Chapter 32

32

S tepping into the Crystal Realm was like stepping into an entirely new world. I barely managed not to trip over myself as I exited the gaping maw of the mountain, jaw hanging open. In every direction, waterfalls spilled over cliff edges, roaring into my ears and misting the world around them. The tips of my swords dropped as I beheld a massive glacier, its icy fingers digging into the dirt at our feet and climbing behind us into the towering peaks in the distance.

The bond between Ruslan and me hummed contentedly as I opened up my feelings of wonder to him, and he opened up his feelings of love to me. “It’s so beautiful,” I gasped, breathless.

“Look over there,” my mate replied, directing my attention with the tip of his finger. In the distance, a massive lake spread across the land, reflecting thousands of stars off its glassy surface. From this angle, I couldn’t tell where the night sky began and where the water ended.

“Incredible,” I breathed, taking a cautious step forward, off the worn path and out of the way of the soldiers pushing out of the cavern behind us.

“Not as incredible as you, sprite,” Ruslan murmured, wrapping his arms around me from behind and forcing my swords down at my sides. “It’s safe to relax and take in the view.”

We gently swayed from side to side as I did just that.

Below, our soldiers readied camp for us, fires popping into existence and dotting the rolling green landscape. After being in near darkness as we traversed the tracks beneath the Agrenak Mountains, I was more than ready to sleep in the open with the winking lights of the stars to soothe me.

“Do you think they are nearby?” I asked eventually, after scanning every inch of the beautiful landscape sprawling over the horizon.

“I don’t know. I can’t see any troop movement or telltale fires from up here.” Ruslan tensed behind me. “I don’t see any fires, actually, besides ours. There are cities all along the lakes, but none of them are lit.”

My brows dipped as I tried to discern the shape of buildings along the lakes, but my search yielded nothing.

“Does that mean…” I trailed off as bile rose in my throat.

“That Kazimir burned them to the ground? Likely.” Ruslan’s tone was as icy as the glacier gripping the stone above us. “Vlisa is at the other end of that lake.”

“And if it’s dark, that means they aren’t there.”

Liliana popped through the tunnel and joined us in our examination of the Crystal Realm. The corners of her eyes tightened, and she played with the ends of her hair before flinging it out of her way and crossing her arms. It had been harder than she wanted to admit to part from Drazen, but she refused to leave my side given that this was the most likely place to fight the Night Fae.

Or so we thought.

I chewed on my lip, thinking. “What if it’s a trap? What if they want us to think that they’ve moved on so we let our guard down, and then they spring out of nowhere?”

“I think the trap was set elsewhere,” Liliana whispered, and Ruslan’s arms tightened reflexively around me before he dropped them away.

“Stay here,” he instructed, his smoky eyes swirling with worry as he jogged through the crowd of people exiting the mountains.

Sheathing my swords, I wrapped an arm around Liliana and tugged her close. With a sigh, she rested her head on my shoulder, a few escaped tendrils of her chocolate brown locks tickling my nose.

“Drazen and Endre will be all right,” I reassured her.

“I know,” she said, but her words rang hollow.

I resisted the urge to shift from foot to foot as we waited for Ruslan to return. When he did, he didn’t bring relief with him. A giant bird soared overhead, buffeting us with the wind from his massive brown wings. Kriath flew straight across the lake, headed to Vlisa. Zuriel joined us at the edge of the cliff, and the four of us waited in silence for our Félvér friend.

The soldiers continued to build the necessities of a war camp below us, unaware of what transpired above. By the time Kriath returned, nearly an entire city had popped up. Midair, the Eagle shifted into a male, and Kriath landed lightly in front of us. While his body remained bare, his face did not. A grim and haunted expression greeted us, only accentuated by the breaking dawn. I sucked in a breath when he lifted his head to look his emperor in the eye.

“They’re dead. Every last one of them. Bodies lining the streets of every city…” He squeezed his eyes shut as if he could banish the images that would forever be burned into his mind. “Most of the cities along the lake are nothing more than ashes.”

Liliana gasped and covered her mouth. Tears pricked my eyes, and my fingernails bit into my palms. Rares had said the Crystal Realm had fallen, but I hadn’t realized the extent of Kazimir’s atrocities. The male who’d rescued me from the cave wouldn’t have killed hundreds of thousands of innocents.

But the male I thought I knew had never existed.

Kazimir had never wanted me to truly become my own person. He wanted to save me and force me to depend on him. Kazimir was, and always had been, a monster. Only now, he allowed the black to seep through instead of coating it in colorful lies and manipulations.

Ruslan punched the side of the mountain with so much force that the rock cracked and splintered from the point of impact. “I will kill that motherfucker.”

Shouts rang out from the people still within the mountain, yanking our attention toward them instead of the Félvér who had flown over what remained of the Crystal Realm.

“Find the emperor!” someone exclaimed, and I instinctively stepped forward as his worry slapped against my mental barrier.

The crazed look in Ruslan’s eyes did not lesson as he stomped inside, and I chased after him, Liliana and Zuriel hot on my heels, the crowd parting for us as we searched for the speaker. We found him sweat-soaked in a half-empty cart at the edge of the tracks surrounded by a handful of other soldiers offering him food and water.

“My Emperor,” he panted, lowering the metal canteen he had been sipping from. “There has been an attack in the Day Realm. We were ambushed and overwhelmed. General Drazen sent me here to request assistance.”

Before the messenger had even finished speaking, I snatched Ruslan’s hand and sent calming emotions into him. He needed to keep a level head, especially with the number of people gathered around us. Ruslan may not admit to it, but he cared deeply for Drazen and the others we’d sent with him to the Day Realm. Losing Drazen especially would slice open his deepest wounds of being utterly alone and abandoned that had only begun to close after I’d accepted our mate bond.

“Fetch Rares,” I instructed the nearest soldier, splitting my focus between my magic and my logic. Ruslan’s anger raged against the soothing emotions I pushed his way, and the muscles twitching in his jaw told me he was losing the fight to maintain his calm.

The old Mage joined us, and I relayed the news. “How do we get there quickly to help them?” I asked Rares, still pushing emotions toward Ruslan. I didn’t have the time and energy to siphon from him, not with a battle looming ahead of us.

“The Mages can join together to move a large number of our forces to the tunnels closer to Drazen’s location,” he offered. “But it won’t be everyone at once, and we will have to leave supplies and nonessentials behind.”

“Does the tunnel there create a bottleneck like the one here?” Liliana blurted out, her head whipping around, clearly mulling over something.

“Yes, why?” Ruslan responded.

“They were waiting for us just outside of the entrance,” the messenger added before tipping his head back and draining the last of the water.

Ruslan cracked his neck, then shook his hand loose and popped his knuckles one by one. “Contact Queen Viktoria and tell her we need the Day Realm’s army, and in a hurry. Then move the best fighters to a place close to the tunnel exit in the Day Realm. We need to be far enough away that we don’t pop into existence in the middle of the Night Realm’s army, but close enough that we can move quickly to join the battle.”

He blew out a frustrated breath, rolling his shoulders and scanning those around him. “We’ll leave a group behind to pack up and load the supplies. Rares, return here once you’ve moved as many as you can and oversee the supplies returning to the meeting place below Vasvain.” Ruslan’s instructions were rapid fire and ruthless, and those around us listening in to the conversation were quick to relay messages.

Within minutes, every retinue had set to work repacking everything that they’d spent hours arranging. Not a single one grumbled. Everyone knew what was at stake.

Rares left in search of the other Mages, and two lines quickly formed in the exit of the tunnel – one of soldiers streaming in with supplies in hand, and another streaming out, armed with potions and weapons of all types.

My hands trembled as we melted into the flow of people, only breaking away once we’d reached the plush green grass some distance from the mountains. Units were re-forming around their commanders, strapping on armor, sharpening weapons, tucking vials of potion into hidden pouches.

The rising sun shone off the metal armor covering the Iron Realm’s army, casting a false gleam over a land filled with death. The first group to depart braced their hands on one another's shoulders and dipped their heads, closing ranks to make the Mage’s job easier. She returned moments later to fetch another group, and the process repeated over and over as thousands of people were moved the distance necessary to catch up with the other part of our army.

Fear skittered down my spine as Ruslan instructed us to draw closer to him, and I held my breath as we were whisked away from the Crystal Realm and into the Day Realm.

Right into the middle of a bloody battle.