Chapter 5

Tavion tried rousting the wyvern as I kept my eyes on the darkness devouring everything in its path, sparing nothing.

There was no stopping Corvus now.

Nothing standing between a monster hungry to destroy our world and the people I'd sworn to protect. Caladrius was empty of Fae and humans, but…I looked around.

I'd promised to protect everything in these realms, including these sentient, magical forests filled with magic and light and life. And once Corvus reached Caladrius, everything would be devoured by this pestilence.

I laid down another heavy layer of magic, cutting a furrow deep into the soil. A line in the sand and one that did not hold, the blackness slithering over until I hit those creeping tendrils with a blast of raw power that sent Corvus's magic skittering back.

As always, I braced myself for something to come barreling out of that impenetrable darkness, but the Night Crawlers, it seemed, were spent.

Maybe Corvus was busy making more.

Tavion had propped Raz and Zor beside Tristan, but the godsdamned wyvern was too heavy for us to budge, though I'd managed to wrap his long, deadly tail around him, keeping it out of the blight for now.

He hadn't cracked so much as an eye, so here we were.

We'd sent the horses racing back to Blackcastle, a good thing since that route had been cut off by the festering rot a few minutes ago. All we'd kept from our saddlebags were weapons and my extra set of leathers, bound up in a tight bundle beside Tristan.

At Tavion's urging, I'd begun blasting away at the encroaching edge with short bursts of my magic, while overhead my shield held the rain at bay so we were relatively dry. A small miracle considering it had never let up.

The festering carcasses of the Night Crawlers had only hastened the blight, sending out roots of black from the moldering piles until I was forced to concentrate my efforts there.

But I was running low on magic.

Dangerously low, my arms so stiff I could barely keep them raised. Barely keep the magic flowing. Barely keep the godsdamned shield in place.

We were completely screwed, marooned on a shrinking island, surrounded by a blackened, rotting forest, dripping, diseased trunks rising above us like ruined sentinels, while the shadowy air that had put Zor, Raz, and Tristan into comas grew chokingly strong despite my shield.

"Wake up, you stubborn git," Tavion warned Tristan with a glint in his eye, knife clenched in one hand, a look of determination on his face. "We're dead in the water if you don't."

I scowled at the knife. "Stabbing a wyvern might be one way to die, but I'll take my chances with this blight, thank you very much. I have no desire to be ripped apart by those teeth."

"Just a little prick to bring him out of this." Tavion cocked his head as I laid down another line of magic. "You can't keep this up, Anaria."

"I'll can keep this up as long as I have to," I panted, racing to the other side to blast a channel through the dirt. Corvus's corruption crept up to the freshly churned soil, still glowing with stars and shadow, then shrank back, hesitating.

But the retreat never lasted long, and Tavion was right. I was running out of magic and our safe zone was shrinking by the minute. We were down to only bad choices.

"You pulled yourself out of the Oracle's dream by stabbing yourself." Tavion's eyes darkened. "I'm only following your lead, princess."

"Fine. But if he bites off your head, don't come crying to me," I warned.

"Your concern is touching, wife." But Tavion pursed his lips, looking like he was having second thoughts as he fingered the point of his blade. "I'm not really hurting him. Barely enough to roust him."

"Yeah, good luck explaining that when he's chewing your face off." I blasted a semicircle around Tristan's bulk then shook out my frozen fingers. Another few minutes and he'd be engulfed. "Fine. We're out of options, but Tristan's tiny little lizard brain will never grasp that fact."

I walked the entire circumference of our little sanctuary, shoving Corvus's blight back, cutting a wide, deep channel around us like a moat around a castle. Then I bent over, gasping for air. "That was everything I had." I met Tavion's gaze. "I'm out."

"Here goes."

Everything happened so fast. Tavion plunged his knife into the wyvern's flank. Tristan burst up off the ground and lunged straight into the blighted darkness. He would have, if I hadn't stepped right in front of him, arms spread wide, flinching away from those fearsome teeth.

"Oh gods, please don't eat me. Tavion's the one who stabbed you."

Tristan's diamond shaped head snapped around like a snake's, a flicker of flame leaking out between his curved teeth as he stared Tavion down.

"You were stuck in some kind of stasis." I talked fast, having no idea if Tristan could even understand me. "Raziel and Zor are safe, but they're unconscious. We need to get out of here." I pointed to the encroaching blight. "We're out of time."

The wyvern stomped around the perimeter of the small area, taloned feet digging holes into the ground, sniffing at the blight, jerking back at the foul odor. "There's no other way out of here except to fly."

I pointed to the stormy sky. "You can carry us, one by one."

"Two at a time," Tavion corrected me. "One of us holding Raz or Zorander." Tavion sized me up. "I'll take Raz; he weighs more."

"Can you do that?" I asked Tristan softly, running my fingers down his neck, the scales changing color beneath my fingertips. "Carry us two at a time?" I glanced around the small clearing. "You won't have much room to take off. We'd need to reach Nightcairn, but it's not far."

"Five miles." Tavion pointed north. "That way."

Tristan purred, pushing his giant head against me, and I ran my fingers along the sides of his face. "Is that a yes? Because we really need it to be a yes."

He chuffed as if to say, of course it is.

Tavion pointed to the wyvern. "Climb on and I'll hoist Zorander up. You'll have to hold onto Tristan and keep Zor from sliding off. Can you do that?"

"You could stab them, too, and yank them out of their comas." I winced, not believing I'd actually suggested such a thing.

But Tavion already had his knife out, wickedness glinting in his eyes as he raised it over his head. "I'm telling them this was your idea."

"You are such an arsehole."

I gagged when the knife went into Zor's thigh, but his eyes flickered open a few seconds later, then Raziel was awake, both of them in a stupor, but mobile. I stuck a knife into my boot then secured my extra set of leathers over my shoulder with a belt.

Tavion lifted me onto Tristan's back and helped Zorander on behind me, his shaking arms wrapping around my waist, the cloak barely covering his bare legs. Once we got into the air, the temperature would plummet.

"Hang on tight, Zor." I clamped my hand over his and grasped one of Tristan's spikes, my fingers too numb to work properly, rain and wind lashing my raw face.

I nearly spilled off one side when Tristan lifted off, the tops of the trees growing closer then gone, the ground receding at a furious pace until Tavion and Raziel stared straight up at me, huddled in the center of that tiny speck of untouched land.

Then I lost sight of them, barely able to hang on as the full force of the storm slammed into us, rain and wind and thunder powerful enough to rattle bones.

"Fuck, I should have set down another perimeter."

But now it was too late because we were soaring over the thick forest. From up here, the destruction was clear and terrible. A swath of blackness stretched from the creek bed all the way north, disappearing into the foothills of the Taranth Mountains.

I expected that black crossed the Pale and crawled along the edge of the High Barrens all the way to the Hammer, where Corvus spewed out his corrosive magic like poison. "Fly faster, Tristan," I urged, my heart lurching in my chest.

Nightcairn stood directly in his path.

If this blight had taken over Tavion's home, was Lucius safe? What about Dane?

And if the castle was overtaken, we had nowhere to go.

But right before we reached Nightcairn—close enough I made out the candles burning in the castle's windows—the blight stopped, as if some invisible wall kept that unstoppable darkness at bay.

Tristan set us down in a puddle of water and I splashed down, Zor more or less crumpling into a heap at my feet.

"Go get them and bring them back." I ran my hand down Tristan's sinuous neck. "Be safe and come back quickly." He purred again, the sound rumbling through my palm and straight into my heart, then I slung my arm around Zorander's waist and heaved him up.

We stumbled into the hollow, empty entryway as the booms from Tristan's wings were still echoing off the front of the castle. I watched long enough for the wyvern to clear the trees, then limped into the front hall, so empty I wondered if Lucius and Dane had abandoned this place.

"Lucius? Dane?" Zor's feet dragged with every step, his body shaking from cold or whatever horrors lingered from Corvus's blackness. I remembered the twisted thoughts I'd had from his corrosive magic, the dark malevolent dreams that still haunted me.

"Please, is there anyone here?" My voice rang down the dark, empty hall. "Please help us."

"Anaria?" Dane stepped into the hall, nothing more than a shadow marked by glowing green eyes. "How did you get here? How did you get past the infestation?" His eyes dipped to Zorander and widened. "He got into the darkness, didn't he?" Dane hurried forward to help, taking on Zorander's weight with a groan.

"Him and Raz and Tristan. We were able to wake them up"—I didn't say how—"but they're half frozen and stuck in some kind of fog. We need to get Zor warm. Tristan went back for Tavion and Raz."

Dane stumbled. "How far away are they?"

"Five miles, according to Tavion. Beside the stream that cuts across the road."

Dane's quiet, bitter laugh sent a shiver through me. "We're cut off, then. Only one way out of here now. Two, if you were foolish enough to take the high trail through the passes in this weather," Dane murmured, and that quickly, any illusion of escape fell away.

"I'll put him in the front sitting room. Go find some wood so I can start a fire."

I dumped my extra leathers and weapons on the kitchen counter and found wood stored near the pantry. Only a few sticks but enough to warm a small room.

"Where is Lucius?" I dumped the firewood in front of the fireplace then stacked them in the grate like Raziel had shown me, calculating how long until Tristan returned. Outside, rain lashed the windows with a fury usually reserved for a spring storm.

"Same as Zor. My brother's been unconscious for days now. When he does wake, he's like this." Dane jerked his head at Zor, watching us through hazy, slitted eyes. "Groggy. Half stuck in a nightmare."

"He got into the…infestation?" Maybe it was better Dane didn't know the source of this right now.

"Yes. Two…no, three days ago, when the darkness first appeared. Lucius noticed something was wrong and went to patrol the forest. He never returned. I found him in the woods half frozen to death. He'd dragged himself out of the darkness, but he'd been inside those shadows for too long."

Three days.

And the hunter had discovered the blight high in the mountains only a week ago.

There was no doubt Corvus was heading straight for Blackcastle. Only the ancient wards around Nightcairn kept the castle safe, but for how long? Would he send those horrid Night Crawlers after us if his blight failed to breach the wards?

Or Reapers? Or had he made something even worse?

I pondered this, tucking the layers of cloaks tighter around Zor as Dane lit the fire. The heat hit my face, igniting my burned, blistered cheek numbed from the cold.

"I'll head out front and wait for Tristan." I forced my battered, exhausted body upright. "I'll try to find more firewood, but we might need your help getting Tristan inside."

"Don't worry. When you call, I'll come running, Princess." Dane's lip curled up in that perpetual Montgomery sneer, but his eyes burned fiercely.

"Or should I say Your Majesty?"

This landing wasa sloppy twist of legs and tail, an exhausted Tristan crashing down, his legs folding like stems of grass, body slamming against the laid stone road in front of Nightcairn with enough force to rattle the windows. Only Tavion's iron grip on both Raziel and the wyvern's spikes kept them both seated.

"Get Raz in the house. Dane has a fire going in the sitting room." I could barely get the words out as I crouched beside the wyvern, his bleary eyes half-open.

"I'll come back for you." Tavion slid Raz off and looped his arm around his waist. "Once I get him settled in front of the fire. He's frozen clean through." Tavion hesitated, rain dripping from his hair, his clothing soaked.

"Go. Get him inside." I glanced to the wide-open door. "I've got this."

Tristan strained to lift his head off the ground but could barely blink as I ran my fingers down his face. "Tristan, I need you to transform so we can get you inside. If you pass out again, we can't move you and you'll freeze before morning."

The wyvern blew out a rumbling breath and I stroked my hand down his neck, the scales changing color beneath my hand. "You can do this, Tristan. Shift back into your Fae form, and we'll get you warmed up by the fire then into a bed."

Those eyes flickered with interest.

"Yes, I'll be in bed with you, even if it's the squeaky one." He released a long, shuddering breath, no sign of fire or heat as the chill northern air skated over my exposed skin. "Come on, Tristan, I know you're exhausted but you have to try. If you don't, I'll sit out here and freeze right along with you."

His eyes glowed with internal flames, a shudder racing through his body from nose to tail like an enormous wave of power. Scales turned to tan, golden skin, spikes to red, tangled hair, golden eyes turned hazel, then Tristan's shaking, naked body was curled on the ground in front of me. I threw my cloak over him.

The fabric was thin but it was all I had.

"Dane. Tavion," I shouted. "Come help me." Dane rushed down the steps and lifted Tristan up, his head lolling, eyes unfocused. "We'll get you inside. We're going to be okay." I took one final glance over my shoulder at the now-dark forest, the slivered moon rising over the tops of the receding storm clouds.

"How safe are we here?" I asked breathlessly, closing and latching the doors behind us while Dane practically dragged a completely spent Tristan down the hall.

Nowhere is safe, a slithering voice inside my head crooned.

Darkness all around you, waiting to lay claim, and then you'll rot along with the rest of them, Princess.

Goosebumps sprang up all over my skin and I rubbed my face, the hallway swimming back into view, the sound of Tristan's bare feet bumping across the thick woolen rugs and cold stone floor while Dane explained, "So far, the wards have kept the blight at bay. I go out and check every few hours, but whatever this foul magic is, it seems to be moving due south."

I strained, waiting for that crooning, black voice to speak again, but there was nothing there. I blew out a silent sigh of relief while my heart sank like a stone. Corvus was heading straight toward Blackcastle, and that couldn't be a coincidence.

He'd swallow everything up in a smothering layer of pestilence, and I'd seen—once, inside the Oracle's dream—what would remain. Rock and wind and endless sky.

Nothing left alive.

"Do the wards keep everything out?" I asked, unable to stop myself as I followed Dane into the room. Tavion was checking Zor's pulse, his eyes landing on Tristan as Dane dumped him into a chair. "Like…Reapers?"

Dane's head whipped around, nose flaring, but his eyes narrowed when he saw my face and realized I wasn't joking.

"These wards are ancient, and they've held for more than a thousand years, Anaria. You can sleep soundly tonight. All of you can sleep. I'll go outside and keep watch. Nothing will get past me tonight."

I wanted to believe Dane, I really did.

But I doubted any of us would sleep tonight.