Page 60 of Renegade Kingdom
The thought grew, spreading through my mind like frost across a window. The Spring Court was safe. Defensible. Ezra had already built the beginnings of an infrastructure there. We could expand it, strengthen it, create something that would last. Something that wouldn’t require us to walk into a forest where most fae didn’t dare to tread and hope that a weakened goddess could protect us from the horrors lurking in the dark.
Maybe…
Then I heard it.
Or felt it. I wasn’t sure there was a difference anymore.
A pull. A whisper. A thread of something that wrapped around my heart and tugged, gently but insistently, toward the darkness between the trees.
I took a step closer to the treeline before I realised I was moving. Then another. My eyes strained against the shadows, trying to see what was calling me, but there was nothing visible. Just darkness. Just the suggestion of movement, of presence, of something vast and ancient waiting in the depths.
“You can feel it,” Fizzle said. It wasn’t a question.
“What is it?”
“Nymeria.” His voice was reverent in a way I’d never heard from him before. “She’s calling you home, Alyssandra. She’s been waiting for you since the moment you left this realm, and now that you’re so close, she can’t contain herself anymore. She’s reaching for you. Guiding you. Showing you the way.”
For some reason, that didn’t make me feel better.
My mother. The goddess who had created me to fix her mistake. The being who had let her realm crumble while she retreated to a hidden court that most people didn’t believe existed. She was calling me now, when I was standing at the edge of a forest that would kill me if I made a single wrong step.
Was she trying to help? Or was she just desperate?
Did it matter?
“Alyssa!”
Dean’s voice cut through my spiralling thoughts. I turned to find him standing at the edge of the camp, the others arrayed behind him, all of them watching me with expressions that ranged from concerned to impatient.
“Are we ready to go?” he called.
I looked back at the forest. At the darkness. At the path I couldn’t see but could feel, stretching out before me like a thread I was meant to follow.
Fizzle’s grip on my shoulder tightened, his talons digging in with a pinch of pain that was almost welcome. It grounded me. Pulled me back from the edge of the panic that had been rising in my chest without my permission.
“You can do this,” he murmured, low enough that only I could hear. “You were born to do this. And you’re not alone. You have your mates. You have me. You have an entire realm that’s waiting for you to save it.”
I nodded. I wasn’t sure if I was nodding at Fizzle or at Dean, but it didn’t matter. Either way, the answer was the same.
I turned and walked back toward the camp, toward my mates, toward the group of people who were trusting me to lead them through this. Dean’s eyes tracked my movements, reading my expression, and whatever he saw there made him nod in return.
“Let’s move,” I said. “The forest won’t get any less dangerous the longer we wait.”
My mates turned toward the treeline and began to walk. Tank first, his bulk parting the shadows like a ship cutting through waves. Dean beside him, his hand on his weapon, his eyes scanning constantly for threats. Maddox and Ryder behind them, their magic humming at the ready.
And Damon. Walking in the middle of the group, his chains clinking softly, his eyes fixed on the darkness ahead with an expression that was equal parts fear and determination.
I swallowed hard, fighting the urge to call them all back. To tell them this was a mistake. To beg them to return to the safety of the Spring Court and find another way.
But there was no other way. There never had been. This path had been laid out before I was born, and all I could do was walk it.
“Ezra.”
He stepped forward immediately, his expression wary. He knew what was coming. Had known since I’d told him he couldn’t follow us into the forest.
“Don’tfollow us,” I said firmly. “I need you back at the palace. I need you to make sure everyone else is safe and ready for when we return.” I held his gaze, making sure he understood the weight of what I was saying. “Whatever happens inside the Fifth Court, Arik is going to know. There’s no way it won’t trigger him into immediately trying to stop me. You need to make sure the Spring Court is ready. That our people are ready. Thatwhenwe come out of that forest, we have an army waiting to march.”
Ezra’s jaw worked. I could see the war happening behind his eyes. Every instinct he had was screaming at him to follow, to protect, to throw himself between me and whatever dangers lay ahead.
