“Did ye leave that at the fairy tree?” Lachlan asks, his eyes bouncing from the ribbon to me.
“I did. I asked for them to show me the way...” I clutch the ribbon in my hands, holding it to my chest. I tip my head back to the sky, but a tear slides its way from the corner of my eye to my temple.
The sound of shifting feet and groaning fills the silence,bringing me back to the present. To the battlefield, we’re standing on. “But why are you here?”
I hand the ribbon back to her. She takes it gently from me and ties it back into her hair.
“Julius told us the Tuadanaan had you imprisoned here. I came to save you.” She shrugs, looking around at all the destruction with an unruffled air like I was worth all of this to her.
But my stomach roils at the name. “Julius.” I grind my teeth together. “Is he here?”
Her brow lowers at my tone, and a small divot forms in between her brow. “What’s the matter?”
“Is. He. Here.” I spit the words out, looking around at all the warriors behind her.
If he is here, I will gut him.
“N-no. He’s at my palace in Toraigh. He’s been helping us to find you.Why? What’s happened?”
Freya steps to my side, easing around Lachlan and the rest of my friends. She places a firm hand on my shoulder, steadying me as I tremble with rage. My chest plate rattles against my shoulder guards and I lock my knees into place to staunch the anger from exploding out of me.
“Julius has betrayed us all. Did you leave part of your army behind?” Freya’s voice is the calm before the storm.
Eira stares at her with a century’s worth of hatred. But it’s a giant of a man, the mirror image of my father, that answers. “Of course, we left soldiers behind. She’s not an imbecile.”
She stares down her nose at Freya, and I’m impressed by her audacity, “This is Balthasar, my youngest and only remaining brother.”
Freya’s attention slides from brother to sister before she answers. “I pray you’ve left enough. Because your kingdom is falling as we speak.”
Eira’s eyes widen and she shares a look with Balthasar. She whistles high and then low. Answering whistles ring out.
Wings explode from her back,charcoal feathers.The color of a stormy sky, a shade or two darker than the wings I still have out.
“To the bridge!” She orders. “I hope you’ll fight with us, niece.” She throws one last pleading look my way before launching into flight and soaring toward the tree line.
I follow her flight path from my position on the field, but my heart screams at me to follow her.
“What do we do?” Lachlan asks.
Tane wraps an arm around Mathilda. She looks up into his eyes with all the love I feel towards Lachlan. Evander shifts on his feet, but grimaces as blood trickles down his leg. Mina grabs his arm, hefting it over her shoulder to hold him upright.
“I’m drained,” she whispers. “But it’s your call, Lena.”
Luna watches the warriors fleeing around us, racing towards their home, with an insatiable hunger in her eyes.
I look around us to the warriors running to save a place I do not know, a people I do not know, yet half of me belongs there. That was my father’s home, and he had wanted to save it.
Wounded men peel themselves off the ground. Blood seeps from their wounds, but yet they run anyway.
Run to save their home.
I understand what that feels like. To run—bloody and dying—to something, someone, you love.
“We go with them. To the bridge!”
My body feels like a boneless heap of flesh as I twist through the dazzling rainbow colors. Blood rushes from my head and into my toes. The ground reverberates through my legs as we land in Toraigh. Soft sand cushions our impact, but I still wobble getting my bearings. Lachlan’s hand grabs hold of mine, steadying me as I sway.
If Tuadanaan was a treasure box, then Toraigh is a painting. It’s nearly night. The watery light shimmies through the fog and caresses the land around us.
