CHAPTER 2

SLADE

Argo goes upward to gain altitude, the dark of the night enveloping us like a shroud. Below, my brother lifts his hand in a shadowed send-off.

I face forward again when we pass over the moat, leaving my castle behind as we fly toward the city. The capital is dotted with streetlamps and lanterns that hang inside the bobbing boats where they drift up and down the rivers. Every flickering flame reminds me of just how many people live in Brackhill alone. People that I'm responsible for.

Let it topple . That's what I told Ryatt about Orea, and I meant every word. But that was before an outside threat broke in.

I could see it in Ryatt's eyes. The accusation. Buried deep, but there. The army invading Orea is my species. My people. He didn't say it aloud, but I could hear it all the same. To some degree, it's my responsibility to protect Orea against my own.

Give Orea a chance.

Get to the bridge.

Two birds, one stone. I can pass by Ranhold, and then head straight for Seventh. It will only add a handful of hours to my travel, half a day at most as I dump power there to deter the fae. Then I can get to the bridge.

I hiss through my teeth as another twinge of pain surges in my chest. It arcs down my veins, shooting through the roots of rot in my arms. I flex and fist my right hand, trying to shake the sensation off.

It doesn't go away.

But I grew up enduring pain, so my tolerance is high. My father didn't allow anything less. If I can put up with what he meted out, I can push through for Auren.

As if in challenge, the rotting organ in my chest throbs harder, but I grit my teeth.

Push the fuck through .

I re-grip the reins as we pick up speed, and soon, Brackhill City and the castle disappear behind us. Argo must sense my urgency, because he's flying like he's racing the night.

And winning.

We're eating up the distance, and at this rate, I know we'll make it to Ranhold in record time. Thank fuck.

Through the night, we fly over Fourth Kingdom. My eyes stay peeled, my teeth gritted. All I can do is count the seconds between the throbs of pain. It drums in time with the incessant push to hurry.

go go go go

I can't open a rip, no matter how hard I try, but I can get to that fucking bridge.

I have to.

Right before dawn, Argo spots a flock of birds mid-flight. He drops out of the cover of the clouds, attention locked on his prey. They don't even see him coming until he's swooping down, scooping two of the winged creatures up into his wide maw. The sound of their shrieks is cut off by snapping bones and a litter of feathers.

I lock in my knees, bracing as he swoops for a third. "Argo—"

Intense pain slams into me so abruptly that I jerk in the saddle. The sensation pitches brutally into my chest, stealing my words. Stealing my vision.

It clutches me as sharply as Argo's teeth snap through those bones. Except it's happening with my fucking heart . Lancing it through, bleeding me out.

I lurch on the saddle, body falling forward. It feels like I'm being sliced open in the middle of a sea, and a whirlpool of poisoned water is pumping into me. I jerk my gaze down to where the pain radiates, and my eyes widen.

My rotting heart has started to swell .

It's lifting my leather jerkin. Making it distend outward with dizzying agony, and I realize what's happening.

It's about to burst.

No.

My heart is choosing now to give out on me? Right when I finally have a way to get to Auren? When I'm finally on my way?

I'm not dying. I fucking refuse .

But my body seems to have other ideas.

My heart is filling my body with poison. It feels like hot, acidic rain pouring in, flooding it past capacity, washing out all my blood and stinging every vein.

I look at my wrists and hands where my rot has pumped in. Every inch of visible skin is riddled with so many black lines it nearly overruns my flesh.

I lose the ability to hold on. My grip slips off the reins, body jerking as I slam against Argo's back, unable to sit up, unable to do anything . I feel more than see Argo curl his head around to look at me, and then there's a deafening roar as I start to slip sideways.

Fuck!

Panic pounces, limbs flailing as I start to fall.

I jerk to an abrupt stop as the straps holding me to Argo's saddle cinch, keeping me seated, though they strain with the stretch.

The saddle starts to twist over Argo's middle as my body tips until I'm hanging off his side. This one strip of leather is the only thing keeping me from plummeting through the air.

The pain is unimaginable.

Argo roars again and tries to twist his body to get me back where I'm supposed to be. But I can't move. I'm paralyzed from the spasms, can feel the poison leaching up into my neck, my cheeks, my eyes…

Darkness blotches my vision just as I feel Argo dive.

My stomach hits my throat as we speed through the air. The leather strip twists, making me pitch backward as it slips, and I get torn off the saddle. The only thing still connecting me to Argo is the single strap wrapped around my waist.

If the leather were to snap…the buckle to fail…

Pain spreads out like bolts of lightning through my entire body.

Fuck fuck fuck —

I might be dead before we hit the ground.

The air whips at me, jerking my body left and right as Argo continues to roar. Continues to dive.

I'm streaming behind him like a flag caught in the wind, and then the strained strap on the saddle snaps .

Without the tether, the air whips me away like a leaf in the wind, and instead of being pulled down with intention, I start to truly fall.

I fall and fall, staring up at the dark.

I have a moment to wonder if this is what Auren felt when she fell through the rip. If this is my punishment for sending her in there alone. I gasp and flail, terror fisting me.

I'm falling.

Dying .

Heart about to burst through my chest, rot ready to rupture.

Body ready to slam into the ground.

I brace myself.

But just before my inevitable crash, Argo dives down and catches me with his feet, talons circling around my arm and leg. I wince from the pressure, but within seconds, he's dropping me again, and I thud against solid ground, rolling and skidding across wet grass and spongy soil before coming to a stop.

I land half-slopped into a bog, my entire right side drenched in muddy water.

The pain wants to debilitate me, wants to keep me hostage, but I fight past it. Remind myself of what I've endured at the hands of my father.

Move.

Move move move—

A roar rips from my lips as I fight against the anguish for control of my body. Mud threatens my airway, but I command my body to obey anyway. Reaching one arm up, I grip hold of the grass, straining as I pull myself up.

The pain is all-consuming, my vision still stained with spills of ink, but somehow, I get my knees under me and manage to crawl out of the muck, grip by grip. Then I drop and roll onto my back, dripping in sweat, shaking all over, ready to fucking puke.

I move my hands down and rip open my coat and leather jerkin, exposing my chest. My heart looks like it's ready to explode. Like a massive blister full of pus, except it's singed brown and leaking roots of black.

Not fucking good.

I can see every vein that leads out of it pulsing, pumping more poison into my system. Instead of the rotted lines staying contained to my upper chest and arms, I'm absolutely covered in them, breaching down my stomach and hands, even blackening my fingernails.

I'm riddled with so many that it doesn't even look real.

Argo nudges me on the arm, making distressed noises low in his throat. He lowers himself, urging me to get up, so I lift my hand and reach the strap around his neck.

But before I can attempt to pull myself onto his back, my body convulses. I lurch backward, breath stolen from me as the torment reaches a crescendo.

And I know.

This is it. I'm dying.

But my life doesn't flash before my eyes. She does.

Auren floods into me, memories consuming me entirely. There aren't enough, not nearly enough. But I see them. Feel them. Hear them.

The little moments. Like when I'd watch her without her even realizing it. Taking in the side of her face while she ate, watching her walk up the stairs, seeing her smile at something Judd said. It's the sound of her voice as she told me her truths. The scent of her hair when she laid upon my chest.

It's the big moments too, when she was entirely too magnificent for this world. When she made everyone else seem small and dull in comparison. Her vengeance and her strength and her kindness and her light.

I was always meant to find her. To see her.

This can't be it.

This can't be all.

A rasping breath cuts out of me, tines dragging against my ribs with a clatter. "Auren," I gasp out. As if she can hear me. As if I can say everything I need to say.

Moisture gathers at the corners of my eyes, shedding the misery of my failure. Of everything I'll never get to see her do. The little and big moments I'll miss. I wanted them all. I wanted to see and experience and have all of her, forever.

And now I can't.

Misery drenches me, while rot starts gushing into the ground. Argo whines. My heart slogs.

I stare up at the swarm of branches from the twist-root trees, slunk in this bog, while my heart pumps out a poison that's killing me.

I choke as it reaches my lungs and infects my breath.

My heart is so distended now, it sits like a stone over my chest, rising like a hunching creature ready to tear free.

But still, I try to fucking fight.

Because I will always fight for her. For as long as I can.

My entire body shakes, limbs numb, pain encompassing, but I force movement anyway, because I will not give up. I will not give in.

If this is the moment that I end, I will end with my fight for her.

As long as there is breath in my lungs and a heart in my chest, I will fight for her with everything that I am.

I growl, my throat tearing open with the determined sound and spilling out into the air, making birds explode from the trees.

With desperate struggle, I turn. Shove my knees beneath me. Pump my arms up, and then strain to reach Argo's strap at the back of his neck. All of it a battle between life and death.

Do not give up. Do not give in.

Fight for her.

I pull myself up, head swimming, vision bolting, legs threatening to give out. But I clench my fists around the strap, and I fucking stand.

"Auren. Need—to get—to her," I pant through gritted teeth.

Neck twisted around, Argo blinks at me, whining low in his throat. But stubborn perseverance hooks into my voice and yanks the resolution out. "I'm going to find her. Fucking get to her…"

The pain in my chest reaches a poisoned peak, and I suck in a thin breath that has my lungs ringing with warning that it might be my last one.

I can't take in another. I try, but I can't .

Panic consumes. My eyes go wide and wild as black spots block my vision. The agony in my chest is about to burst my heart, and I know my fight doesn't matter anyway because this is it —

And then, everything changes.

I'm suddenly hit. Not with pain, not with death. But with her .

Something shifts. Death pauses.

I suck in a breath, feeling her in my inhale.

It's as if she's standing right here next to me. No—even more than that.

It's as if…

Her scent floods my air. I can taste her at the back of my tongue. Feel her warmth consuming me like a fire consumes a forest. It starts to eat up every toxic limb and rotten root that exists within me.

Her flame, her sun, it blazes. Delves into every crevice, burning away every pinch of polluted blood. It swarms around my near-bursting heart, and I feel her essence grab hold. Fist me in her light.

And then something deep inside of me suddenly…collides.