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We appeared in an open field of grass. The air was warmer and it was darker than back in Oryn. The bond tugged at me, urging me to be with my mate, but I pushed that feeling aside.
Malina hurled over herself and emptied her stomach. I cringed at the sound and the smell of the acid spilling onto the ground.
“Shit.” She spat on the grass. “I forgot what that felt like.” She kept her hands on her knees taking deep breaths.
“You good?” I handed her a canteen of water from the pocket of my cloak.
“Just give me a second.”
I looked up at Theron. “Don’t bring him here. No matter what. Ignore him if you can.”
With the dip of his head, he disappeared, leaving Malina and I alone. After a few moments, she stood and wiped her mouth.
“How far away is it?” she asked.
“Not far. Just beyond those trees.” I pointed to the small patch of forest ahead of us.
“How do you know he’s there?”
“This was where the book was found. The river points to here. It was just the most logical place I thought he would be.”
I pulled out my bow and strung an arrow, then led the way through the trees, using my terbis to navigate us in the darkness. Malina’s boot kicked something, and she grumbled a curse under her breath before she manifested a small orb of light above us, just bright enough to see the ground. She kept her hands near her blades, ready to grab them if needed, and trained her eyes on the trees. We remained silent as we trekked through the small patch of forest.
Just past the tree line, I held up my fist for us to stop. Up ahead, we could see the edge of the Rip on one side and the Glaev touching the end of it on the other.
The destroyed Nation of Atara.
It never got any easier seeing it, knowing just how many had died that night in a matter of minutes. Our home. Our people. While our families still lived, they were suffering more than if they had died too.
Malina stepped up and stood next to me, both of our arms crossed over our chests. We didn’t speak. We just stood there for several moments, staring at the vast wasteland before us.
“For them,” I finally broke the silence.
“For them. And for us,” she echoed softly.
Then I turned and headed toward the edge of where the Glaev met the Rip. I took a deep breath, grasping my magic, and the swirling tendrils of energy filled my palms and ran up my arms. Without hesitation, I thrust my energy out on to the decimated land, turning it from black to gray, to brown, to green. I made a path wide enough for the two of us to cross without having to worry about the Rip or the Glaev on either side.
I made a promise to myself that when this was all over, I would restore our Nation’s lands, restore the balance. Just like Kleio ordered me to.
As the path grew, I walked forward onto the restored land, extending my magic farther ahead. I could feel myself weakeningwith the exertion, not having fully recovered from earlier and still unused to the amount of power I was wielding. Malina could tell too.
“Kya, slow down. You’re going to strain your reserves,” she said.
“It’s fine,” I panted and sweat began to bead on my brow.
I clearly wasn’t. I was becoming exhausted quickly, but Malina wasn’t going to push me on it, she had to trust that I knew my own limits. But she remained close, following me as we passed between the deadly Glaev and the depths of the Rip until we came up on the beach Ryker and I had tried to find before.
When the Glaev was cleared enough for us to reach the other side, I collapsed, falling to my hands and knees on the sandy beach. My head spun and my vision was spotty. I dug my fingers into the shifty substance, focusing on that instead. I knew I was pushing it, but it was necessary. I couldn’t have flown over it while carrying Malina, and we needed a quick getaway in case we were ambushed by Daegel.
Taking a deep breath, I turned to find a beach. The one that wasn’t there the last time Ryker and I had come. But I hadn’t thought of the sea. The low tide having receded, exposing more of the land. Slivers of moonslight reflected off of the water’s surface. Large boulders were visible as well, smoothed from thousands of years of the water’s erosion since the Rip’s formation.
“Kya?”Ryker’s voice sounded through the bond.“Kya, what’s wrong?”I knew that he could feel just how weak I was, just as I could feel his panic before a wave of understanding washed over him.“Little gem…where are you?”
I squeezed my eyes shut, hating the pained sound of his voice. He knew. He just didn’t want to believe it. We couldn’t hear each other’s thoughts from this distance, but we could stillcommunicate from anywhere in the realm and feel each other’s emotions.
“I’m fine. Ryker, I’m sorry. But I need to do this.”I kept my inner voice calm, soothing down the bond to let him know that I was still with him.
“No…no, no, no. Please, come back. You promised I would be with you.”
