CHAPTER 30

Five years ago

Vax had dreamed about leaving a hundred times. So often, it felt surreal to pack his bags and finally go through with it. He snatched his daggers from the windowsill and saw the world darken outside. Half a city away from here, the Tarn Thoroughfare would come to life. The floating lanterns would light up and elvensong would wind across the canals underneath the moonlit sky. Cyriel would be there, somewhere. He wondered if she still kept an eye out for him. Vax had managed to sneak out a handful of times since Syldor had broken Vex’s bow, but it hadn’t been the same. Whatever might have existed between them before—a sense of comfort, a distraction from this shitty place—it was gone. That night had changed something in him.

It’s why Vax knew they had to leave, before this cursed city would take more from them, after it had already taken so much. If they didn’t, it would inevitably leave them with nothing. Perhaps they should’ve left after the bow incident, but getting into another fight with their father—this time over a worthless piece of jewelry—had been the final straw. Perhaps they should never have come here at all.

“Do we have everything we need?” Vex asked, staring at her own small bag. They’d both only packed the essentials. Their room held all the memories of years of living here. Beyond their clothes and their weapons, there was very little they wanted to keep. There was little they wanted to remember.

Vax shrugged. “Your bow and arrows, my blades, and each other.”

“We also have a bit of coin for anything we could need on the road.” Vex patted the pouch on her belt, and its contents jangled faintly. Everything she’d saved up, perhaps in the faint wish she could afford a replacement bow. She had a simple one now, of course. Still of elven make and of high quality, but it was nothing like her hazelwood weapon. “I wish we could get a horse or two, but I don’t know how practical that would be. Or if they’d simply let us leave. Besides, we can find our own way too, I’m sure.”

Vex put on a brave façade, but she kept picking at her money pouch, betraying her nerves. The idea of leaving had become bigger than both of them, over time. The world outside had become bigger than both of them too.

Vax reached out and squeezed her shoulder. “Stubby, we’ll be fine. We’ll pass by the kitchen on our way out, grab some food, and once we’re out of here, we know where we’re going.”

“You make it sound so easy,” she said, as if she wasn’t entirely convinced by that. “We’re hundreds of miles away from home.”

Vax took the dark-brown cloak he’d worn at the thoroughfare countless times and clasped it around his shoulders. While it hadn’t offered perfect protection against prying eyes, it was comfortable and should protect him well enough from the elements. Next, he took her cloak from the wall too. The bright, vibrant-blue fabric didn’t show the wear and tear of long nights of training and determination. It was well cared for, soft, and—he assumed—just as practical as his. “The hardest part was deciding to leave. We’ve done that. Now all we have to do is walk.”

NO ONE IN THE CITY stopped them. They might have, if they’d seen the twins sneak out of Syldor’s home. Now the two of them were simply half-elves, going for a late-night stroll among the endless houses, towering trees, and temples. In the encroaching darkness, the lights circling the tree branches shone ever brighter, and the warm glow from inside the houses radiated out to the streets. With the relative quiet around them, Syngorn looked so peaceful. It looked happy.

Vex shook her head. If they raised any eyebrows of the people they passed, she didn’t notice. She purposefully didn’t look.

When they got closer to the high jade walls that protected the city, however, the gravity of what they were about to do hit her. Once they crossed that barrier, she was convinced they wouldn’t be allowed back. They’d have run out their welcome, and she doubted the High Warden would extend it again. And the world outside had been outside for years. What if they couldn’t find their way back? What would be waiting for them there? They weren’t happy here, but would the vast endlessness be that much better?

Vax caught her eye, and the corner of his mouth curled up. “Time to put an end to our visit, right?”

It didn’t surprise her that he read her mind—or was thinking along the same lines—but it was comforting nonetheless. He was right. Bow, blades, and each other. She nodded. “Let’s go.”

The heavy gates, with their deep-blue sigils, were closed and guarded for the night, but when they approached, none of the guards reacted. The watchers on the walls kept their focus on the forest beyond them, worried about what might approach the city, not who chose to leave it.

While Vax walked up to one of the watchers on this side of the wall, Vex turned around to look at the city one last time. She wouldn’t miss it, she refused to miss it, but if she closed her eyes and let the night breeze wash over her, she felt an ache of homesickness. With her eyes closed, she could still see the sunlight sparkle on the lake and illuminate the graceful and majestic buildings. She could walk the steps of the Reverie Walks in her dreams and imagined the leaves changing colors. On days when Syldor wasn’t home, she’d stood in his office to stare at the charcoal portraits on his shelves, and she’d wondered if they were relatives of his, if they were part of her family too. She would miss what Syngorn could have been—had things been different.

Behind her, the gate swung open and the slight creak of the hinges felt disproportionately loud to her. The forest beyond it was all midnight green and shadows, made so much darker in contrast with the bright city around them, and the attentiveness of the watchers increased tenfold with this temporary break in the city’s defenses. Vax walked her way and grabbed her hand.

“Come on, Vex’ahlia.” He squeezed. “We’re going.”

And they did. Step by step. Through the gate, hand in hand, with the eyes of half a dozen watchers on them, all of them with their own questions and observations.

One step in front of the other. Not yet sixteen and unafraid.

Until the gate shut behind them—and they were outside.

Vax breathed out hard. “I wasn’t sure they’d let us keep walking.”

“I wasn’t sure we would keep walking,” Vex admitted. “Do you think Syldor will come after us, once he notices we’re really gone? Presumably one of the guards will run to him right now.”

Vax’s hand clenched in hers. His head twitched, like he wanted to look back over his shoulder. He didn’t. “I think he’ll make a fuss for appearance’s sake, but he’ll secretly be relieved. He can go back to living a life of comfort and recognition now.”

“I don’t want him to stop us,” Vex said with determination. He probably wouldn’t either. But a small voice inside of her reminded her that despite everything, she wanted him to try.

She took that useless feeling and buried it deep.

And they kept on walking. With their backs to the city and the endless green and red and yellow trees in front of them, all of them seemed to arc away from Syngorn too, as though they were caught in the same struggle of reference and escape. Vex trailed her fingers through the greenery and snagged on a small purple flower. As the petals fell into the underbrush, it released a honeylike fragrance.

“Careful with that, it’s probably poisonous,” Vax muttered, his voice strained.

Vex nudged him with her shoulder. “Not everything in the wild is.”

“Not everything-everything. Just mostly everything?”

“Some animals are venomous. Some flowers sting.” But everything out here, uninhibited by the affairs and determinations of elves, was beautiful.

“Great,” Vax muttered.

They followed the path and tensed at every snapping branch, certain the Verdant Guard would ride out to drag them back again. At one point, a loud rustling caused them both to grab their weapons, but it was nothing more than a bird taking flight from a low-hanging branch in one of the trees. They kept walking farther away from the grand, beautiful city of elves. And no one tried to follow or stop them.

When they were far enough away from the city that the towering walls were only distant jade shadows, the Stormcrest Mountains dark peaks that loomed over them, Vax sat heavily on the forest floor and Vex knelt down next to him. She reached out to grab his hands and felt them tremble. Or maybe her hands were trembling.

Or perhaps, both.

Around them, the forest began to come alive and prepare itself for nightfall. Here, there were no floating lanterns to illuminate the path. No star sprites that danced across the leaves, and no fairy lights woven through the tree branches. Instead they were surrounded by the whispering and chattering of the forest. The wind rustled through the leaves, the nights were beginning to grow colder, and some small woodland creature dashed through the undergrowth. In the far distance, a wolf howled, and somewhat closer by an owl hooted.

When Vex made to rise, Vax tightened his grasp. So they sat in silence while the woods came to life around them and the night sky shifted overhead. Both moons rose high, and the stars seemed endless. Eventually, their hands stopped trembling. Vex loosened her shoulders but she didn’t let go.

Instead she closed her eyes and reached out her awareness to the nocturnal forest. She listened to the animals and the birds, like she had as a young girl with an eye for broken twigs and barely visible markings, and she felt her perspective shift. Maybe this was the right choice after all. From here on, everything would be better.

For the first time in years, she breathed. She opened her eyes and looked at her brother, asking the question they both knew the answer to. “Where do we go now?”

“We go home,” Vax said.