Noc
We rode our Zeelahs hard for days, only resting when absolutely necessary. At some point, the endless, frostbitten plains had given way to dusty-red, claylike earth. Large boulders and small mesas dotted the otherwise barren expanse. We were tired and stretched thin, so when the Gaping Wound came into view late last night, we elected to make camp and rest before attempting to reach Tyrus’s Ruins. Now, in the early morning hours, it was easy to see why.
A thin fog hung over the ground, stretching all the way from our tents to the jagged, open canyon before us. It cut through the earth like a lightning bolt and stretched on as far as the eye could see. No one knew how deep the canyon ran. Those who ventured into its depths never returned. And smack-dab in the middle of that terrifying death trap was a lone butte. Its sheer face made it near impossible to scale, which meant the only way to access the ruins waiting on the center of the plateau was by a single bridge. A simple wood-plank structure with rope railings, no less.
With a quiet sigh, I brought my attention back to my family. We all sat around a dying campfire, tin mugs with rapidly cooling coffee in our hands. Ozias poked at the coals to keep the flame alive while Calem glanced between Fig and the horizon. So far, we’d gone undisturbed in our travels. But that didn’t mean I was eager to have Leena send her Gulya back to the beast realm.
Leena let out a wordless hum as she worried her lip. A Brief History of Wilheim lay open in her lap, and she gently leafed through the pages as she devoured the book’s contents. I couldn’t help but smile. Her dedication to her people, all her people, was inspiring. She’d only just agreed to become queen, and here she was poring over Wilheim’s history in order to better understand the people she’d soon govern.
Gently, I brushed a lock of hair off her cheek. “How’s it coming?”
Her brows creased. “Fine.”
“Can I clarify anything? Believe it or not, that book is brief. There are bound to be details missing.”
“Like with the ruins?” She set her mug down and held her place with one finger, flipping to a different page toward the back of the book. “There’s not much in here, only that there are five sacred sites—one for each mage. That, and the text explicitly states only royals are welcome here.”
“Which we knew.” I took a sip of my coffee. “You probably won’t find anything else in there about it.”
“Right.” Leena’s frown deepened as she scanned the lettering.
Ozias glanced up from the fire. “Something up?”
“No. I don’t know. It’s just…” She sighed and finally craned her neck upward, but her gaze was faraway as if she were still parsing together the text. “Charmers only know of these sites because of our beasts, and for the most part, we avoid them.”
Calem cupped his chin. “Why?”
“Because of the beasts that linger there. Think about it.” She closed the book only to touch her own bestiary. “At Nepheste’s Ruins, we found a Gyss. At Oslo’s a Drevtok. And we found a Nix Ikari at Silvis’s Ruins. They’re all dangerous.”
“Well, Reine, sure. But Tok and Winnow?” Calem shrugged.
My stomach hardened. “Winnow’s magic is dangerous. The way she twists her words…” I shook my head, remembering how my Gyss had granted my wish. She’d successfully removed the decades-old curse plaguing my existence, but doing so had come at a great cost—Leena. Wynn, her former lover and Council member, had stolen her and charmed her, turning her into his puppet. Even now, the memory of her clouded eyes and somber, monotone voice still made my fists clench. “There are more powerful things than might.”
“And Tok is young. In a few years’ time, who knows how strong he’ll be.” Leena shook her head. “The point is, unless it’s absolutely necessary, we don’t visit these sites.”
“You think there’s something there?” Ozias looked over her head to the lone butte housing Tyrus’s Ruins. A gust of wind rushed through the canyon, rattling the bridge and chasing away the last of the morning fog.
“Yes,” she hedged. Clasping her hands together, she met my gaze. “Is there anything we need to know about Tyrus’s Ruins? Anything about the ritual itself?”
A memory bubbled to the surface of my mind, the same one I’d experienced just before meeting Silvis’s spirit at the last ruin site. My younger self, sitting upon my father’s knee and recounting the singsong meant to teach young royals about ascension.
“The first Welcomes,
while the second Questions.
After the third Realizes,
the fourth Blesses,
and ascension is granted
when the fifth Bows.”
I spoke the words aloud for them to hear, then set my cup on the ground. “Tyrus will bless my claim. It should be fairly straightforward, now that I’m not resisting the gods’ wishes.”
She picked at the hem of her sleeve. “That’s it? Nothing about beasts?”
“No.” I gripped the back of my neck. “But Wilheimians have never really known anything about beasts other than that they exist. Why? What are you getting at?”
“It’s only a rumor, but there are whispers of a dangerous beast lurking in that canyon. And since we’ve encountered a dangerous beast at every site we’ve visited so far, I’m inclined to believe we’ll find one here, too.”
Calem shrugged. “Nothing we can’t handle. Haven’t we tamed an unexpected beast or two before?”
“This won’t be like before.” Gazing toward the damning crevice, she stood and folded her arms across her chest. “Again, it’s just a rumor. But if it’s true, if the Prentiss is real…”
“Can you tame it?” I asked.
“No.”
“Aw, come on.” Calem cracked his knuckles. “This beast sounds totally badass. We could use it against Yazmin.”
She gave him a hard look. “I’m telling you, I can’t tame it. No one ever has.”
“But they weren’t you.” Calem’s smile was strained.
“It eats people, Calem. I’m not sure being ‘me’ will make much of a difference.”
My brows drew together, and I ran a tense hand through my hair. “How come I’ve never heard of this before? Royals have been traveling to these burial sites for centuries to have their claims recognized by the gods. There would’ve been details about this somewhere.”
“No one except your ancestors have ever crossed into its territory. Maybe the royal line is protected.” She eyed the book resting on the ground by her bag. “Between that explicit warning in the text and the rumors from my people…I don’t know what to expect, but I don’t have a good feeling about it.” Shaking her head, she turned back toward us. “Maybe we should wait here while Noc goes alone. We can—”
A terrifying screech split the air. Fig had jerked his head around, targeting something in the distance opposite the direction of the canyon. A billowing cloud of red dust had bloomed on the horizon, and I narrowed my eyes. Something like metal glared in the sun. The frenzied cadence of Zeelahs’ hooves smashing against the earth reverberated in my ears. Too far away for Leena to hear, but clear enough for me.
“Sentinels.” I rocketed to my feet and slit open my palm, letting blood blades form above my hand. Calem and Ozias cursed as they took up their stances, calling forth shadow blades and crouching low onto the balls of their feet. This was a first. Sentinels rarely left the castle gates and were only dispatched to battlefields as a last resort.
Or to protect a rebellious prince.
Just as I was about to bark orders, Fig again let out a bone-shattering screech. This time, his head riveted to our left, gleaming red eyes targeting another billowing cloud. Except this one wasn’t red, but smoky and black. And through the snarling mess of shadows, I spied my former brethren barreling toward us. Including Darrien.
“I’ll kill him!” Calem roared. His frame shook as his control splintered, and stone-like scales raced across his skin.
“Wait!” At the same time Leena screamed, Fig cried out yet again. To our right, a lone woman with platinum-blond hair stood wreathed in ruddy-red light. Foreign beast cries shook the very air around her, and she thrust her hand forward. It was a silent command I knew all too well.
Gripping Leena’s wrist, I yanked her toward the only escape we had left: the bridge.
“Run!”
Calem practically screamed with frustration, but somehow managed to put a stop to his transformation and chase after us, Ozias right beside him. We abandoned everything. Our tents. Our belongings. Our mounts. There wasn’t time. Leena only had a moment to send Fig back to the beast realm before I called on the shadows and swept her into my arms, racing through the onyx abyss to get us to the ruins faster. Calem and Ozias were on my heels, each one of them tossing glances behind us. We hit the bridge and the wood groaned beneath our feet. Even our shadows couldn’t totally blanket our rushed escape, and every footfall caused the planks to tremble and sway. Beneath us, the endless depths of the Gaping Wound waited to swallow us whole. Leena’s grip on me tightened as she looked down into the nothingness, then to the threat at our backs.
For a moment, I looked over my shoulder and my heart lodged in my throat. All three groups were nearly at the lip of the canyon. Yazmin didn’t bother to rush. She didn’t have to. Beasts I couldn’t begin to name snarled and raced ahead of her, maws gnashing and claws gouging the earth. One of them I recognized from the Kitska Forest. The cloud-like legendary feline that’d killed Gaige. The Sentinels had launched off their Zeelahs and were racing toward the bridge on foot. Their blinding columns of light ate away at the tail end of our shadows, and a sharp hissing met my ears. Darrien and his men wielded ink-black weapons, blades hovering above their hands. He reached for his bow. Then, nocked a shadow arrow and smirked.
“Ozias! Calem! Heads up!” I shouted. Darrien’s arrow whizzed through the realm, barely missing my cheek and embedding itself deep into the wood of one of the planks. His men followed suit, sending a volley of expertly thrown blades after us. We were easy marks. A lucky few missed us, a few more blocked by shadows we controlled, and the rest… Telltale grunts from Calem and Ozias. The sickening sound of something dastardly sinking into flesh. A red-hot pain in my shoulder, followed by the sticky heat of blood. Only Leena was protected.
My gaze snapped back to the path before us. We were almost at the butte. Just a few more feet. Another blade pierced the flesh between my shoulders, and pain sparked deep in my muscles. I bit back a curse and pushed forward. What would we even do when we got to the ruins? We could take cover behind the rock altar housing Tyrus’s remains, but what then? They’d just follow us across the bridge. At least they’d be forced to travel one by one, narrowing their attack and making it easier for us to target them.
Again, I glanced back, only to find that they’d come to a halt at the bridge. The closest Sentinel unsheathed his sword. And then he swung it in a deadly arc, slicing through the bridge’s railing and disconnecting it from the edge. Time slowed as I watched it fall. Gravity pulled at us as the tension gave out from beneath our feet.
Focusing only on the ledge ahead, I threw Leena toward the plateau. She sailed through the air, wild eyes frantic and damning as she realized what was happening. She bellowed my name as she was jettisoned from the shadow realm and tumbled to the earth in a plume of red dust. As she stretched her hand toward the canyon, I caught a glimpse of flickering rosewood light.
Ozias, Calem, and I gripped the railing just as the entire bridge went slack, and we careened into the sheer face of the butte. The force of the hit thrust us from the realm and shook Calem’s grip. He let go of the rope railing with a frantic scream. Faster than I could blink, Ozias snared him about the wrist and then yelped as his shoulder gave a nasty pop. His eyes glazed over, and Calem dug his fingers into Ozias’s forearm.
“Noc!” Leena’s face peered over the ledge. Another volley of shadow blades from Darrien’s army, and she pulled back as quickly as she’d appeared. Her cry echoed through the canyon and set fire to my veins. Across the way, Darrien laughed.
“You make this too easy.” His haughty words carried effortlessly to us—as did the stretching of his bow as he nocked another arrow and aimed directly for me. Somewhere, the beast realm door opened, the deep rumbling shaking the mountain and covering us in a spray of dust and debris. I heard the twang of his bow as he let loose his arrow, but lost sight of the glistening blade in the shower of dirt. Covering my face with my arm, I braced for impact.
It never came. Just the resounding thud of an arrowhead burrowing into wood.
And then a strange tugging sensation around my waist.
I threw back my arm to see a wood plank before my eyes, complete with Darrien’s arrow and wrapped in a peculiar, green vine. The same kind of vine that had now looped around my waist several times and was yanking me up. All at once, Ozias, Calem, and I were hauled into the air, each of us lassoed in vines and being pulled to the safety of the plateau. Leena stared up at us from the rock altar. Her Charmer’s emblem throbbed with power, and beside her stood Tok. Two spheres covered in bark made up the Drevtok’s body, and he produced endless vines as a means to safely secure his food. And in this case, safely rescue us. Tok’s vines receded, and we landed on our feet behind the first rock pillar marking Tyrus’s ruins—for a moment, out of our enemy’s reach.
Calem’s face was parchment pale. “I have never been happier in my life to be on solid ground.” Reaching out, he gave Tok a gentle pat on his head. The beast responded with a happy call that was reticent of leaves scraping together.
“Me too.” Ozias grunted as he slouched against the wall, cradling his arm.
Leena crashed into me and buried her face in my chest. “Thank the gods.”
“Thank Tok.” I glanced at her beast. If only we’d had time to pack our bags and store them in his lower, cagelike sphere. The bars could snap open on command to store both people and belongings in the beast realm without disappearing. Now, even if we made it out of this alive, we’d have to stop in town to resupply before we could move on to the next site.
“Him, too,” Leena said warmly. She moved to touch him and then winced, her hand immediately going to her side. Blood had bloomed across her cornflower-blue blouse, and her fingers came away red.
I kneeled before her and peeled back her clothing. “You’re hurt.”
“So are you.” She nodded to my shoulder before glancing at both Calem and Ozias. “We all are.”
“Someone needs to set my shoulder.” Voice raw, Ozias lumbered our direction. “Quickly. Before the muscles freeze up or they attack.”
“Do it now,” I said to Calem as I peeked around one of the rock pillars and spied Yazmin, Darrien, and the Sentinels. None of them moved. Certainly Yazmin had a beast that could cross the canyon to us, and Darrien and his men could send more blades our way. And while the Sentinels’ magic weakened with time and distance away from the capital, they must’ve had enough power to call on their beams of light and teleport to us.
A deep, pained grunt from Ozias signaled that Calem had set his shoulder, and the two of them sidled up to a column a few feet away. “What are they doing?” Ozias asked.
“I don’t know,” I replied. Yazmin turned her head and said something inaudible to Darrien. A grin split his face, and he disappeared into the throng of assailants only to reappear with a limp, body-shaped sack.
Leena looked out from behind the same pillar as me. “What’s that?”
My blood ran cold as Darrien undid the twine holding the burlap together. An unmoving form fell by his feet. With heightened senses thanks to my powers, I focused on the motionless body and listened for signs of life—a beating heart, a shaky breath—and found none. But there was an unmistakable pull, an energy of sorts, that radiated from his form and told me I still had the ability to raise him, if I wanted. Which meant he’d only recently passed. I was no stranger to the dead, but this was just…wrong. What was their angle? Had they killed someone just to bring them here? For what reason?
Beside me, Leena blanched. And then her eyes went impossibly wide. “Noc.”
“Yes?”
“How long will it take you to receive your blessing from Tyrus?”
Across the way, Darrien placed a booted foot on the back of the lifeless body.
“A few minutes, maybe,” I said.
“Do it. Do it now.” Thrusting her hand outward, she called on her power and showered us in rosewood light. The beast realm door groaned open, and she sent Tok home while simultaneously summoning Onyx. Likely feeding off her energy, he appeared before us with hackles already raised and deadly yowls slipping from his maw.
“Leena? What’s going on?” Calem asked.
“We’re about to meet the Prentiss.”
With a wide smirk, Darrien kicked the lifeless body over the edge of the canyon. Eons passed in the silence that followed. Adrenaline rushed through me, each minute more terrifying than the last. We never heard a thud. No indication that the body hit the ground. No sign of any danger at all. And just when I thought we’d finally be able to breathe, it happened. An unsettling, distorted howl—like that of a raging wind whipping through a confined space—bellowed from somewhere deep in the canyon.
Darrien, Yazmin, and the Sentinels bolted away from the ledge. Their unwillingness to stay, to be anywhere near the eerie sound that kept repeating on a loop, growing louder every second, told me everything we needed to know.
Death was here.