KANE AND I CHOSE NOT TO TELL ANYONE SAVE FOR GRIFFIN ABOUT OUR
trip to Hemlock Isle. When I asked why we shouldn’t bring more men with us than those already stationed on the prison island, Kane
had explained that Hemlock was a precarious ecosystem that functioned almost as if it were its own separate kingdom. To bring an army might disrupt the island’s fragile order. Or worse, incite war. Griffin was the only one we trusted not to fight us on the decision to go alone. And the fewer people who knew where the blade was at any given moment, the better for us all.
Kane and I approached Griffin and Eardley, who were wound into some kind of tense debate. Eardley had rich dark skin and a strong jaw. He looked a bit too pretty to be a lieutenant, but when he spoke, the entire room went silent straining to listen, nearly as much as when Griffin did. They both fell quiet at our arrival.
“Morning,” Kane said. “Has the battalion left yet to track down the seer’s father?”
“Yes.” Griffin nodded. “Late last night.” “Good.”
“We’re discussing who should travel back to Citrine to appeal to Isolde and Broderick,” Eardley said. “See if that changes anything for them regarding their armies.”
“My father should go,” Amelia suggested from her seat, feet propped leisurely atop a trunk of swords. “He’s the closest with King Broderick.
They won’t work with the lot of you.”
“My daughter is right,” Eryx said. “King Broderick was only hostile because of your history, Kane. He’ll listen to reason when it comes from me alone. We’re old friends.”
“Are you?” Kane asked, mocking. “I so wish you’d tell us more often.”
Before a reddening, blustery Eryx could respond, Lieutenant Eardley said, “I fear they may refuse even King Eryx asylum in Azurine.”
“Send him with Prince Fedrik,” Kane instructed. “Lazarus will never know of one extra passenger aboard his ship, and Queen Isolde and King Broderick only fear the optics.”
Griffin folded his arms across his chest. “Where is the prince?”
“He left with a convoy to Sandstone,” Eardley said. Sandstone was a port town on the coast where an Onyx ship would surely bring him back to Citrine. “If we move very quickly, King Eryx just might make it in time to travel with Prince Fedrik’s vessel.”
“Go, then,” Kane said.
A small thrill of admiration ran along my spine and up my neck. I loved seeing Kane in his element. He was good at this—strong and effective, inspiring both fear and hope in equal measure.
Eardley dipped his head and pulled his skull-like helmet from the cluttered table before departing. Eryx, too, bid us farewell, but not before adding, “Amelia, do as you are told while I’m away. I do not want to hear that you were difficult.” The expression on Amelia’s face at her father’s final words turned my stomach sour. I looked away.
“That just leaves Mari,” Kane said.
“Me?” She cowered slightly, which even Ryder cocked his head at.
“I’d like you to return to Briar’s manor and study under her. It’s been a long while since I’ve had a talented witch by my side in battle, and we’ll need just that if we are to defeat Lazarus.”
Mari paled so severely she looked like she might collapse again, but before I could rush over to her, she said, “Of course.”
“Good. Commander Griffin, see to it that she arrives before nightfall.” “I’ll come visit,” I said to her.
Mari looked anything but reassured. But Griffin had already homed in on Mari like a hawk. Protective, concerned—studying her as she chewed her lip. I knew he would ensure Mari was cared for.
“Arwen and I are chasing down one final lead on the blade. We’ll communicate through ravens and spies.” Kane faced me and took my hand once more. “Ready?”
But I spied my brother, his brow furrowed as he inspected something alongside Amelia.
Kane had been right. And Mari, too. I had let my own insecurities foster jealousy and resentment toward him for too long. I didn’t want to be that person anymore. “I just need to do one thing first.”
“I’ll meet you at the gate.”
I released Kane’s hand and slipped over to Ryder. “What’s going on here?”
“None of these little boys know what a boomerang is.” Amelia showed off the curved weapon to me.
“Neither do I. Should I be terribly ashamed?”
“No, you aren’t a soldier. Nor did you say you knew every weapon in existence or you’d give me twenty coin and then fail to produce said coin.”
Amelia’s light eyes cut to Ryder harshly and he grinned. “I told you I’m good for it.”
I smiled a bit. “Don’t hold your breath.” Ryder frowned at me.
“You throw it,” Amelia explained, “and it returns to you, without any magic. So you can reach enemies without the close proximity of swordplay.”
“It seems too dull to hurt anyone,” a gap-toothed soldier said, reaching for the wooden weapon.
“Not when it’s going faster than a mare.” Amelia stole the boomerang back from his grubby hands. Then she turned to me, cool as a layer of frost.
“I’m happy for you and Kane. It was about time.”
“Thank you,” I said, before taking Ryder’s arm in mine. “Can I speak with you for a moment?”
I weaved us through the frenetic energy of the tent until we made it outside. My eyes fell to an unimpressive patch of baby-fine grass between two soldiers’ tents. Growing again after its seedlings had been ripped from the earth in a struggle months and months ago. Reborn after a gruesome death, newer, stronger, and taller than before. Just there, right outside this war tent, Kane had saved me from a horrific fate at the hands of Lieutenant Bert.
I had been so afraid then. So weak. Just a pawn in the larger game at hand. I didn’t even recognize that girl anymore.
Wind rustling my hair, I faced Ryder. “I have something I need to get off my chest.” I kept my voice low, but there weren’t any soldiers around. “Something I should have said a long time ago.”
“Is it that you and Kane are in love?” Ryder said, amused. “Because I put that one together all by myself.”
“No.” I studied my brother. I had let this plague me, and him, for far too long. “It’s that I’m sorry.”
Ryder’s brows pulled inward. “For what?”
“For being so jealous of you, for so much of my life. My whole life, actually.”
“You were jealous of me?”
I winced from the shame. From his incredulousness. “I think I told myself a story in which everyone wanted to be your friend before mine, or Powell and Mother loved you more, and . . . I don’t know. One day it was true because I had made it true. Does that make sense?”
“Not really,” he admitted.
“Everyone in Abbington adored you. And they weren’t wrong to. You were more social than me, happier, braver—”
Ryder’s sigh cut me off. “Braver? I’m a deserter, Arwen. That day I stole the Onyx coin? The day I sealed your fate? I ran. Ran and left all my men to be killed.”
I shook my head even as I knew the words to be true. Hadn’t he told us as much? That all his men had died, and he had only made it out scot-free
by hiding? Why hadn’t I heard it then? That he was not a hero from a folktale as I had once told him, but as scared as the rest of us.
“You,” he said, studying my face, “are actually brave. What you have to do, it’s . . . horrible. I couldn’t go through with it.”
The all-too-familiar swell of tears built behind my eyes. “I’m not sure if I can, either,” I admitted.
“You’re the bravest person I know, Arwen. You suffered my father’s beatings for so many years while none of us knew. You were always glad to put yourself second to Leigh or me or Mother. I’m sorry you ever thought otherwise about yourself.”
I hadn’t known how much I needed to hear those words until he said them. “It’s all right. Everything that happened . . . it led me here. I know we’ll find the blade on Hemlock Isle. It’s the only place that makes sense. And then we’ll defeat Lazarus together.”
“I don’t know if—” He shifted on his feet. “I don’t think I’m strong enough to lose you.”
“You were fine with it once.” My own words surprised me. “How can you say that? You’re my sister.”
“You let me go. You let me run back toward certain death in Abbington.
I don’t think I knew it then but . . . it broke something in me.”
There was such freedom in the words, I didn’t know how I had gone so long without saying them.
Ryder paled. But to his credit, didn’t argue. Didn’t falter. “I never should have let you go that day.” He shook his head. “I didn’t want to be the one to do it. I told you I was a coward. Probably still am. I’m sorry, Arwen. It should go without saying—and it’s my fault that it doesn’t—but I don’t want you to die.”
And I didn’t want to fail him. Any of them. “We’re going to try to find another way to defeat Lazarus.”
“Why am I not surprised? Optimistic as always,” Ryder said with a rueful smile.
I wanted to tell him how wrong he was. How I’d been suffocated by clouds of misery for weeks before I allowed a single ray of hope to peek
through. But at some point, without realizing it, I had made peace with the fact that Ryder and I just didn’t know each other so well. Maybe, if we did in fact find a way out of this, I could try to change that. Maybe today, this moment, was the start.
I wrapped my arms around my brother and held him to me. “I’ll see you when I’m back. Keep an eye on Leigh?”
“I will. Travel safe. And good luck.”
I hurried through the barracks, the morning bright and filled with sunshine, even though I could feel the air turning crisp with early fall. I would never tire of seasons. If Kane and I were lucky enough to have a real life together, I would only live here in Onyx. Or anywhere like this, where I could experience all the seasons every few months. A sweltering summer full of dips in the pond, a colorful spring of blooms and chirping birds, a frigid winter—maybe even with a sprinkling of snow, another sight I had never seen—and a chilly autumn that would always remind me of Amber. Of my mother.
For better or for worse, that ray of hope had blossomed into a blinding sunrise. I wanted to live. I wanted to see everything. Experience everything. With Kane, with Mari, with Leigh, and even Ryder—for as long as I could.
I felt a massive presence at my side, long strides matching mine, and looked up to see Griffin accompanying me to the gates of the keep.
“Something I can help you with, Commander?”
Griffin stopped short and I stumbled to do the same. He stared at me pointedly, as if debating something.
“Out with it. I have a dragon to catch.” But he didn’t smile. Color me shocked.
“I need to know you’ll take care of him.” My brain stalled at his words. “Kane?” He nodded once.
“I’d never hurt him, Griffin. I love—”
“Forget that. I’m not talking about your will-they-won’t-they
relationship.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Did Mari teach you that term?”
“I’m serious.” “Aren’t you always?”
“Hemlock Isle is a lawless wasteland. Despite it being Onyx territory, Kane doesn’t have as much power there as he’d like to think. I understand why he can’t bring an army with him. It’s not part of the island’s code. But it’s a dangerous place, and if I’m not there, you must protect him.”
My heart swelled against my ribs.
“You’re more powerful than him, Arwen. The last full-blooded Fae. Tell me you will do what you did at Siren’s Bay again if you have to. To protect Kane, but also to protect the Onyx king. The champion of Evendell. He must live, for the sake of the realms.”
“I swear to you. I will protect him with my life.”
Griffin lifted his chin in acceptance and turned to leave, but I caught him by the sleeve of his tunic.
“Thank you. For looking out for him now, and always. Even protecting him from me, when that was what he needed. He’s lucky to have you.”
Griffin nodded, then removed my hand from his tunic carefully, and I fought the urge to grin. “And you,” I said, before he could walk away. “Help her? The amulet was a crutch, but I know she doesn’t need it to do magic. Help remind her what she’s capable of?”
“I’ll do what I can. But know this: she’s worth as much to me now as she is harnessing all the magic in Evendell.”
I felt my throat bob. Mari had shared her loss with him. “You should tell her that.”
He only grunted.
I gave him a shallow nod before hurrying over to Kane, who was leaning on the gates, waiting for me.
“What were you two talking about?”
I grinned and kissed his cheek. “You.”
 |
I DIDN’T THINK I’D EVER TIRE OF SEEING THE WORLD FROM THE BACK OF
Kane’s dragon form. Every tree, cottage, and wheelbarrow reduced to a tiny, fuzzy blotch of green or brown and then filtered through a haze of clouds passed by in flight. It was easier to remember how simple things were up here. How finite. Somehow the stark enormity of our continent contrasted with our small, blurry lives brought me a great, curious kind of peace. For those fleeting hours, among soft, pale rays of fading sunlight and soaring eagles that flew at Kane’s side, I didn’t feel the crushing pressure of all that lay ahead.
And then, in the distance, I made out the singular, volcano-like island past Crag’s Hollow, where Lake Stygian became the shimmering Ocean of Ore.
Erupting from the churning, murky water, Hemlock Isle almost resembled a mountain, if the point had collapsed in on itself and left sharp shards of rock and mineral in its wake. Angry whitecaps of foam smashed against the stone where the land protruded from the sea, and before I saw what awaited us inside, Kane hurtled us down through the narrow mouth of the island, as if we were a thread moving through the eye of a needle.
Sea salt was quickly replaced by damp earth and decomposing wood. A wet, green forest stretched beneath us, not too unlike the Shadow Woods. But this forest was not tangled, knotted, and dark, a harrowing moat of branches around the jewel that was Shadowhold. No, this was something entirely different.
As we swooped and weaved through trees, I could make out doors and windows built into the trunks and bark around us. Wooden roofs and rope ladders connected lantern-lit rooms to one another. An entire city built not on top of the woodland or in its stead, but rather within the trees themselves.
We were moving too fast to discern any people, but there must have been thousands of prisoners exiled here over the years to have built a city such as this one into the mouth of the island.
Finally, Kane landed on a grainy wood platform suspended between three trees with mossy rope and dotted with glowing golden lanterns. Amid the cacophony of birdsong and the thick, earthy smell of the forest, I dismounted Kane, my eyes searching to confirm we were alone, and I felt him shift back to himself, the sharp taste of lighte in the air and heavy on my tongue.
“What is this place?”
A metropolis stretched above and below us. Homes, armories, blacksmith tables, shops for produce—all carved from the trees, dotted with torches, and tied together by a web of interconnected walkways, ladders, bridges, and ramps.
“Hemlock Isle is quite the feat of human will, isn’t it, bird?”
I merely nodded, my eyes still glued to the suspended passageways and unfamiliar pulley systems.
“When I took the throne from King Oberon, he told me very little about the prison land. Just that there were men and women in Evendell that were too dangerous, too cunning, to be kept in dungeons alone. Witches and sorcerers especially could escape almost any cell, as evidenced by the jailbreak we had back in Shadowhold.”
I shook away the memory of my aiding Halden and his magic friend in their escape from Kane’s keep.
“Oberon’s grandfather found the island first—a mountain protruding from the sea, hollowed out, with a forest growing inside, the cliffs that make up the walls of the island, both internal and external, too smooth to be climbed—there was no way in or out, unless you could fly.”
“What about other Fae? Or those who can use spells to fly?”
“There are no Fae in Evendell with enough lighte to shift other than Griffin and me. And in all my years, I’ve never heard of, let alone known, magic powerful enough to allow for flight. Still, I’ve had guards stationed at the lighthouse in Crag’s Hollow for the last five decades, in case anyone flew in or out.” Kane shrugged. “They’ve never seen a thing.”
“So, you and Griffin bring prisoners here in your shifted forms—” “Or we send them on one of my other trained, flying creatures.”
I gave Kane a look of dismay, but he merely shrugged. “You think you’ve seen all the winged tricks I have up my sleeve?” He shook his head in mock disappointment. “Come on, bird. Give me some credit.”
Now was not the time, but later, without a doubt, I would be asking for a rundown on all the other grotesque creatures Kane kept in his castles.
“So, King Oberon flew prisoners here, left them to their own devices, and one day he found they had built all of this?”
“Indeed. The island has no hills or fields for farmland, and the lower down you go”—Kane peered over the platform into the dense, darkened treetops below us—“the less sunlight you get. So, with few tools to work with, the prisoners built into the trees that were already growing. Up and up and up.”
My eyes swept over the pathways that twined and twisted ahead of us, shrouded in shadow from the steep cliffs of the mountain that surrounded the island on all sides. Like being inside a giant vase, the bottom littered with trees. And the forest that grew upward—it was as if the branches were trying, straining, to reach the sun that evaded them.
Within the maze of rickety bridges, mismatched stairs, and torchlit homes were dirt-caked men and women milling about. The bony spine of a shirtless boy reflected the light of a dim lantern and snagged my eye in the distance. The child couldn’t have been more than Leigh’s age, and he was climbing a ladder with some kind of skinned animal leg wedged between his teeth.
My stomach turned thinking about life in these conditions. Even for prisoners—thieves, murderers, enemies of the kingdom—it didn’t seem just. I hadn’t thought enough about the ramifications of being with Kane. That if I were to survive Lazarus, and save this kingdom, that I might truly . . . rule it by his side. I waited for the racing heart, clammy palms, tightness in my chest—the panic I knew would come at the thought of such an undertaking.
But no such feeling came.
In fact, I realized I might be decent at helping Kane rule Onyx. I had skills that he lacked: patience, positivity—I didn’t have his temper nor the
cynicism that sometimes crept into his worldview.
Something bright and hopeful settled in me at the thought of the good I could do for the people of Onyx. Maybe for the people of Evendell altogether. Maybe I would even start with this place.
I opened my mouth to ask about children born on the island, and thus undeserving of this fate, but Kane cut me off. “I adore your beautiful brain, and all the questions and thoughts I know are percolating inside of it. But don’t let the elflike tree houses fool you. This entire island is inhabited by the most menacing criminals born to our continent. I’d like to get you out of here as quickly as possible. Then you can ask me anything you wish.”
“Agreed. Where to?”
“The guard station first. They’ll escort us to the city’s leader. The last time I had spies sent here, they said the island was ruled by a warlord named Killoran Grim. We’ll find him up there.” Kane pointed to a well-lit wooden platform tented in dark patchwork canvas. “I wish I didn’t need you for this. But when we examine his weaponry, the blade will call to you. We’ll be home in time to have rabbit stew for dinner, and something even better for dessert.” Kane pressed a kiss to the top of my head, and I tried to nod brightly.
I wasn’t scared.
How could I be with him beside me?
