Chapter 36

Azran

Ren glides soundlessly ahead, one with the shadows as we trail tight on her heels, senses straining at every cross street.

Everything is perfectly quiet, and I barely notice when Ela’s shadows gather around us.

Lit on either side by hovering lanterns, the cobblestone streets lead us away from Nyths’ center. We’re moving slow, careful, so as not to disturb the silent night with our steps.

The pale light of the moon glints off the windows and dark buildings, giving them an ethereal shimmer as we sneak past them. As expected, the city is free of passerby, its perfect stillness reeking of fear and angst.

We turn into a wider artery and my pulse quickens.

Tension radiates from Ela, like ripples in the dark, as she freezes, before I turn my head a second later.

A patrol is walking towards us, their swords clinking against their armor.

The shadows thicken as Ela grabs my forearm and Ren slowly pulls us back to the street we just left. The patrol’s boots thunder against the ground as they get closer.

Ela presses her back against the alley wall, melting into its inky shadow, and I position myself next to her, closest to danger, a hand still gripping my weapon. Steadying my breathing, we become as still and flat as the stones on our backs, and I let her darkness embrace me like a cloak, its solid mass obscuring our forms.

The patrol pauses at the intersection and I cease motion entirely, willing myself invisible. My limbs freeze, my chest barely expanding with breath. We wait, shapes devoid of detail in the night’s camouflage, as the group of soldiers scan the alley.

Ela’s power flares when the seconds turn to minutes.

“Wait,“I whisper down the bond.

My muscles scream for release, but I remain a statue, letting the blackness render me a part of the wall itself.

The soldier closest to us shakes their head after an interminable wait, and the patrol heads back into the main artery, passing the pool of darkness shrouding us.

Only once the footsteps have faded into the distance do we finally peel ourselves from the wall.

Ren slows our pace as we approach the end of another block, craning her neck to peer past the building.

Sweat trickles down my back and my entire body tenses when Ren takes the side street. She leads us to a back alley running behind a building.

With no lanterns to light the area, Ela drops her shadows. It takes a second for my vision to adjust.

The alley opens to a small courtyard, a single door leading inside a building closed shut.

A stable huddles against the side of the structure, darkness laying beyond its corner.

The hair rises on my arms and a low growl tears from my throat as I scan the dead-end Ren led us to.

“Over there.” Ren points to the stable, leading us to a stack of hay in a manger.

Digging inside with both hands, she pulls out armor plaques adorned with emerald stripes.

“Nice,” Ela lets out as she grabs the pieces Ren hands her.

We leave the alley moments later, dressed as Airdan’s soldiers, ready to push on until Ren’s raised fist freezes us mid-step.

With military precision, she sinks against the street wall, head canted to catch the faintest disturbance. We hold in place, suspended breaths and hammering pulses the only betrayal of our anxiety. When no alert comes, she signs us to move forward.

The labyrinth of streets weaves endlessly, but Ren selects each turn with assurance, steering us clear of wider arteries where we would easily be spotted.

Every few strides Ren halts, ears tuned to soldiers’ boots thudding on paving stones, until we’re off again.

As we turn a corner, the outer defense wall of the city appears at the end of the street.

“Ren,” I whisper, cocking my head in that direction.

She shakes her head slightly.

“Two dozen soldiers guard that door. We make for the western exit.”

I grip my weapon a little tighter and follow her, Ela in my tow.

After an eternity wandering Nyths’ streets and avoiding patrols, salvation beckons in the form of bolted city doors set into massive walls. Our freedom awaits mere feet away, only between us and escape stands a squad of guards.

We move into fuller torchlight, our borrowed uniforms granting us fragile anonymity.

The four guards straighten their stances, and their hands near the weapons at their belts as we approach.

“Shift change,” Ren says steadily as the enemy scrutinizes us.

“Where’s your fourth?” a tall Fae asks, stepping forward.

One soldier’s gaze is fixed on me, scanning my body until his eyes dart to my shoulders.

When the sharp-eyed sentry notes the distinctive weapon sheathed on my back, dawning recognition widens his gaze. No other blades match mines anywhere across the territories.

I flick a split-second glance to Ren and Ela.

We charge as one, and chaos erupts. Ren’s knife embeds in the gap of one guard’s armor as my two-blade sword makes an arc and digs into another soldier’s chest. Ela lunges at the third guard, cutting through his abdomen. I twist to silence the remaining soldier, too late.

Screams leave his throat before my blade sinks in it, alerting the city to our presence.

As his body hits the ground, Ela and I take position against the door while Ren wrestles with stiff locking bars.

“It’s stuck,” she says, straining under the effort.

“Fuck.”

Ela’s curse sounds as a dozen soldiers fill the street, their captain leading the charge on horseback.

They’re onto us seconds later, and decades of lethal training kick in.

Two opponents fall when I swing my weapon, willing my body to hold on despite the pain flaring in my chest and arms. The rest of them leap forward to meet our attack with startled shouts.

Sparks spray off ringing blades parried inches from vulnerable points. Next to me, Ren and Ela trade vicious blows with the other troops, slowly forcing us back against the door step by step.

“Kill them,” the captain orders before jumping off his horse to join the fight.

Risking a backward glance, I glimpse Ela slamming elbow strikes into her opponent before slipping a dagger smoothly under his ribs.

Too many of them are left. It won’t be long until we’re overwhelmed.

A uniform sneaks past Ren, taking position behind her.

“Ren.”

My warning comes too late, and the soldier’s blade lands in her neck. Her body hits the ground, revealing the hatred etched on her killer’s snarling face. With a burst of energy, I smash through his guard and pierce his emerald armor with the tip of my blade, dropping him gurgling with twin gashes across his chest.

I turn on my heels just in time to catch a glimpse of a soldier plunging a dagger viciously between their captain’s ribs. Before their leader’s body pitches forward, the traitor’s sword slashes the throat of the soldier beside them.

Ela and I stagger back, colliding hard with the door as warm blood sprays across our faces. Shock freezes our reflexes for critical seconds as we gape at the carnage this foot soldier unleashes on their own comrades.

With lethal efficiency, the blood-drenched soldier executes the remaining escorts, whose bewildered hesitation leaves them defenseless against the whirlwind now in their midst. When four corpses lay cooling at the traitor’s feet, the killing stops, all enemies slain.

Chest heaving, the soldier slowly turns to face us as Ela and I huddle, ready to attack.

The soldier tears away their helmet, revealing a tumble of golden hair and piercing grey eyes that punch the air from my chest more violently than any sword could.

“Looks like I got here just in time,” Amrynn purrs, flicking carmine drops from her gauntlet with nonchalance.

Ela and I exchange a glance, still on alert as we grapple for coherent thought.

“What are you doing here?” Ela snarls.

“What does it look like? Saving you,” she says, her eyes scrutinizing our bodies. “Looks like we got the same idea, cousin.”

“How did you find us?” I retort, distrust coursing through my veins.

“Easy.” She huffs. “After slipping my guard, I killed a soldier snoozing on his post and waited in an alley by the outer defense wall. They all underestimate me when I bat my eyelashes, seeing the Lady of the Moon Fae before the warrior, conveniently forgetting I’ve waged wars alongside you for decades.”

I squint my eyes at her, waiting for the full story.

“When I heard the clashes of swords, I knew you two couldn’t be far, so I joined the patrol. They didn’t even notice, in their eagerness to reach the gates.”

Amrynn reaches for the reigns of the fallen captain’s horse and hands them to me.

I hesitate for another second until she puts them in my palm and closes my fingers around them.

I cock my head, motioning for Ela to get behind me, and Amrynn reaches for the metal bar on the door, yanking at it until the mechanism gives way.

The door creaks open, barely wide enough to slip through in single file, and Amrynn turns to us, a smirk on her lips.

“I have not lost all loyalty to our home, however hard you may find that to believe.”

She answers the question burning my tongue as she steps aside to let us through. Shouts echo from the depth of Nyths. We have mere minutes before we’re found again.

“Go,” Amrynn adds.

Ela and I lock eyes before I hand her the reigns. Hesitation glazes over her irises, but she nods and guides the horse through the door.

“What about you?” I ask Amrynn.

“Don’t worry about me, Az.” She reaches for her soiled helmet and puts it back on. “I’ll be fine.”

It’s no longer the Lady of Moon Fae I’m looking at, but my cousin, and for the first time I believe her. With that look, I recognize the little girl trapped in Morilanthe with me, at the mercy of cruel parents.

With a sharp nod, I disappear through the opened gates.

Ela is already mounted on the horse. She extends a hand to me, and I pull myself over the saddle behind her.

“Thank you,” Ela blurts out as she glances back at Amrynn, watching us from the doorstep.

With no time to waste, I nod to her, and my heels squeeze the sides of our mount. I can’t linger on Amrynn’s fate when ours is still uncertain.

I don’t hear the gate closing above the gallop of the horse as we break free and ride into the night’s shadows.

For good or ill, our secret is out, and the hunt will only quicken from here.