“Maybe you should—” I began as the door to the small room swung open.
Ronan’s eyes widened as they landed on Father Marcus, his lips parting as he recognized the notable change in the old man’s demeanor. Vander tensed, breaking his stare with Father Marcus and brushing his arm against mine as he dropped it to his side. He straightened, standing at attention to the high steward.
Ronan’s sapphire gaze cut to Vander, clocking the space between us before narrowing in on me.
“You’re late, Evony.”
Oh, shit.
My eyes snapped to the oval window, noting the hazy outline of the sun sinking too close to the horizon. Our stroll had taken far more time than I planned. I hurried past Vander to the door. Ronan remained standing where he was a moment longer, his brows narrowed in the direction of the others, as if trying to figure out some complex puzzle.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
NERISSA
A mortal body can hold only so much power. I urge you to take caution, Your Grace.
– Correspondence from Khato to Bayne.
Nerissa – Kayj
Anger buried itself in my posture, my neck tight and my shoulders rigid. How could we have let those wretched creatures through the arch and into our world? There was no excuse.I should have been here.My nature was to fight, my emotions always manifesting in violence, as if that were the only way they could escape. And my fingersitchedto slice through the enemy. We had chosen to stay here to protect the Realm of Vael, and we’d already failed.
I forced a slow exhale out of my nose, my mind drifting to my second as decades of centering exercises with Vulcan tugged at my memory. How was he faring in Votruvia? Had they made it to the Arx?
I blinked against the unforgiving wind ripping off the broken hills of Kayj before taking a swig of my waterskin. My attention shot to where Kresida stalked like a caged beast along the flat, narrow ridge below where I stood.
Though she kept her brown eyes on the gate of worlds, I knew she surveyed the fifty sentinels hidden among the rocks. She calculated every possible angle from which her warriors could strike, every possible vulnerability that could be exploited. I knew this because I did, too.
Years of enduring the same training for our elite group of warriors embedded a sense of certainty in her. And though it took some time for our mutual trust to develop, I could count on her. We were hewn from the same rock, as evidenced by our fighting styles and the inked wolf skull we both bore on our shoulders. My brows furrowed, my mind shooting to the lost wolves of Lotrennia, the guardians of the land that disappeared long ago.
They’ve arrived on the north shore, Aquila murmured into my mind, diffusing my thoughts.
I’ll be at the shipyard in twenty.
They aren’t at the shipyard.
Aquila’s consciousness merged with my own as he opened the casting connection. A blast of icy, wet air stole through my chest as I blinked my eyes open to pockets of cottony white clouds and the deep blue sea below. Aquila’s gaze darted to the shore, where ten massive, white bears climbed out of the sea and onto the beach. Their soggy coats flopped as they shook off the seawater. The lone rider in the front held a long spear, the tip of it swaying in the air as he rocked on the back of the soaked Nivis bear.
I blinked, ready to break the cast when Aquila held firm on my consciousness and forced my gaze inland to where Nishanth flew, Selvina and Carina tucked in close on her broad back.
Thanks for the heads up, I murmured, tightening the grip on my irritation as I pulled myself back into my own body and prepared to meet the three of them.
Carina and Selvina slipped off Nishanth’s back with ease, the snowy white hawk nodding at me before sending a gust of air swirling around us as she took off.
“Only ten?” I asked, eyeing the long, gray and black cloak Selvina wore over her riding leathers and tall boots. At least she wasn’t in a dress. The Nivis queen flipped her dark hood down, exposing her braided white hair as she shook her head.
“Ursa wasn’t comfortable sparing more,” she replied. Her blue eyes snapped to the black sheet of nothing that lay beyond the archway in the distance.
Carina rubbed her gloved hands quickly against her fur-lined leathers before shoving her spectacles back up her small nose. Her matching Ravindra green eyes shot me a cautious glance.
My relationship with my sobraen,my cousin, was complicated. I’d spent very little time with Carina in my youth because I was busy leading the War Slayers for her father. And after his death, when her mother had executed my parents and called for my own head, I hadn’t seen her until our return to Lotrennia last summer.
“How many bears are ready?” I asked, shoving down the guilt threatening to form at my cousin’s careful look.
“About two hundred trained at the Crystal Castle,” Selvina responded. “Three hundred more are coming in from the mountains. Young and untrained. It will take time.”
I unclenched my jaw to quell the building frustration. The world wasn’t ready. We needed armies. Weapons.
