Chapter Ten

C HAPTER T EN

The streets of Emberwell are silent. Void of any civilians save for Lorcan and me. Grime coats the roads, even those of the once-prestigious Chrysos Street. I’m careful not to step on broken debris as nausea stings the back of my throat at the ruins of my once-home.

This is all my fault. I waited too long.

A rat skitters across my boots, and Lorcan is about to unsheathe his sword as if to attack it. I grip his arm and send him a warning look.

‘Are you really going to try to kill a rat when we have other pressing matters at hand?’

He blinks, still holding on to the hilt of his sword. I roll my eyes, wishing I had chosen someone else to accompany me through this part of the plan. Letting go of him, I continue on our pathway as thick heat blows with the wind, contrasting with Aeris’s winter weather at night. However, this feels different. Emberwell might always be warm, but it was never this blistering, even in the supposed hotter months. Can it be that it’s worsened after Aurum used the Isle of Elements?

The thought hurts my head, and I try to shake it away when another gust of wind picks up. A torn flyer lands by the edge of my boot. When I pick it up and turn it over, my chest caves in at the sight of Darius’s sketched face.

His Wanted Thief poster.

‘I always hated seeing those all around the city.’ Lorcan chuckles.

I stare at the sketch for a few more seconds before pocketing it away and turning. ‘Because you despised him?’

Lorcan’s smile fades over my cutting gaze. ‘It wasn’t because of that.’ He sighs. ‘It’s just . . . It’s just hard to believe that the last time I was here, all I was was a monster that should have never been created.’

My expression falls with regret. ‘You weren’t a monster, Lorcan,’ I say. ‘Rümens are intelligent, frightening, yes, but all they ever seek is to protect their herds. Isn’t that what you tried to do?’

One of his eyebrows pops up, and a twitch of his lips tells me he’s amused. ‘And you know this first hand?’

‘I experienced it first hand.’ As soon as those words fall from my lips, Lorcan goes silent. I turn again, walking towards the end of Chrysos Street before I stop, curse under my breath and whirl to find Lorcan following closely behind, staring down at the ground like a lost animal. ‘All right, look,’ I say. ‘I know that since we arrived here, all you’ve tried to do is make this less awkward between us, and I get it. These past few months haven’t been easy .’ My lips twist into a grimace as I think back to how many times I avoided him and still do even after our earlier conversation. I huff, shake my head and wipe the sweat from my forehead. ‘I know that I forgave you for what you did in the past, but this still doesn’t mean I can trust you easily.’

I hope he understands that, and I hope that the peaceful truce we have doesn’t dissolve into what it once was.

Betrayal.

‘I know,’ he whispers, but he doesn’t meet my eyes.

A familiar silence hangs between us, one that cuts through the smell of fear in the streets. After a minute of it, I say, ‘I’m not sure how Darius will react to seeing you alive, and I’m not sure how he will feel about finding out you are a phoenix. But I know that he has never stopped thinking of you as a brother, and I can only hope you will accept him as the same.’ I pronounce those last words so forcefully that he finally looks at me.

The colour of his green eyes flashes with something I recognise often in them these days – remorse. ‘He told you about my father, didn’t he?’

The muscles on my back go taut. ‘I can’t say I am your father’s biggest fan.’ I turn my back on him, my legs heavy from walking for too long. ‘If he were still alive, I don’t think I could contain myself very well around him.’ I’m near the jewellery shop where I met Darius, and I find myself slowing down as I glance around at the silent streets, the worn-down town houses that were once so lively.

‘I think he would be afraid of you.’

My brow shoots up at the sound of Lorcan’s soft voice behind me and I snap my head over my shoulder.

He runs a hand over his chin, smoothing the scruff of his stubble. ‘He was always quite the coward.’ He shakes his head. ‘I suppose that is where I got it from.’

The cumulative effect of all the times I have referred to him as a coward causes my eyes to shut momentarily. When I think about apologising, I open my mouth only to immediately close it. What good would it do to apologise and tell him I no longer believe that? He hasn’t proved anything to me yet, just given me spoken promises with no action to back them up with.

‘I loved him,’ he says, standing beside me, and I just . . . stare at him. ‘I loved him because he was my father. But how he treated Darius . . . ’ His nostrils flare and he puffs out a long breath through his nose. ‘I never once tried to stop it.’

What is it with the Halens that all they do is blame themselves?

I walk up to him and place my hand on his arm. He turns, looking at how I’ve touched him, at how I don’t even wear a glove over my scar any more. ‘But you still made sure to look after him.’ He isn’t looking at me, even as I try to meet his gaze. ‘Despite your differences, despite the times you were pitted against each other as children, you still treated him like family, and that is all Darius has ever wanted.’

A family.

Both he and Tibith wanted that, and we almost had it. The three of us together, my brothers, my friends.

We can still have it. A whisper of a promise echoes inside of me, but it is the sudden frown on Lorcan’s face that has me snapping out of it all.

‘Nara,’ he says, not looking at me but instead out ahead. I turn to where his attention is focused and find smoke pouring through the streets. I run without waiting for Lorcan into the city’s centre and stop as soon as I see what has become of the Neoma Tree.

It is now nothing but charred wood and broken branches. Ashes scatter the ground, the few marigold leaves of which barely are left, are no longer vibrant like they once were.

I jerk forward with the urge to run towards it, but Lorcan pulls me back by my elbow.

‘Nara, wait.’ He bites down on the word wait , and I frantically shake my head.

It’s burnt. It’s all burnt. Aurum— ‘ He did this, he—’

‘Stay where you are!’

My eyes widen as Lorcan mutters ‘ Shit ’ under his breath. Two Elves wearing the armour from Terranos come out of one of the hidden roads. Their arrows are nocked as they aim them at us, and then more and more guards come forth from every direction.