28. Finn

TWENTY-EIGHT

Yarrow and I have been entrenched in our small hut on the outskirts of camp all day, plotting and planning. The excitement in the air is palpable. We allowed the Leafborne, Pen, to join us. I don’t like the guy, but he has spirit, and now that the Leafborne have decided they will fight with us, I figure we should at least make them feel involved.

“Garratt says the elves have been putting out word through the city,” I tell them, leaning back against the stack of grain sacks behind me.

Now that I’m making regular journeys into the city, confident I won’t be seen, I’ve been bringing back supplies which is keeping everyone fuller and happier.

Yarrow yawns loudly, lighting a cigarette. It is full of dandelion weed, which smells terrible but puts him in a good mood. He crosses his ankles and leans back opposite me. Pen is the only one standing. He’s looking at our makeshift table and the maps that we have spread out of the city and the citadel.

“We need to agree on a day and a signal. The Shadowkind who are working for the Sunborne in the city will watch for the signal, maybe smoke,” I say thoughtfully, watching as Yarrow puffs on his cigarette. “When they see it, they’ll join us to fight.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to take down Eldrion first?” Pen says, tapping the castle on the map. “Take him down, take control of the castle, then deal with the other Sunborne when we have a fortress.”

Yarrow looks at me and quirks his eyebrows. “The kid’s not wrong,” he says, even though I think Pen may be older than Yarrow; the Leafborne age a little more gracefully than we do.

I bite my lip. “My plan was for the Shadowkind to start fighting back against the Sunborne while we take the citadel, but perhaps Pen is right. Yes,” I say slowly, “we’ll do it while they’re sleeping. We’ll take Eldrion in the castle. The Sunborne will know nothing about it.”

“And you’re still relying on your girlfriend as our star player?” Yarrow asks, offering Pen a rolled-up cigarette. Pen hesitates, then accepts it, probably because he thinks it’s polite. When he lights it and takes a puff, he winces a little but then carries on.

His wings are orange, which means fire magic.

“You saw what she did in the tunnels,” I tell him. “She’s powerful.”

“We’re all powerful,” Pen says. He’s leaning back against the table now, the dandelion weed taking effect already, and he looks more relaxed. “I can give you numbers if you like – who has which elemental magic, how many of us there are. And you know,” he says, “why stop with us? Why not send word to the outer villages? We aren’t the only ones the Gloomweavers have raided over the past couple of years while Eldrion turned a blind eye. The Mountainborne, the Waterweavers – they’d come and help, I’m sure. It means being a little more organised.” He says this last bit pointedly, looking at me.

I’m teetering on the edge of being annoyed, but then decide to laugh instead and shake my head at him.

“You’re right,” I say. “I’m not a born leader. I’m not smart. I’ve never made plans like this before. I’m just doing what I think is right for my people.”

Pen’s expression softens. “Well, lucky for you, part of our schooling includes stuff like this.”

“It includes how to take over the capital city of the kingdom?” Yarrow says sarcastically.

“No,” Pen says. “It involves studying battles, manoeuvres. Not all of us study it, of course, but I chose to do that instead of questing.”

“Questing?” Yarrow asks with a withering stare.

Pen stands a little straighter, his expression becoming firmer. “At one hundred and fifty years old, each Leafborne fae has a choice – they quest, which means going away for a year –”

“On a quest,” Yarrow finishes, narrowing his eyes with a hint of humour in his voice.

Pen laughs, but it’s tinged with annoyance. “Exactly,” he says. “Or studying more, choosing something to research, become an expert in.”

“And you’re an expert in battle?” I ask.

“Yes,” Pen says. “It was two hundred years ago that I studied, but I remember most of it.”

I stand up and clap him on the shoulder. “Then I am very glad you’re here,” I tell him. “Let’s talk more about this idea – first, getting the other fae involved in the city. How will this work exactly?”

We talk until the sun has disappeared and the forest is cloaked in darkness. I know Alana will be wondering where I am, and fretting about it. Since I revealed the extent of my ambitions, she’s been watching me closely. Like she’s worried I will go off and leap into battle without her.

If she’s worried about her role in the fight, she has not showed it. She has showed only steely determination.

Pride blooms in my chest as I think of her.

I saw it in her from the very first moment we met – her strength, her power, how special she was.

She knew it too, deep down. But the fae she grew up with didn’t appreciate her. They spent their time making her feel less instead of more. Making her shy away from her powers instead of leaning into them.

I was determined to right their wrongs.

And when she succeeds in killing Eldrion, and takes her place as queen beside me, she will finally see what I see.

She’s starting to. It began in the tunnels when she freed us all and made Eldrion fuck her on the way out. But I want her to really see it. I want her to see what she could be if she was by my side in the citadel when the rest of Luminael crumbles and the power balance is restored to what it once was.

Around the campfire, Leafborne and Shadowkind are finally starting to mingle with one another. It has only taken five weeks, stuck here together in this small piece of the forest that we have claimed as our own.

Briony is sitting beside Raine, the pregnant Leafborne who I have asked to be kept out of harm’s way when the fighting starts; she is to be one of our healers. Not a warrior, even though this clearly displeased her.

Maura meets my gaze as I cross the clearing. The campfire casts dancing orange shadows on her face, and her expression remains unchanging.

She does not wave or smile; that woman barely does either.

In fact, she seems perpetually suspicious and irritated. With everyone.

Her attitude to Alana is what annoys me the most. Despite everything, she still behaves as though she is the one with the power. Because she is an ‘elder’.

I abhor labels and titles.

In the new world order, there will be none.

Certainly no elders, presiding over everyone as if simply being alive longer gives you some kind of expertise that no one else has.

I do not stop to talk, but when Briony leaves a small group of dancing Shadowkind and heads away from the music, I slow my pace and allow her to catch up.

“It has been too long since we spoke properly,” I say, looping my arm around her shoulders. “How are you, Briony?”

“It’s nice of you to ask,” she says, and part of me wonders whether she is berating me for not checking in on her sooner. Probably, I should have. A good friend would have. But I have had too many other plates to juggle. “But before I answer you... have you seen Alana? She was missing from supper, and she’s not by the lake.” Briony stops walking.

I stop too and glance in the direction of mine and Alana’s tent.

“I checked the tent, the lake, all her usual places. She sometimes walks for a long time, but something feels...” Briony wrinkles her nose. “I don’t know, Finn. Something feels different. I’m worried she’s gone beyond the shield.”

“She can’t.” I frown. “I mean, she wouldn’t. Why would she?”

Technically, the spell has been cast so that we can come and go as we please, and only those outside our group are prevented from being able to locate us. But why would Alana stray away from camp now, of all times?

Even as the thoughts form in my mind, a heavy weight settles deep in my stomach.

Quickening my pace, I march in the direction of the tent.

“Finn, I checked –” Briony is on my heels, hurrying to keep up.

I fling open the canvas and stoop inside. There. On the pillow. A note.

I scrunch it tight in my hand and wave it at Briony, allowing my anger to be directed at her. “You didn’t see this?”

When she blinks at me, wide-eyed, clearly upset, I shake my head. My hands feel numb. “I’m sorry.” I look at the piece of paper. I can’t bring myself to open it. “I’m just worried she’s done something stupid...”

Briony takes the paper from me and unfolds it. Her eyes scan the handwriting, and her face pales in the dim light of the tent.

“What is it? Where is she?”

“She’s gone.” Briony hands me the piece of paper. “Finn, she’s gone to kill Eldrion.”

My hands are trembling now. I look down through blurry eyes.

Dearest Finn,

Please do not be angry, my love. But I do not want you, or the others, to be put in harm’s way. If you’re right, and I have the power to end Eldrion, then it’s something I should do alone. We have a connection. There is something that binds us, which gives me an advantage. But only if I go alone.

Please let me do this for you.

For all of you.

I love you, and I will see you on the other side. When the light returns to Luminael.

Yours always,

Alana

I meet Briony’s eyes and allow the letter to flutter to the floor. “What has she done?” I whisper. “What the fuck has she done?”