Page 303 of Blade of the Nightking

"How long until we reach the mortal lands?"

She looked at me, surprised. "Eidra... we crossed hours ago."

My head whipped around.

I looked again, properly this time. The saplings. The wildflowers. A squirrel darting along a nearby branch. I'd already spotted deer twice that morning without thinking anything of it.

These were the mortal lands?

I'd only ever known them to be brown and withered with rot, a land where life clung on by shredded fingernails. Yet somehow it had... recovered. The Veil had shattered, magic had returned, and the land was healing.

My throat squeezed painfully. I drank in my surroundings, marvelling at the impossible sight before me. I'd never known the mortal lands could be beautiful.

If only Father could have seen this.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Rìan watching me.

I turned away quickly.

He withdrew a small, folded square of parchment from his pocket and beckoned to Saskia. Despite the cave, the marshes, and the blood that now stained it, the map remained remarkably intact. Whatever enchantment protected it still held firm.

Saskia crouched, one knee pressed into the forest floor as she drew a winding path with the tip of her finger. Rìan followed the route in silence, his brow furrowing before he pointed farther east. She immediately shook her head, murmuring something too quiet for me to catch. She rested a hand lightly against his forearm before tracing another route, one that curved farther north.

Something hot and sharp lodged beneath my ribs before I could stop it.

They were discussing a map. Choosing the safest path through lands crawling with Infected. That was all. So why did the sight of her hand on him bother me?

As though sensing my stare, Rìan lifted his head and pinned me with his gaze. Then, without a flicker of expression, he tucked the map beneath his arm and walked straight toward me.

My stomach sank. I’d been hoping to avoid him a little longer.

He spread the worn parchment across a flat-topped boulder.

"Look at the map, Eidra."

I barely glanced at it before looking away again. He let out a slow breath, dragging a hand back through his hair.

"Did you ever see a well in Midland?"

I froze.

"... Midland?!" The word escaped me louder than I'd intended.

Every Bone Woman stopped. In an instant, bows were half-raised, hands flew to knife hilts, and every head turned toward the trees, listening.

Saskia crossed the distance in three quick strides. "Hush, Eidra!"

Heat flooded my face.

"I—"

"They can stand down," Rìan said evenly. "There aren't any Infected nearby."

Saskia glanced around "Are you certain?"

He nodded. "I'd smell them."

My head snapped toward him so fast the world blurred.