Chapter 18

Chapter

Eighteen

SELENE

T win longswords rose from Elric's back, their silver pommels glinting in the late afternoon light. The human Commander took long and sure strides over the fallen stones and charred brush of Umbra as he led us forward. His chestnut-colored hair was pulled back by a leather strap, showcasing his tanned skin and thick eyebrows.

He wore more weapons than he did layers of clothing, his inked skin still slightly visible beneath his tunic. And despite the thin clothes he wore, he didn't shiver against the frosty air. He just lumbered along, like it was a walk through a field of wildflowers and not Atrium's deadliest mountainscape.

It was truly astonishing and completely unnerving.

Even with fire in my blood, I could still feel the frigid chill biting my skin, begging profusely to be covered. But Elric's body was used to the harsh elements within Umbra, clearly more so than my own, but I couldn't stop the worry coursing through my veins.

The corner of Ric's mouth turned up into a crooked smile as he felt my emerald eyes watching him timidly once more. "No, Sel, I am not cold and I don't need your cloak."

The tip of his nose was red, hot breath fanning out of his stubbly cheeks although he didn't look uncomfortable in the slightest. But there was this taunting urge to just focus on something, anything.

Another chilling breeze whipped by, my hands clutching the woolen fabric encasing me. Ignoring that pestering demand to badger Ric, I looked forward to the rocky landscape that stretched on for miles and miles. "If you're sure."

"Very sure." He patted the large rucksack filled with our provisions hanging off his hulking shoulder, "I'll throw on the one we have in here if I need it, and you shouldn't be worrying about me catching a cold."

Ric then stopped abruptly, his broad shoulders locking up before he turned on the balls of his boots. He crossed his large tattooed arms over his chest as he grinned down at me, mirth dancing in his hazel eyes. "But I'm flattered you're using my wellbeing as a distraction."

Arching one dark brown eyebrow, I crossed my own arms and copied his stance. We were in the middle of the Umbran mountains but I couldn't help myself from giving into his jest even though he was calling me out on my bullshit coddling. "Distraction?"

"Mhmm," he booped my nose with a chuckle, a brilliant smile lighting up his face. The act was so boyish—so childish coming from this behemoth of a man. "And I love that it leads to you fawning over me like I'm royalty."

"I apologize for worrying about my friend," I retorted with a light shove to his chest that only made him bark out a laugh before his gaze turned serious.

It was a rare occurrence that Elric pushed aside his light-hearted demeanor—unless in battle, of course—but still very rare nonetheless. It made my smile drop and heart race, apprehension making my stomach churn.

He placed a sizable, inked hand on my shoulder, his body heat seeping through the layers of fabric. Thick eyebrows were downturned in concern, his rough voice ringing through the air. "I know that it's bothering you that you can't feel it."

It was the Bellator Amulet.

There was no extra sense, no magical pull towards the Bellator Amulet that the Sibyl had told me about. When we landed within the rocky outpost of Umbra, I immediately tried communing with my foliage powers to track the warrior's necklace down. But I didn't know what its energy felt like, Gods , I didn't even know what it looked like so it was no surprise when that didn't work.

There were brief, nondescript stories that Ric had overheard in his time on this cursed continent, but nothing of note. Just that it was a necklace forged of iron, made for the fiercest warrior to bear despite the High Fae's aversion to it. He didn't know of any magical powers that it embodied or what we were going to get out of finding it for the Sibyl.

But we knew we needed to find it and then, somehow unknowingly, we would get our answers like the Sibyl promised.

Ric retracted his hand to tighten the loosened leather strap holding his hair. "It's only been a day and I know patience isn't your strongest trait?—"

"Rude," I interjected but was quickly ignored as Elric kept going, broad shoulders blocking out the wintry sun.

"But if what the Sibyl said was right, then we need to let the amulet come to us." He pulled the rucksack higher onto his shoulder. "And even though I love all the coddling and attention, I know that you're just trying to fix everything when you should be focused on this."

There was a rebuttal right at the tip of my tongue but I pushed it back down my throat, letting the bitter disagreement burn my esophagus. The human Commander could tell he had already gotten through to me due to my silence but the truth was that I didn't need to hear him say that.

I'd already known I was using him as my newest diversion from the budding stress of not finding the amulet the moment we touched Atrium's decaying earth. It was just that I couldn't stop the nagging in the back of my mind telling me to hurry up and do more .

Or at the very least, distract myself by fixing minor problems until we got what we came for.

Every passing second was just another moment in agony for Emrys and another life that we were losing to Medies so yes, patience wasn't my strong suit, but needling the shit out of Ric and his comfort wasn't going to get me very far.

"I'm sorry," I let out a breath before shifting my own pack, my bedroll resting against my neck. "I'll be more patient and more present."

"Nothing to apologize for, babe," Ric smiled softly, his warm brown eyes twinkling with kindness and understanding. "I know what it feels like to be doing everything all at once while feeling like you're doing nothing at all."

"How are you…" I didn't know exactly what I was going to ask, my words coming up short.

How are you not just alive but living ?

How are you able to smile and laugh and play while the world explodes around you?

How do you not feel completely overwhelmed and constantly anxious?

How can you exist in happiness when everything is purely fucked?

I didn't know what I meant to ask so I ended on the only one I could voice, "How are you, you ?"

"Because even hatred can make a home within a soul and I've seen what that can do to a person," Ric began marching forward, large booted feet stepping methodically over the broken stones. I couldn't make out his facial expression as he went on, his back completely turned to me as I followed him. "I never wanted to be like that, but that doesn't mean it's easy to not rage at the Fates and their twisted webs.

"I still feel all those same emotions," he shook his head, almost in disbelief. "The bitterness and guilt and fucking misery, but that spite only lasts for so long when…"

Ric swallowed, his inked throat working hard to push down his pain. He walked on for a few more paces, taking a moment in his thoughts as another gust of icy wind whisked by. "When you have no other choice but to wait for the sun to rise."

I had a feeling that wasn't what he was about to say before he got lost in his head but I continued to listen silently and thoughtfully.

"Sometimes there's nothing you can do but wait and hope, and that's not wrong. I did a lot of waiting during my time here, and I stayed positive and true to my core because that's my hope. My hope for all these people and a better world, living breathing proof that they couldn't take away who I was or who they are."

Elric's next words rocked me to my core, my knees feeling suddenly weak as I lagged behind him.

" We know who we are to our cores and it's up to us to stay true to ourselves," he clenched one inked hand into a fist before he released it with a long stretch of his neck and shoulder blades. "Not anyone else."

And those unnerving words haunted me for hours until we hunkered down in a small cave as restless sleep overtook me.

We were being followed.

Ric stayed directly at my side, one hand on the hilt of a throwing knife attached to his waist. The warrior gave me a sidelong glance, hazel eyes flashing in warning once more.

Not yet , I answered into his mind, stepping over a jagged boulder.

We knew the moment these strangers picked up on our trail in the Court of Shadows. Could smell the faint scent of juniper and cypress lingering behind us every step within the rocky mountains. They'd been on our tail all morning, keeping a few yards in distance. Two men, human men , and a High Fae female.

Just watching us, tracking us but never approaching.

The second I caught their scent on the breeze, my initial instinct was to burn them to ash or at the very least, capture and torture them for answers. But like a whisper on the wind, something within warned me away from their demise. Told me to play along with their game and see where it took us.

My traveling companion kept his face neutral despite his thundering heart. It wasn't fear making his heart race, though. I couldn't smell its sweet perfume in the air, all I could make out was that overwhelming stench of corrupt magic. A tattooed hand twitched at his side as he went down the mountain, closer to another cavern he said was near.

As we descended the cliff, we got a better view of the trampled fields of moon flowers just outside the once powerful Umbran Castle. Now there was nothing but rubble and blood-covered debris filling the gaping space. The metallic taste of dark magic hung in the air and invaded my lungs with every breath I took through my humanoid nostrils.

I had always assumed that being closer to Emrys' birthplace would ease the ache in my gut but it seemed each time I came to this Godsforsaken place, the hole in my chest only opened wider, more painfully.

We were here for the amulet and answers but my mind couldn't stop from drifting back to him.

I could feel our Bond fading into the abyss the longer I searched for him, almost like his lifeline was growing dimmer. I couldn't feel him within my soul, couldn't sense his presence within this realm, but there, in the deepest pits of my shattered being, was a small flicker of something . Almost like a tiny dancing flame of silver, one made of his shadowfire that kept the darkness from overtaking me completely. I couldn't feel that Bond between us but I could see it.

I could see him. His soul. Our Bond. Just like the night sky glimmering with stars. So dark and deep with little sprinkles of light throughout. We were each other's balance in this cruel world and I needed him.

I wanted to defy the Fates to get him back, to burn this realm with my Godsfire into nothing but cursed blood and ash to be in his presence once more. That darkness within me kept eclipsing the light and the Sibyl could see that. She had said that Emrys would be killed because a sacrifice in blood must be made, but as long as I roamed this earth, he would be at my side. We didn't know how to get Emrys back without interfering with the Fates, but that was the only outcome I would let myself dream of.

And I know Ric felt the same.

Boots thumping harshly against the rocks pulled my attention from my all-consuming thoughts as an unfamiliar scream bellowed out above us.

Stones tumbled down the mountain quickly, cascading like rainfall as one of the men who was tracking us slid unwillingly. I couldn't make out his features in the midst of chaos, his body tumbling too quickly. The only thing we could see was his layers of fur beginning to unravel the further he propelled down the cliff. The harsh edges of rocks shredded his furs, his clothes, and his flesh.

The cavern we were heading to was just steps away, its open maw looming behind us. Fiery hair blew in the breeze on top of the mountain, pulling my gaze upwards. "Hold fast, Artemis!" a feminine voice screamed as she waved her mitten-covered hands in the frosty air.

That bright crimson hair made her light brown eyes pop in contrast but I couldn't make out her concealed features. She wore a dark linen mask, completely obscuring her nose and mouth from view but leaving her pale forehead exposed. Her red hair looked almost like fire from a distance in the wintry sunlight as she moved with predatory ease over the rocky mountain.

Everything was happening too quickly around me. I didn't even have a moment to call upon any of my powers before Ric was screaming out and bounding up the mountain, "Grab ANYTHING!"

As the man fell to his demise, Ric was already halfway up the cliff, too fast for even my eyes to detect. Adrenaline coursed through his human veins, pushing him to the limit as he ran towards the man's bleeding form. Rain began falling from the cloud-filled sky, turning the rock-churned dirt into a muddy sludge instantaneously.

It was like a hellish nightmare.

Screaming and shouting and chaos ensued as rocks and bodies slid. Blood and rain and mud mixed with the putrid stench of brimstone and sulfur.

It was all too much to absorb, too much to take in all at once and it seemed like time slowed in that moment, trickling by like grains of sand in an hourglass.

The fiery High Fae female's mouth was parted in shock, her mask now dangling around her neck, as Ric took hold of the flailing man and lifted him onto his back with ease. Both of her hands were still raised, stupefaction written across her pale features as swirls of wind and ice built at her fingertips. She watched Ric with astonishment and something else I couldn't name… something off.

My heart plummeted to the bottom of my stomach as power blessed by Eirwen, the Goddess of Ice, surged from her open palms and towards Ric's oblivious form. Her powers were a stark antithesis to her fiery features.

"It's a trap!" I bellowed out, lightning traveling up my hands, my arms, crawling over my shoulders before sending a deadly blast her way. Thunder rumbled as the lightning struck, casting both Ric and the man in a silver glow.

Rocks gave way first, bursting from the ground and into the air like shrapnel as I threw out a shield of shadows to protect Ric from their deadly shards. Hazel eyes looked between me and the icy High Fae with bewilderment, the man's shredded body still in his tattooed arms. Before the broken stones could even meet the earth, icicles of death shot towards me, missing me by a hair but piercing the terrain at my heels.

Legs falling out from under me, I was suddenly plummeting towards the earth's core as our world cleaved open. Voices were shouting above but I couldn't discern them from one another, couldn't hear anything over the roaring in my ears as I fell and fell and fell. My talons reached out, attempting to grip onto anything that could give me leverage but I was grasping onto the heated air.

My breath began stuttering despite not needing oxygen with my Godsblood. I couldn't breathe, couldn't think outside of the blistering heat nipping at my skin. The corners of my vision continued to darken until bleak midnight was all I saw as I descended into hell.