Page 48 of Ignite
With a final moment of hesitation, I nod.
Brielle stays in the room with me as the others filter out. Mylah brings us both a bowl of broth and soft bread. We shovel it down in silence, and Brielle grunts her appreciation to Mylah about the taste, but every spoonful slides down my throat like ash.
Brielle settles into her cot, and I do the same, my thoughts heavy. I want to talk this out more, figure out how we’re going to find the dagger once we get to Crea and if Willow and Aster know exactly where it is, or just that it’s in the human realm.
I turn toward the open window. The air is both cool and warm as it breezes in. Outside, I can catch glimpses of wyverns settling onto large surfaces built into the trees—their Riders curled up against them.
In the sky, there are blurs of motion—wyverns flying above, weaving in and out of the forest.
The wyverns aren’t just beasts of battle here; they’re home.
Knowing and seeing the truth of this place, I see it now.
Kauri is beautiful—if it were any other day and there wasn’t the weight of the realm pressing down on my shoulders, I think I would love it here. It’s quiet and calm. Tucked away from the world with no pressures from society. There are no rules of how to act or what to do; it just…exists.
Wyverns and fae alike have learned to build a home here.
What Aster said is beginning to make more sense now; they live together—as one.
I think Graylen would love it here; the freedom, the secluded nature and endless space to spread out among the forest. After the fight with Daimon, I was soangry. Ready to take on the world to get Graylen back.
But now that we’re here…
My chest tightens as realization sinks in. If Moros finds a way to spread darkness through more than just Crea, then therewon’t bea Kauri for him to see one day. I want finding Graylen to be my top priority, but how can it be when saving him could cost us the realm?
He wouldn’t want that—wouldn’t want me to make his sacrifice be for nothing. Graylen didn’t just save me; he gave us a chance. He gave ustime. Time to stop Vidaris and her minions. How can I save him when I could be bringing him back to a world that’s past the point of saving?
I turn my head toward Brielle, only to hear soft snores filtering over to me already. In truth, the one person who would listen isn’t here. In fact, he couldn’t be farther from reach.
Nineteen
Adamas Aureus
Beauty is foundwithin the heart of the woman I love. That is the only thing keeping me sane—keeping me grounded. It’s her eyes that I focus on as crimson drops fall from the red sky, streaking my body as if I were being bathed in blood.
The ichorous rain is suffocating, its metallic taste lingering on my tongue long after it’s dried.
Searing pain burns down my forearm, and my muscles tense against their icy restraints. I grind my teeth together, refusing to give Vidaris the satisfaction of showing any emotion. Sometimes I think she forgets about me, staying away for days at a time to torture another poor bastard.
Maybe it’s days—I can’t be sure here. Like everything else in this wasteland, there’s no rising and setting of a sun, no reprieve, and certainly nothing good.
The crimson rain slows to a stop, and in that same moment, I feel the air shift. I clench my jaw, preparing myself for what Iknow is about to happen—forwhojust got here. I know the signs by now—the relentless rainfall in her absence, and the painfully still quiet when she returns.
“Miss me?” Vidaris’s sickly sweet voice presses against my skull, threatening to crush it beneath the weight of death that rolls off her tongue.
The pain in my arm intensifies, and I fight to keep my face even, the agony ripping through me over and over again.
“It’s been quite boring here,” I drawl, forcing a smile onto my face as my arm begins to numb.
Even as the words come out—and I brace myself for the backlash—nothing can take away the satisfaction of seeing Vidaris’s eyes flare with rage. Something blurs across my vision as Vidaris rears back, a shadowy rod of some sort in her hand.
There’s no stopping the scream that comes out of me this time. The rod connects with my arm, turning the numb throb that had settled there into a blistering heat. She brings it back again, this time striking my bicep. Again, she scrapes the rod down my left arm, and I feel like a fish being flayed open.
The air in my lungs freezes with each slice Vidaris makes across my arm. She doesn’t stray from my left arm, and I can’t shift away, my body held down by the chains.
My sight turns fuzzy, the red sky bleeding into everything around me.
Vidaris’s face swims into view as she leans into me, her smile making my stomach turn.
