7. Alana

SEVEN

Alana

A s soon as we reach the edge of the treeline, tar-like dread thickens in my veins. My limbs feel heavy. My wings curl in on themselves.

The smell.

Charred flesh, and fear.

The air is so dense with it that I can barely breathe.

Eldrion climbs down from his horse and takes its reins in his hand. Maura follows suit, her bare feet landing softly on the mossy ground. She shudders visibly, and wraps her arms around her waist. "By the stars," she breathes. "What happened here?" She turns to me. "What did he do?"

I close my eyes and try to push away the visions that are clambering to return. Beating against the backs of my eyes, blinding me to anything else. I can't move. I know I need to walk, but I can't seem to find the energy in my body to leave my mare's warm, safe back.

Eldrion strides to me and holds out a hand. The way he looks at me, it's as if he loathes me and yet wants to protect me at the same time.

I take it reluctantly, and hold on tight as I lower myself to the ground.

Still gripping his hand, unable to let go, I shake my head. "I can't."

"We have to," he growls.

"It's already happened. We're too late." Panic is rising in my chest. "I can feel it. Can't you feel it?"

Eldrion looks down at me. He is so tall, and so broad, and so powerful. And yet in this moment, I know there is nothing he can do to protect me. If Finn returns now, right now, we are at his mercy. Eldrion is weakened.

Right now? I am probably stronger than he is, and yet his hand holding mine feels so good. So needed.

I hate that I need him.

I have never needed anyone, and I certainly won't begin now.

Roughly, I tug out of his grip, help Briony down, and then stride towards the treeline. Shoulders back, legs steady.

I caused this, so I must face it.

Yet, as soon as I set foot in the darkness between the trees, I waver. I have no idea how I'm going to force myself to confront what Finn has done.

Because he has, undoubtedly, done something terrible.

Unspeakable.

Unfixable.

My thoughts of getting here before it happened now seem foolish. Like so many other things I have done, and thought, and seen, and been in my life.

What made me think I could change his mind, even if I did arrive before he...?

I can't even form the thoughts.

I see them. I see what he did, but I can't allow myself to think them. It's too much.

I walk steadily forward, towards the campsite I left less than two days ago, and hold my head high. Watching me from the back, I want Eldrion to think I am brave, and strong. I want Maura to see that, too. Because she, above all others, has only ever seen me as a pariah.

And, despite knowing I shouldn't care, I still so desperately want to prove myself to her.

"Have you considered what we will do if he's still in the camp?" she says, stepping up beside me.

She is shorter than me, and fragile looking. All sharp angles and paper-like skin. Pale with dark blue veins on her hands and arms. She is hundreds of years old. She has seen more than I have and endured more than I have. She is strong. And yet, she is afraid, too.

"He's not there." I shake my head gravely. "He's gone. I'd know if he was still there."

Maura raises her eyebrows at me. "Did you truly love him?" she asks, with not a hint of kindness in her tone. "Or were you so blinded by lust that you tricked yourself into believing it was love?"

I press my lips together. I cannot answer her. I feel the way I did when I was a child, and when the other Leafborne demanded answers from me that I could not give them.

What are you, Alana? Are you reading my mind right now? What's wrong with you? Why are you so strange? What am I thinking right now? Did you do that? Did you make him do that? Did you make her cry? What is wrong with you?

I screw my eyes closed for a moment.

Eldrion is watching us. I can feel his steely gaze on me.

"The jester fooled us all," he says, striding forward. "This wasn't a plan he concocted overnight. Was it?" He looks at Briony.

She swallows hard and shakes her head. "No," she whispers. "Finn has been planning a rebellion over the Sunborne for hundreds of years. He manipulated us all. He made us think we were going to..." She hesitates, blinking quickly.

"Continue." Eldrion stops and folds his arms in front of his chest. "We are on the same side now, Briony, whether we like it or not. So, you have nothing to fear from me."

She studies his face. Somehow, even though he is offering her a truce, it comes out sounding like a threat.

"At first, it was just about escaping. Leaving the castle. That's why we built the tunnels. Then it became about you." A cold wind snaps through the trees, blowing Briony's dark hair across her face. She tucks it back and inhales deeply. "He wanted to remove you from power." She is choosing her words carefully. "But then..."

I step in because her words are thin and quivering, and she looks like she might begin to cry. "Then he changed the rules. He wanted to kill all Sunborne fae. Take over the city. Rule Luminael." A shudder runs through me. "That was when I decided to come to the castle to kill you. Because I thought it might stop him from taking it too far."

As I speak, Briony's eyes widen as if she can't believe I just admitted to Eldrion that I intended to assassinate him.

Maura purses her lips and tuts.

Eldrion nods slowly. "I see," he says. "A brave decision."

Maura tuts again. Does she see the flicker of heat between Eldrion and I? Does she think I have been manipulated yet again by a fae who makes my heart beat faster and my legs quiver?

With a small flick of his wings, Eldrion motions for us to continue walking. We sink into silence. The forest is becoming darker and colder.

I look down, and realise a thin grey mist is swirling around my feet.

It's becoming almost impossible to see.

My toes snag on something. I trip and reach out to steady myself, pulling pale purple light into my hands and casting it in front of me to illuminate the way.

I am about to keep walking when I realise what I tripped on.

A hand.

"Alana?" a choked whisper drifts up from beneath the fog.

"Raine?" I drop to my knees.

"Please help me."

I drop to my knees beside Raine, my heart pounding. Her skin is ashen, her breath coming in ragged gasps. Cuts and burns mark her body, and her wings are tattered shreds.

"Eldrion!" I call out, my voice cracking.

To my surprise, he's by my side in an instant, and he looks concerned.

I didn't expect that; I expected him to shrug and look coldly past her. To tell me we need to move on quickly, and to leave her where she is. But his eyes drift to her pregnant belly, and I see his breath thicken in his throat.

"We should get her back to the castle," he says, his voice grim. He turns to Briony. "Can you take her?"

Briony nods, her face pale but tinged with relief that she does not have to progress any farther through the woods. "Of course."

"What if there are more survivors?" Maura asks curtly, looking at the horses.

Ignoring Maura, but speaking to Briony, Eldrion says, "When you return, tell the guards to send more horses to the woods. And send for my healer, also. She is a Sunborne. Elys. Send word and ask her to bring supplies and help to the castle."

As Eldrion gently lifts Raine into Briony's arms, I watch him and catch myself feeling a surge of warmth that takes me by complete surprise.

One show of tenderness doesn't undo all the hurt he has done, but it does show that there is something beneath his facade.

Something I didn't expect to see.

Briony takes the reins and looks back over her shoulder, nodding at me.

I catch Raine's hand. "Hold on, Raine. Please."

Before they leave, I close my eyes and reach out for her fears, and I soothe them with my mind. Raine visibly sighs. Her body relaxes. She turns towards me and her eyes flutter open.

She manages a weak, "Thank you," before Briony takes off, wings fluttering furiously behind her as the horse carries her and Raine back towards the castle.

I stand, my legs shaky. "We need to keep going," I say, dreading what we will find if we go farther.

Eldrion nods, and gestures for me to lead the way. Maura says nothing, but her eyes are hard as she follows us deeper into the forest.

As we approach the camp, the swirling fog beneath our feet thickens, and an eerie silence settles over us. No birdsong, no rustling of leaves – just an oppressive stillness that makes my skin crawl.

As we enter the clearing, though, the fog parts like a curtain.

My breath catches in my throat, and I hear Maura's sharp intake of air behind me.

A few days ago, the camp was teeming with life. There was noise, and chatter. Pen played his harmonica. The scent of our rations being cooked filled the air, and the playful crackle of the campfire danced in the background.

Now, there is no harmonica.

Bodies litter the ground, their forms twisted and broken, and bushes simmer, burning silently and filling the air with smoke.

I walk slowly forward, picking my way between them.

"They're all Leafborne." I am looking into faces I have known my entire life. The beautiful Leafborne fae, once so vibrant and full of life, now lie still and lifeless. All of them.

All of us.

Their wings, once shimmering, are charred and crumbling. Their bodies are covered in scratches and bruises. Faces are swollen and almost unrecognisable. Limbs are contorted into strange angles.

I stumble forward, my eyes darting from face to face, hoping against hope to find someone – anyone – still alive. But there's nothing. No movement, no sound, just the oppressive silence of death.

"No," I whisper, screwing my eyes closed as tears surge into the back of my throat. "No, no, no."

I search for Eldrion. He stands completely still, surveying the carnage. I cannot read the expression on his face.

"Finn did this," Maura's voice is cold and hard as she walks up from behind me. "Your precious jester. Your lover. This is what he's become. This is what you let into our midst."

I want to argue, to defend Finn, to defend myself, but the words die in my throat. Because she's right. Finn did this. The Finn I thought I knew, the Finn I loved, is gone. And this... this monster has taken his place.

How could I ever have thought I might stop him?

Grief surges through me so hard and fast I can barely breathe.

I shake my wings, and my arms, and try not to see the devastation, the death.

My heart hurts. It burns in my chest.

It turns to liquid, sloshing around beneath my ribs and making me feel as if my entire body is going to sink to the floor and never get up again.

But then my eyes catch on something. A scrap of white fabric, like the ribbons Finn used to twist and twirl in the air above the Sunborne court.

I walk to it slowly, and pick it up, turning it over in my hands.

As I stare at it, and memories drip through me like acid, the grief inside me hardens into something else. A cold fury that burns like ice.

Finn did this. And I will make him pay.