Chapter 26

The Saint traveled on a covered cart, jewels caught in filigree twists, light lingering in sharp facets and precise cuts. Huge gray draft horses pulled it at a slow and steady pace the entire group was forced to keep.

So much opulence made Sorcha’s eyes water, her gaze drawn to the swishing curtains revealing and then concealing the glittering bones of the Saint. The huge jewel-encrusted skull sat facing her in the back of the cart, pointed so that his resurrector was always within sight.

Adrian rode beside her, stoic with gloved hands loose on the reins, eyes pointed straight ahead. She longed for him to turn to her—to truly see her now—in this fiery, burning place. She wanted him to repeat everything that had come before, every sweet word that had made her feel as if the world could change. But he didn’t turn. He didn’t speak.

Revenant rode ahead of the empress’s litter with Prince Eine. She wasn’t sure when the change had happened, but one killer had been exchanged for another. Maybe it had started in the prince’s court, on those polished wooden floors where she’d been stripped, and Adrian had drawn his sword. But Revenant had been suspicious before, his unreadable eyes focused on the man he’d once called his brother.

Sorcha wanted to ask Adrian about the change—curious about his emotions under the circumstances. But she couldn’t bring herself to point it out. It was obvious. It wouldn’t do any good to force a conversation about something that would be painful. She was the heart of it all, the breaking point, the center of a tear in time and space, an unmendable rend in his life. A part of her hurt for him, knowing she’d upended it all, changing his life.

She considered it all as they rode behind the litter, the Saint watching. He lurked within her, whispering at the edge of her hearing. A faint, cool touch on her arm as he waited on the other side of this world. Impatient to be recalled from death. Ready to take her hand and accept her gift.

There was nothing she could do that would change it.

* * *

The Red Wastes were everything the name had promised. No vegetation of any kind, only the rocky landscape filled with abandoned fortifications. The air was hazy with red dust, the earth bubbling with steam curling into the sky, mud pots bubbling and gulping.

A winding path led through the fields of hot springs and geysers. Deep within the earth, something shifted, moving water and stone, the surface vibrating. Sorcha had to stand perfectly still and hold her breath, concentrating on the dirt beneath her feet before realizing the motion was constant.

Tall towers rose above the landscape, dozens reaching for the sky, the tops as ragged as broken hands. The stones were black with age, but here and there, gold glittered between the cracks, vibrant crimson paint flaking away. The tower they were headed for was the largest, the bottom full of arched entryways. No doors or fortifications surrounded it. No protection of any kind. But there was nothing in this place worth taking or protecting. Without the Saint, this place was meaningless.

Dead.

Warm air blew over them, rustling fabric, shifting through hair. Sweat prickled along her back, strands of hair sticking to her forehead. She wanted to brush it away, wanted to pull in a deep breath that held more than heat and pungent death. She wanted the temple in the Silvas again. Or the lake. Even the bog or the sea cliff. She wanted any place other than this one.

Behind her, the advisors murmured constantly. It grated along her skin, her name in their mouths drawing anger to the surface, disrupting her attempt at calm. The way they looked at her made her want to lash out. But they were relatively harmless, their power in words and persuasion.

Revenant was different.

He sent fear curling through her, as hot and dangerous as this place could be if she stepped off the path. His distaste was palpable like the steam. The advisors were merely gossiping and insisting on her death. Revenant wanted to taste her demise.

Adrian still rode beside her, face blank. A hardness returned to his eyes that she’d seen soften as they’d traveled. It had slowly disappeared with their weeks together, tender moments softening the edges. But there was nothing there now. Nowhere to run or hide, no way to avoid what would happen in the tower.

The end of the world, the beginning of a new one.