CHAPTER 65

COMMANDER RYATT

My adrenaline hasn't stopped spiking.

I know I'm still in a state of shock, but it's because death was certain. I stared into its eyes and ran straight for it. Expecting to crash into it with everyone else.

So when the bridge suddenly exploded and collapsed a chunk of the world with it, my mind struggled to keep up.

I'm still struggling. Just like Lu, Os, Digby, and Rissa are. Even Argo keeps whining and scraping his talons through the snow in agitation.

Head turning again, my gaze casts toward the space where the bridge was. My eyes not wanting to accept the sights of the gaping air.

With my heart pounding in my chest, I glance back at the unconscious soldier from Second. I tie off the bandage over the wicked gash on his leg and then slip the supplies into the pack on the ground.

Everyone else has been treating wounds too. We're lucky some of the timberwings kept their packs on them, because we had just enough mender supplies to treat the most serious injuries.

As soon as I finish, Osrik lifts the man I helped onto the back of a timberwing where another Second soldier is already waiting, ready to secure him.

King Thold comes walking over just as I clean my hands in the snow. "That's the last one?"

I nod. "Last one."

Although, even now that we've tended to everyone, I don't know if they'll all make it. We did the best we could. All I can hope is that they survive the flight home and get to a skilled mender.

He nods and brushes snow off his cloak, his own hand wrapped in a bandage too. "You fought well. Orea owes you a great debt."

Maybe I'd feel pride at his words if I didn't feel so shocked. If my pulse weren't still racing.

It can't be gone.

"Orea could not have done it without you, King Thold," I manage to say. But really, all I want to do is fly over the crumbled land. To search the space where the explosion happened.

The need is like a fist against the door of my soul, knocking relentlessly.

The snowy snake wrapped around Thold's neck flicks its pale pink tongue in my direction as if it's sensing my agitation. It's as unnerving as its pink eyes that stare at me.

Queen Kaila comes striding over to Thold. Tendrils of her black hair have been ripped from her braid, and her timberwing suffered a minor wound on its leg, but other than that, she came away from this battle unscathed. She managed to stay in the air the entire time.

Her face is lit up in a satisfied smile. "The war is officially over. We won."

A couple of soldiers behind her call out in joined celebration, rejoicing in this inconceivable triumph—and they should celebrate. Because this means Orea will survive. That Oreans won't be massacred and wiped off the face of our world.

But this victory came with a price.

"The bridge," Kaila says, nodding to where it once stood. "There was a moment, just before it was destroyed…I believe I saw Queen Malina standing on it."

I blink, remembering that I also saw someone there. "I think I did too."

"Queen Malina?" Thold asks in shock before a thick silence spreads. "Do you think she was somehow responsible for destroying it?"

Kaila lifts a shoulder. "Who knows?"

"If that's true, then she saved our world," Thold says.

" We saved our world," Kaila retorts. "We fought for it, and we prevailed. Now, we can alert the rest of Orea. Let people know the danger is gone and that we've defeated the fae once and for all."

I take in Kaila's demeanor. Beside me, Osrik tenses, and I can see Lu pause where she's wrapping a timberwing's leg, her head turning to look at the queen with a hint of distrust.

"Orea is in disarray," Kaila says to Thold. "We may find ourselves no longer at war, but it's still been devastated. Fifth and Sixth have fallen, and with Malina and the new King Fulke gone, these kingdoms need leadership."

The king's mouth presses into a hard line, but I grit my teeth. "We're not even off the battlefield, and you're already vying to claim more kingdoms?" I growl out.

Her shrewd brown eyes flick over to me, dragging from gauntlet to glare. "You have fought well, Commander," she says, though she somehow manages to make it sound patronizing. "But now is the time for monarchs. Thold and I will take it from here. Unless Ravinger is around to join us?" she asks pointedly.

Red-hot anger melts away the chill in the air.

Her brow arches at my silence. "That's what I thought."

"The Premiers have rule of Fourth in lieu of King Ravinger's absence," I bite out, my head turning to look at Thold. "They will need to be included in discussions."

The king looks between the two of us, and I can see the wheels turning behind his eyes. He's formidable, but I have hope that he has enough honor to ultimately do what's right for Orea.

Still, I hope the Premiers are ready to hold their own, because it seems a different sort of battle is about to begin. One fought behind closed doors during diplomatic meetings.

"We will meet at Fourth immediately and call a council to come up with a united plan," Thold says.

Kaila's lips press together, eyes seeming to swirl with plans of her own.

"Orea needs to rebuild and make everyone feel safe again," I state, my words insistent. "We've just experienced devastating losses. We need to come together , not grow further divided."

Kaila gives me a dismissive look and then ignores me completely when she turns to Thold. "I will meet you in Fourth," she says before she turns and walks toward her timberwing and mounts it.

I share a look with Lu and Osrik, and I know we're all thinking the same thing. We almost died saving Orea, and before the dust can even fucking settle, Kaila is up to her old antics with her thirst for power.

Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, but it feels like a punch to the fucking gut. I can only hope that her brother can knock some sense into her. He seems to be the only one she listens to.

King Thold looks at me, his astute gaze casting over my tense face. "Do not worry yourself, Commander. The war is over. Your duty is done. Now, leave the politics to us. Queen Kaila can only reach so far before that grasping hand of hers gets caught."

We watch as Kaila and her group take flight, their timberwings pointed in the direction of Sixth Kingdom.

"I thank you all for Fourth's sacrifice," the king says, drawing my eyes back to him.

My jaw tightens as I think of how much blood was spilled. "We all made sacrifices."

"War always requires them," he rumbles out in reply.

And he's right. But hopefully, greed doesn't ruin what we've won.

Only time will tell.

He walks off, addressing the soldiers of Second who are still left. "Return to your kingdom and tell your prince what has transpired. Tell him that he's called to council in Fourth Kingdom. I will meet him there."

The soldiers tip their heads, and their captain readies their group to leave.

Only four of our own Elites still live, and all of them wear the stricken faces of the after-battle. Their eyes are haunted from the loss and carnage, while both relief and guilt fill the creases of their grimaces.

Tyde walks over, and I notice his middle has been re-bandaged, but it doesn't appear to be bleeding. "Your stitches hold up?"

"Yes, Commander."

His magic has been incredibly beneficial, and he's kept a cool head the entire time, never once wavering.

"Should we all mount and ready to leave?" he asks.

My head turns of its own volition to look at the void again before I answer. "You all leave now. Head straight for Fourth. We need to tell the Premiers everything that's happened. They'll have to prepare for the monarchs to come for the council meeting that will determine Orea's fate."

Tyde nods but looks from me to the Wrath, snow gathered in his blond hair and his eyes bloodshot. "And what should we tell them about King Ravinger?"

A jab goes through my heart. It takes great effort not to let my voice waver. "Tell them that it appears he can't return. That they must rule Fourth in his stead." I swallow thickly.

Tyde pauses. "And you, Commander?"

"I'll be behind you," I say. " Captain Tyde."

His eyes widen at the new title. "Me?" he asks in shock.

I nod. "You've earned it."

With his black helmet tucked under his arm, he shifts on his feet for a moment before clearing his throat. "Thank you, Commander."

He offers me a salute and then turns to Lu and Os, offering a deferential nod as he presses a fist to his heart. "We honor the fallen," he murmurs. "Captain Judd will be missed."

Lu sucks in a breath at his name, and Osrik seems to pale. My throat feels like someone is clawing it.

As soon as Tyde turns and walks away, Lu appears at my side. "What are you doing? Why did you tell them to go ahead?"

"Because I can't just leave," I say, the words ripping out more harshly than I intended. It's been a rush of collapsing earth and tending to our wounded, but now that everyone is leaving, I can finally focus on the bridge. On what happened.

Slade left us proof that he came through Sixth and Seventh. I know he crossed the bridge. I know he's there. Just like my mother.

So this bridge can't be just fucking gone .

I glare at the fog that rolls and presses like kneading dough beneath unrelenting fists. It used to be only gray, but now, the fog is as white as the snow, with streaks of ice-blue swirling through it.

"I just don't understand what the fuck happened… " Lu says, seeming to pick up on my thoughts. "If it was Queen Malina, how ?" Sweat coats the dagger shapes shaved into the sides of her head, and her eyes are drawn with exhaustion.

"Good fucking question," Osrik growls. He has his hand clamped around Rissa's, whose face is half-buried behind a thick scarf, her blue eyes haunted. She hasn't said much since it all ended, but she's been practically stuck to Osrik's side.

Digby too stares straight ahead at the bleak emptiness, his brown and silver stubble peppered with frost.

Behind us, Argo whines.

A lump the size of my heart gets stuck in my throat as my molars gnash together. I know this was a good thing for Orea, but for me…for us…it's a disaster.

Why couldn't the bridge have exploded after Slade returned with my mother and Auren?

It's not right, and I don't fucking accept it.

"You all go catch up with the Elites, but I'm going to go look," I bite out as I turn and start walking.

Maybe there's still a piece of it. Maybe there's something there.

"The bridge is gone, Ryatt," Lu argues as she flings out her hand in that direction. "It's not broken, it's obliterated . There's nothing there anymore."

"I know," I snap as I halt beside Argo. I let out a sigh before looking at her over my shoulder. "I know, okay? But I have to check."

She studies my face. I can see the devastation in her expression, and the stretched-out breath that spills out of her says everything. "Fine. I'll go with you."

"I want to see too," Rissa declares, and everyone looks over at her, making her shoulders lift defensively. "What? If Auren really is stuck in the fae realm, I want to be certain that she has no way of coming here before we just leave."

Osrik moves his gaze from her to me. "We'll fly over there where it was. Just to check."

Digby stares, and I can see the acceptance of misery tightened around his eyes and mouth. He has championed Auren, insisted on staying by her side, wanting nothing more than to protect her, and with the bridge now gone, he can't.

He's a cut-and-dry sort of man, accepting hard truths. But even he nods. "Let's check."

Because hope, however false, does something for a trodden soul. Sometimes false hope is all you have, so you cling to it for as long as you can.

And I'm going to fucking cling. Because it's not over until I check. Until I see with my own eyes that it's gone.

Osrik and Rissa get on one bird, Lu and Digby on the other, and me on the third. I grip Argo's feathers, my leather gloves creaking with how stiff my grip is. Probably because I'm trying to keep hold of this false hope in a way that feels a lot like trying to strangle flowing water.

But I try anyway.

We lift into the sky, and my gaze drops as soon as we start flying over the broken land. The triangle-shaped break grows wider the longer we fly over it, though the fog still hugs the crevices.

I direct Argo to keep straight, following the path of the new wound in the ground until we reach the spot where the bridge once existed.

Now, there's nothing but this icy, white and blue fog. No pillars, no gray path. No land that once led to it.

No piece of bridge still left.

Tears burn my eyes as we all pull up, timberwings hovering at the edge of the world where the fog rises up like a wall.

Frustration and grief crack open my chest as I stare at it. As reality hammers into me.

I'm never going to see them again.

A surge of anger comes over me, because how could this be it? How could this be the culmination of everything that's happened? We won. Orea won. But I lost anyway.

Anger and denial hack into me. I tap my heel and jerk forward, and Argo jolts ahead at my wordless command, his wings flapping.

"Wait!" Osrik shouts, his gruff voice scraping toward me.

"Ryatt, no!" Lu yells.

I ignore them as Argo and I push into the fog, and we immediately get swallowed in its dense depths. My nerves drench me in cold sweat as soon as I'm surrounded by the cloying vapor, and Argo screeches, but I push him to keep going.

Every Orean knows better than to go into this void. There are many old stories about Seventh Kingdom doing trials when their kingdom still existed.

Three things were always made clear from those histories: if someone walked the bridge to nowhere, they wouldn't come back. If someone fell down over the edge of the world, they'd just keep falling. And no one should ever fly into the fog, or they wouldn't be able to fly back out.

Except maybe there's a part of the bridge that still exists in all this murk. And if there's a part, then there's a chance.

A chance is all I need.

But my last false hope is kicked aside, because there is no bridge still suspended in the air. No piece left. No chance.

There's nothing here, except nothing .

Only a thick haze of white and blue and an empty void that seems to stretch forever.

Just like that, my false hope breaks apart, pieces of it scraping at the backs of my eyes and making them sting.

I'll never see my family again.

As if sensing my change in mood, Argo slows, hovering as my throat clogs with grief.

Grief for my mother and brother.

For Judd.

For Kitt and all my soldiers—for Finley and Maston.

For every innocent who died.

I feel the losses press against me even more than this suffocating fog.

But then I hear whispers.

Instantly, I stiffen on Argo's back, and my head whips around. Argo turns his head too, his movements jerky.

"Who's there?" I call.

My own voice sounds trapped, like I'm inside a tiny closet. The whispers though, they sound like they're being spoken through a canyon. Echoing and stretching. I can't tell what they're saying.

"Is someone there?" I shout, looking around wildly as I lean in, as if the disembodied voices will clear up.

But it's only wordless ramblings.

"What?"

The whispers suddenly stop. No tapering off, no fading. They just cut out.

Eerie silence follows that makes my stomach churn with nausea because I get hit with a sudden sense that I shouldn't be here.

Fear drenches me like I've stepped beneath a rushing waterfall.

What the fuck was I thinking?

Argo lets out a panicked screech like he feels it too, and then he abruptly turns and starts flying as fast as he can, back the way we came.

Only… is this the way we came?

Gripping his feathers, I swing my head in every direction. I'm all turned around, confused, and there's no sight of reference, because the fog is so thick I can barely even see Argo.

Worry spreads through me, making me feel lightheaded. Argo's wings flap frantically, head jerking side to side as he goes faster. But dread sticks to my quickening breaths, because we should've reached the land by now.

This isn't right.

I pull on Argo's feathers, and he circles, flying up and then down, left and right, screeching in alarm.

We're stuck. We're fucking stuck in this fog. I shouldn't have forced us in here. I shouldn't have—

Argo abruptly turns and bolts . I wasn't expecting it, so I jerk back and start to slip off. My heart lurches right up into my throat as I start to fall back.

My hands fling out at the last second to grip his feathers, keeping me seated. I shove my weight forward and lean in against the rushing air. Wind tears at my face, the fingers of the fog feeling like they're reaching out, trying to grip hold of me and drag me back…

But suddenly, we burst through the wall.

I have a split second of relief when I realize we're out of the fog before we hit the ground in a skid, and I go flying off Argo's back. I tumble through the air and land in a heap of snow, my heart nearly knocked right out of me.

My pulse pounds as I shove myself up, chest rising and falling with rapid breaths as I stare at the wall of fog ahead.

I hear Lu and Osrik shouting my name, and I immediately put my hands around my mouth and call back. "Here! I'm over here!"

A few seconds later, I see the others flying toward me. I wave my arms so they spot me, and they land right at my side.

Osrik jumps down from his bird, stomps over, and then punches me right in the chest. I have armor on, but the hit still knocks me back.

"You fucking idiot!" he snarls at me.

"I'm sorry!" I say, holding up my hands. "I don't know what I was thinking."

"You weren't thinking," Lu seethes as she comes over. "You're lucky you made it out of that! We already lost Judd and Slade and Auren. You think we wanna lose you too?"

Shame slips down my back, making my shoulders slump. "No. I'm sorry," I say again before sighing. "I just…I wanted to make sure."

Her sharp eyes meet mine. "And?"

I shake my head. "No bridge. It's all gone."

"So that's it, then," Rissa says as she slips down off of Osrik's timberwing. She sniffs and swipes beneath her eye. "They're stuck in Annwyn."

My voice feels as hollow as my chest. "Yes."

Digby swallows hard and dismounts before starting to pace through the snow like he doesn't know what else to do with himself.

"Did you see anything else?" Lu asks.

I open my mouth and then close it again, my gaze drifting behind her toward the fog. "No, but I heard voices. I tried to call back to them, but I think it was a trick. It didn't seem right."

" Voices ?" Lu repeats, looking horrified. "You heard bodiless voices in a void, and you thought you'd just stick around in there to listen to them? That it was a good idea to call back ?" She lets out a sigh before muttering something about me being an idiot.

I don't disagree.

"Believe me, I'm not going in there again."

"You're lucky you came out," Digby says, eyes creased with stress.

I don't disagree with that either.

We stand around in a circle, and I know we're going to have to return to Fourth now, even if it feels so wrong.

I drag a trembling hand down my face, like grief is shaking me where I stand.

But then I hear voices again, and I go rigid. My eyes swing around to the others. "Is that in my head from the fog, or can you hear that too?" I demand.

"Hear wh—" Lu's reply abruptly cuts off when the breeze carries the sound again. Her eyes go wide. "That's not the fog. Someone's here."

I whirl around, but Lu is quicker. She starts hurrying forward and we quickly follow her through the snow. It's so thick that it nearly reaches our knees.

Lu reaches a snowbank that's formed into more of a hill. When she disappears around it, my panic spikes. What if this is the fog? What if there's some sort of curse in there and I brought it out with me? What if these voices are tricking us and Lu just up and vanishes?

Shit.

I surge forward with a burst of panic and speed. I'm ready to start shouting her name, but as soon as I get around the bank, I spot her, and relief bursts through me. But then I grind to a halt next to where she's stopped.

Because it wasn't the fog playing tricks on us. There is someone here. Two people, in fact.

One of them is a man with straight black hair and a murderous look on his face, while the other is a beaten and bloodied woman on the ground.

When I see his foot pull back like he's about to kick her, I surge forward without thought.

It's not until I grip him by the arm and toss him away, not until I look over at the woman that I realize…

They're fae.