Page 119 of This Shattered Star

I expected as much. Nodding, I pocketed my own bell.

“You are to cross first, Eloise.” Maverick gestured to the gate.

“Absolutely not,” Kodhan growled.

“This is not up for consideration.” Maverick’s mask of composure slipped, giving way to cold wrath and agitation. “You will wait here until she has both feet on the other side,” he snarled. “Then you will follow.”

“It’s alright.”Finally, I lifted my gaze to Kodhan’s. “I’ll wait for you.” My shoulders rolled back as I steeled my spine. “Youwillensure your gate drops Kodhan in the same place as it drops me. No tricks, Maverick.”

Maverick paused. The smile that emerged upon his face reminded me so much of the one he wore on the balcony that my next breath stuttered. “Clever girl.”

“No tricks. Swear it.”

“I swear on my life. I will ensure the gate drops you both in the same area.”

“Exactly the same place,” I rectified, pointing an expectant finger at him.

“The gate will drop you both in the exact same place,” he offered, reaching as if to grab hold of my hand, but I lowered it before he could.

Kodhan placed his own hand on the small of my back. “I’ll be right behind you,” he said tersely. A coil of heat-less fire wound up and around my arm, only to disappear over my shoulder.

Don’t hesitate,Gideon’s voice floated around my head.

Maverick could choose to close his gate at any moment. And I was running on borrowed time.

I nodded to him. And without another word, I stepped through the gate.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Pressure tore at my skin like the universe was folding into itself, pushing and pulling me all at once.

But it was over in an instant. My feet landed on a patch of grass, wet from what must’ve been a recent rainfall. Droplets of water still speckled the ground, lacing the air with a crisp freshness I greedily inhaled. I’d never tasted air so clear, even when standing at the base of the northern mountains.

The gate remained intact, but showed no signs of Kodhan, or even Maverick’s study.

“Kodhan?” I called out, as loudly as I dared.

A faraway shout sent unease down the slope of my shoulders before the gate vanished without warning. “Kodhan!” I desperately reached towards the space where the gate had been, as if I could somehow weave it back into existence.

But I couldn’t.

Other than the surrounding trees, the stars, and a rising hill straight ahead, I was completely alone. And I didn’t have the faintest idea of where I’d been dropped. The trees seemed to go on for miles. There wasn’t a single speck of light in the distance—not a single sign of Aedreath or the Veil.

Trepidation wrapped tightly around my middle, snuffing the air out of my lungs. The sky here looked…wrong.Like a pot of ink had been spilled across the expanse of the world. Stars blinked overhead, but not one flash of color accompanied them.

It left my surroundings excessively dark. I could barely see ten feet ahead of me.

Panic wouldn’t lend me any favors. Not now. No one was supposed to accompany me out here to begin with. Gideon had made sure to engrain his training into my very bones before the trials began.

And I knew that Kodhan would grab me by the collar and shake me if he found out I stood around waiting longer than I needed to, vulnerable in the face of what lurked in the shadows. Maverick said he would drop us in the exact same place. But he didn’t say when.

I cursed myself for not having caught that detail sooner.

The hill.That was where I could start. Even if trudging towards it left my shoes sopping wet. Higher ground meant better vantage over approaching enemies. I wouldn’t be able to see them properly, not with how dark it was, but I would at least have a broader scope of the forest.

A towering, gnarled oak tree stood at attention to the left of the hill, while another in equal size squatted to the right. Water dribbled continuously from the leaves above my head in heavy droplets, plopping into an array of puddles. They reached for one another as they grew in size, forming a jagged, almost ankle-deep pond.

I squinted. The closer I got to it, the more I could make out different shapes ahead.