.”
“That is the worry, isn’t it?” Luken said, frowning as he scratched Braelynn behind her ears. She purred, and my heart broke just a little more.
“It doesn’t matter. Because the Obscurité members who went over to The Gray’s side left because they thought they had no choice. But that’s not on us. At least, not completely.” Wyn raised her chin.
Easton shook his head. “You say that, but I don’t know if I quite believe it. We’re all at fault here. But we don’t have time to keep flagellating each other. It’s time to figure out exactly how we’re going to get our armies to the Shadow realm.”
“I think they need to stay here to fight those that stay back,” I countered. “And I think only a few of us need to get to the Shadow realm.”
Easton’s gaze narrowed. “Please tell me you’re not thinking of facing him by yourself.”
I threw my hands into the air. “No. Didn’t I just say that we needed to take a few of us? There needs to be people here to train and to lead the armies, but I’m the Spirit Priestess. I need to fight The Gray. It’s been foretold. So, here I am. I need to go to him. Besides, he still has people on his side, and however many he has within his realm now.”
“I thought he only had his second and fourth,” Luken said, and I did my best not to look at him directly. We still hadn’t told him about his father. And, honestly, I wasn’t sure how to. Everybody stood at the edge of a precipice, where one shove in any direction would make us all falter.
It was wrong of me to keep the secret, and we would tell him soon. I just didn’t know how to yet.
“I killed the Whisperer. But his second is still there. And there might be others he’s pulled into the realm by now. The fact that we don’t know for sure is a major roadblock. Meaning, we need to go to him.” I rolled my shoulders back. “That’s not the only thing we need to do.
“You want to go find Slavik,” Rhodes said.
I nodded. “And anyone else that hasn’t come to us yet.”
“If they haven’t come,” Rhodes continued, “is there a reason for that?”
“Many of the underground leaders have been in hiding, keeping their people safe. If they’re at least against The Gray, we need help. We’ve lost too much,” I said, doing my best not to look at Justise or anyone else who had lost someone or something dear. Though that touched every single person in this room if I was honest with myself.
“We need every faction we can find to protect our people and to bring the realm together. The crystals are gone,” I said, looking down at my skin. “I don’t know how to bring them back, but parts of them are within me. You in this room know this, though no one else does.”
Everyone nodded, and I continued. “We need to get the crystals back—somehow, some way. We need to defeat The Gray, and we have to protect our people. And to do that, we need all hands on deck. That includes the pirate king and anyone else who has been hiding since the last battle.”
Easton looked at me then, his expression grave, but he nodded. “You’re right. We need everybody. So, we’ll find them. And we’ll discover a way into the Shadow realm.”
“We let The Gray come to us last time. We can’t do that again,” I said. “We’ll go to him. We’ll take the war to his door. And we’ll win. Because while the realm might be fracturing, we won’t let it fall into ruin. Not completely. We won’t lose our people.”
As everyone started talking at once, making plans for who else they could contact, I turned away. I looked out across the unfamiliar landscape of the Fire territory, firedrakes dancing along the edges, fire erupting from a volcano miles away, and I wondered what a plan could be without an actual ending. I knew the prophecy. I knew what it entailed, even if some of it was still vague.
The crystals were now in me. I knew this. And for them to come out, something needed to give.
A sacrifice had to be made.
Suddenly, I had the feeling that once we reached the Shadow realm, I wouldn’t be coming back.
I had left the human realm long ago. And even if we defeated The Gray, a part of me knew I wouldn’t be returning to the Maison realm either.
Chapter Thirteen
Lyric
* * *
The road to the others was long and very different from the last time I had been on this path. When I had come this way before, I had been hurt. We were sometimes in wagons, other times being dragged, all the way from the Earth territory up through the borders and then towards the Fire territory.
Then, I had been with Luken and Braelynn and Rhodes.
I had met Easton in the borderlands. Had learned how to use my Air Wielding with his Fire Wielding, and had fallen just a little for that smirk, even though I hadn’t realized it at the time.
He had been a prince of no name then, even while Rhodes had been the same.
None of us were who we used to be.
Today, we were on our way to find Slavik and his people, and recruit any underground leaders we could get our hands on.
Having us stick together might not be the smartest plan, but The Gray wouldn’t come after the others without Easton or me or Rhodes present. He hadn’t yet, not after how many times we had been away. It had always been an attack on at least one of the three of us. So now, we were staying together, heading to gather more people.
Rhodes, Lanya, and the others had stayed behind. As had the former Queen of Lumière.
Easton’s uncles were training, although Justise was taking a longer road back to recovery than we had hoped. He had lost his arm in battle, and for now, it seemed he was ignoring anything past his initial healing. He wasn’t using the Fire Estate’s furnace to make weapons. He was only using his Wielding to train others to fight. Other blacksmiths could pick up the slack and were doing so with clear understanding. Only I didn’t know what was best for Justise. It was his decision, however, no matter what he decided—something we all recognized.
I wasn’t sure what would happen when we returned. I had to trust that Ridley would know how to help Justise. He knew his husband better than anyone and had had to overcome his abilities. After all, he’d had to hide his Water Wielding for centuries. And he’d had to learn to be a warrior and a healer.
Hopefully, he would be able to help Justise now.
So many had stayed behind, our armies gathering. We had met smaller camps of warriors along the way, ones who had stayed to protect their small towns and villages rather than meeting up with the king.
We all understood that but had done our best to persuade those who could leave to go and join the other armies to fight as one. Most had agreed, simply taking their families with them. We understood that, as well. If they didn’t, there would be no one left to protect them.
Because we all knew that not everybody was safe. Not everyone was on the side of good.
We had all learned that the hard way more than once already.
And now, without the wards, it was hard to know who was friend or foe. Not that it had ever been easy to determine that.
This was the seventh village we had visited, and we were exhausted, but I knew this was only the start. We used carrier hawks to get messages back and forth to and from the uncles, hoping each time that they weren’t intercepted. Easton used some of the magic he had learned from his mother to keep it all secret, but I was still worried that the enemy would intervene. We didn’t know exactly how powerful The Gray was, after all.
Braelynn and Luken traveled together, with Braelynn in her cat form. We didn’t know if she could willingly shift into her dragon form, but it had taken a lot out of her when she did, so we were all glad that she was saving her energy for another fight.
Because there would be another fight.
Teagan and Wyn were with us, too, Wyn wanting to see her former home, the Earth Estate. I imagined Teagan had come to get away from his father—at least partly.
We had left the Lord of Fire behind to train the Fire Wielders in combat, those new to the power that had popped up after I pumped more magic into the crystals before they shattered.
Although the entire kingdom—the realm itself, really—was breaking down, creatures escaping from wherever they had been hiding, earthquakes and other natural disasters taking over, the Danes were actually fewer in number than ever.
Whatever I had done, had forced what had happened to Wyn hundreds of times over.
Some of the former Danes had gotten their Wielding back, while others got Wielding they never had before.
I hadn’t seen any other dual Wielders quite like Wyn yet, but I was sure they were out there.
And all Wielders, new and seasoned alike, needed training.
If we survived this, we would do our best to make sure they all had a place to belong: a place to feel safe, a place to use their powers however they needed.
A home.
A sanctuary.
But first, we needed to defeat The Gray.
I walked between Easton and Rhodes, all of us exhausted and silent. We walked up front, with Luken and Braelynn behind us as Wyn and Teagan pulled up the rear. We switched positions over time, but right now, I was between the two former princes, who were not talking to me or each other. Not because they were fighting, simply because there was just too much on everyone’s plate.
“You sure this is where we’re going to find that pirate king?” Easton asked, derision in his tone.
I held back a sigh as Rhodes answered. “He was this way last time we saw him. However, we know he has an actual ship that drones over the hills.”
“I’ve seen it. I still don’t believe he’s going to end up on our side. He never wanted to listen to what my mother had to say before. I don’t even think he sees me as a king.” Easton frowned and kept moving. “Not that I see myself as a king.”
“We can worry about titles later,” I whispered, trying to keep the peace. “I just need a united force against The Gray.”
“And behind you,” Rhodes said.
I frowned at him. “What do you mean by that?”
“I’m not saying anything rude. We will all fight with you. And when we defeat The Gray—because we will, damn it—then we can see what happens and acknowledge titles and royalty, if that’s even needed.”
“It would be nice if I didn’t have to be king,” Easton said offhandedly, and Rhodes and I shared a look.
I knew that Easton didn’t want the power and responsibility that came with being a king. He would shoulder it, but having all those lives in his hands? I knew the kind of weight he felt because I felt it, too.
And neither of us wanted our shoulders to break under the pressure. But we would do it. There was no other choice.
“We will find him,” I said.
“And hope he doesn’t kill us?” Easton asked, that smirk on his face again.
It almost reached his eyes this time, and I gripped his hand, smiling. “Yes. He’s going to be our little pirate king. And he’ll use his very fancy Earth Wielders to go against The Gray. They have powers I’ve never seen outside of their group.”
Rhodes nodded. “It’s true. They’re quite powerful.”
“And he never went against the throne, so Mother let them live.” Easton shrugged. “Frankly, they kept the peace amongst those who tried to prey on the weak, except for a few within their ranks.”
“The pirate who killed all those innocents is dead. We made sure of that,” I said, my voice shaking.
I still remembered the sight of that woman who had died for me. The one who had been a Seer, who had known she would die for me. That she would give me her power so I could break free.
I would not let her sacrifice be in vain.
I would not let the memory of so many deaths be in vain.
I opened my mouth to say something, not even sure what, when a screech echoed in the air. We all went on high alert, our Wielding in our hands, Luken’s sword at the ready.
“What the hell is that?” Rhodes asked.
“That…is a chimera,” Easton snapped. “Long extinct. Or so we thought.”
“That means the rift between the worlds is opening even more,” I said.
“And we don’t know what else came out of it.”
“How do you kill a chimera?” Wyn asked. She paused as another screech echoed in the air. “How do we kill multiple chimeras?”
Easton growled. “You have to cut off their heads, but their hide isn’t easily penetrated.”
