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Tyrren
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When Lea disappeared over the edge of the cliff, she had wings. Now, she doesn’t. The Grunder is nearly to the water and she’s right behind it. Her legs and arms pedal wildly. I watch in horror.
I’m reminded of Ivan’s initiation. This time I’m ready to jump, but what would I do? Go for a swim in the water that swallows Lea? There’s no way I’d get down there in time to save her.
I shout, trying to get Val, Kiki, and Soren’s attention, but the rushing water is so loud, I doubt they can hear me.
The Grunder splashes, sending up a spray so high, it reaches the others. Lea is right behind them about to crash into the sea.
I close my eyes. I’m going to jump. If I can find her, I can bring her to the surface. I have no idea how we’ll get to land, but I’ll figure something out...if I can find her amidst the storming sea.
I open my eyes, ready to dive over the edge when I meet Lea’s gaze. I blink, confused. Overjoyed.
Val and Kiki hold their sister close, having rescued her.
They land on the rocky ground. Soren, in raven form and as big as the wolf, heaves Callen over the edge.
Callen shifts but remains on his back and catches his breath. “I’ve done a lot of dumb things, but that was definitely the scariest.”
Val laughs. “I expected you to say asking me to marry you and be your queen was the scariest.”
He winks. “Nah, I knew you’d say yes.”
At that, she leaps on him and they play-wrestle for a moment before embracing.
Soren is human again, closes his eyes, and hugs Kiki.
I wrap my arms around Lea. “I’m never letting you go,” I say.
She leans into me and then sputters, “You’ll have to because you’re kind of crushing me.”
I release her a little. “Oh, right. Vampire strength.”
Val peers over the edge. “Grunder is gone.”
“I didn’t properly notice before because we were preoccupied, but this place...” Callen turns in a slow circle, stopping when he’s facing away from the water.
We all turn around.
“Good job getting us here, by the way, I guess,” Kiki tells Soren.
“It’s like perpetual bloody twilight,” I say.
“It is a vampire dominion, but are you hungry?” Lea asks me.
“I mean the blotch on the sun.”
“Fae lived here too though. Court of Fire and Iron. Anyway, it should be brighter, hotter,” Callen starts. “Something is wrong. It’s like the sky is going to swallow the sun.”
Soren’s tone is grim when he says, “That means the shadows are increasing.”
“Do you think this is where they keep the shadow fae?” I ask.
We start walking inland.
An indent in the rock-strewn ground shows where we landed with the Grunder. In the distance, a haze hangs over a many-spired palace. It’s eerily quiet. There isn’t a breeze. It’s a barren wasteland where nothing grows. Just stones in all shapes and sizes, desert dust, and stillness. Soren’s tale about Oeten the Devourer and his pet Grunter playing toss with the stones comes to mind.
Callen scrambles down an incline and points. “That’s unusual.”
“That looks like a chasm,” Soren says.
In the distance, a blood-red fissure cuts through the landscape. We stand on a stone precipice that drops steeply into the valley below. A sudden gust of wind blows.
Lea’s gaze flashes with fury and sorrow. “I’ve never seen something so ugly and so wrong.”
A vein of fire and molten rock spews from a deep cleft, cutting a line through the ground.
“It’s like a wound,” Kiki says, joining us.
“It reminds me of a story about my kind. It’s said that long ago, a fissure in the land swallowed up a murder of ravens. They struggled to exist in the embers, but those that survived, rose triumphantly, becoming Phoenix, who will forever find renewal from the ashes.”
“The story I heard in the whisperings and murmurings of the castle was that the king of the Southlands had something sinister going on. I didn’t imagine this was it.” Callen wipes his brow.
“The king is dead,” Lea says. “But Glandias could’ve picked up where he left off just as she did in Terra.”
“Likely,” I say.
We follow a rocky path winding into the valley, treading carefully in the dim light with our backs to a wall of sandy stone. I have to pay attention to my footing, but the red line of the chasm repeatedly draws my eyes to it.
When we stop to assess what direction to go, even when my eyes are closed, the red line blazes through my vision. It gets hotter the closer we get. Fire and molten rock erupt from it like a geyser of blood. We creep through the empty landscape until we reach a low building. The palace looms in the distance.
There’s no sign of movement or life. Nonetheless, my posture changes as I prepare for trouble. Callen stands tall and takes the lead in alpha mode. He opens a heavy door and enters slowly. It’s silent and pitch black.
Val sends a little orb of light ahead of us to illuminate a stairwell. We pad down about ten flights and stop at a window-like opening on a landing. Through it, conveyors move chunks of giant coal-like embers. People operate stations with tanks of water, pulverizing machines, and something that looks like it sifts chunks of the embers. The workers are dirty and covered in soot—even their teeth are black and their eyes empty, hard. They wear clothing the color of burned metal and singed at the edges. In the distance, I hear the familiar, clink, clink of a hammer and anvil.
“Shadow fae,” Lea whispers.
We all look to Callen for an explanation.
He urges us away from the window. “She’s right. They’re working in the forge...mining for metal.” He glances over his shoulder. “Must be elven metal.”
Val wipes sweat from her forehead. “Does this mean they’re making weapons for the fae, who’re also weapons?”
I wrinkle my brow confused and alarmed in equal measure. I’ve seen this kind of metal before. I clear my throat. “Looks that way.”
“We have to do something to free them,” Kiki says.
Soren presses his lips together. “Where I came from, in Raven’s Landing, fae were expendable. Whoever is doing this has them hooked on stijl. Even if we freed them, they wouldn’t know what to do. They’d come back, needing more of the drink.”
“Stijl? Jurik had the fae at RIP Jr drink that.” Lea swallows hard, shrinking deeper into her shadow.
Back outside, I’m glad the sun isn’t bright, but the red suffused gloom is creepy.
Soren says, “Fae who get hooked on stijl will do anything to get their fix. Including, it seems, working in mines, extracting those ember-like rocks. Inside is elven metal, they melt it down and—”
“And make weapons,” I say.
“Mining elven metal is dangerous.” Val presses her hand against her mouth. “Elves have a special process because the elements in the metal are magical, receptive. They can listen to intentions. Elves project protection and other relatively positive qualities when they work the metal.”
“Whatever is happening here is the opposite.” Lea is grayer than usual.
I rope my arm around her and pull her to my side, but she doesn’t melt against me. She’s stiff, sullen.
“When in the wrong hands, it can provide an undefeatable army of warriors with undefeatable weapons,” Callen says.
Strictly speaking, this wasn’t my fight to begin with, but it is now. A terrible sensation fills me with dread, denser than I’ve ever felt—it’s a sense of loss before the battle has even begun.
“Elven metal contains a substance for eternal life is in trace amounts. Handling it can extend life, which explains why elves live so long and in seclusion in the east,” Val says, adding to Callen’s comment.
“Is this like, a Rivendell thing?” I ask.
Everyone except Lea stares at me.
“Never mind,” I mutter.
“Is Rivendell a Terra thing?” Soren asks.
I nod.
Val says, “Anyway, this stuff sounds dangerous. Not only if it falls into the wrong hands, but it can throw everything off. Imagine a Grunder who is invincible?”
“No thank you,” Callen says.
“We need to stop production,” Val says.
“We could sabotage it,” I suggest. “Lea is a world-class prankster.”
“We should make our move and fast,” Soren says. “Otherwise—”
A deep thud, thud, thud, comes from nearby, breaking the silence. Everyone freezes, listening.
“Otherwise—” Soren repeats. His eyes dart to Kiki.
Callen says, “I think we’re about to find out.”
My stomach sinks. I whip my head in the direction of footfalls approaching at a march.
Lea’s eyes darken and she stiffens. The others poise for attack.
My fists clench and my body tenses, preparing to protect my friends.
Over the rise, a battalion of shadow fae approach.
“We left our weapons in Terra.” Kiki’s eyes flash with fear. “I can do karate, but this is overwhelming.”
“Freedom or defeat,” Val says.
“I’ve made my choice,” Callen answers. He kisses her and then shifts into a wolf.
Lea stands by my side with a blank look on her face. It’s almost as if she sees a place among the ranks of the approaching soldiers. A place where she belongs and is waging an internal battle.
Before we discuss strategy, Kiki and Val charge into the shadow fae with their magic blasting in every direction. Soren takes to the sky.
Despite this, they swarm, soon surrounding those of us on the ground in a gray cloud.
We won’t give up that easily. The fighting begins with the first sounds of my pounding fists and Callen’s growl. Lea stands like a pillar of confusion as though not sure which side to fight on. I guard her, fending off the shadow fae, attacking their own kind.
They’re little more than weapons, given orders to strike. They have nothing at stake. No passion for a cause. No deep, driving desire that fuels their triumph. Glandias and the other false kings may have rended the fae shadows to create the strongest, most indestructible soldiers. But for us, we have a fierceness of will, a yearning for freedom so powerful that we will go to any means necessary to obtain it, especially fight back.
So we do. Well, everyone except Lea. She’s stationary, lost in a trance, conflicted.
Val, on the other hand, is a dynamo. She throws a punch with one fist and the other is a spray of magic that throws back an entire line of shadow fae soldiers.
Kiki holds her own as she dodges, sweeps the legs out from a couple of fae in one impressive spin, and then punches one in the stomach with Frost Fae power.
As I lunge to defend Lea, my head whips back, knocking into a fae soldier’s shoulder as another tries to restrain me. The surrounding voices and shouting echo. They jostle Lea as she watches on.
This isn’t how it’s going to go. I’m not going down before I even get started. I inhale, lean into the fae behind me, draw my knees into my chest and with the full force of all that’s been taken from me, I kick my attacker, sending him careening. His arms windmill and he collapses.
I take this moment to break free, strike another shadow soldier with my elbow, and move in to protect Lea.
Two more take me on, but as my desire for freedom blazes inside, I become a flame of destruction launching my fists and landing kicks.
All around me, brawn meets the indomitable spirits of my new friends in a furious demonstration of force of will over might. I call out, cheering everyone on.
Even so, there are too many of the shadow soldiers. One by one, we’re all captured until only Lea remains, standing in their midst as though frozen.
I’m close enough that I take her hand and hold tight. Meeting her overcast eyes, I say, “I’ll never let go, not even if the enemy drives a stake through my heart. I love you, Lea.”
She blinks a few times, but I’m afraid I’ve lost her.
