Page 120 of A Courage of the Chosen

Brodie doesn’t make the same effort to suppress his laughter. “I thought you’d been training?”

I swallow a few mouthfuls of water, wiping the dribble off my chin with the back of my hand. “Yeah. How to fight. There was nothing in there about avoiding death by hike.”

Brodie chuckles and joins me on the boulder, tugging the bread and dried meat from his pack for us all to share.

“Why aren’t you giving Rach shit? She’s struggling too,” I sulk.

“Oh, so everyone is going down with you, are they?” she huffs, then snatches my bread.

“I was eating that.”

“You snooze you lose, babes.”

“I hate you all,” I grumble.

Callahan hands me bread this time, and I shove it into my mouth before anyone can take that from me as well.

When my stomach is somewhat full, and I’ve drank enough water that my vision has returned to normal, the view I’ve neglected comes into focus.

Slowly, I rise and move to the edge of the path. There’s a sheer drop down one side, and I don’t get too close to that, my focus firmly on what’s offered before me.

From here, I have an uninterrupted view over the mountains, cutting through the forests that are a majestic mix of evergreen pines. They’re interspersed with oaks, birches, and elms, whose leaves are turning an array of browns, yellows, reds, and oranges, that cling to the branches with waning stems.

It’s everything I love about fall served on a stunning platter. The very tips of the trees sway gently in the breeze, and one or two clouds roll across the never-ending sky. We’re almost eye-level with them, given how high we are.

Every now and again, a river or a lake carve their own space, the blue shimmering beneath the sun, and all of it is gilded in golden rays, casting a spell-woven blanket over a vista that stills something inside me.

Magic is threaded through the very air of Elfayne, I’ve known it since the moment I arrived. Yet, I’ve never seen so much of its raw beauty on display like this. If the landscape were flat, I don’t doubt I could see all the way to the southern coasts from here.

The books I gave myself over to time and time again spoke of worlds like this, fantastical places that captured me just as much as the characters did. To know somewhere like this exists renders me speechless, and more than a little awed.

Sure, there’s beauty in the human world, too. Though, I can’t imagine it holds a candle compared to this. Colors so vivid they can’t possibly be real. Terrain so perfectly harmonized that its design can only have been intentional.

I’m overcome with how badly I want to shelter it, and bring an end to the war that’s fractured the magic permeating every inch of this realm. I felt the same way when I watched Erin being treated for her wounds.

“All that is, belongs to you.” Her voice comes on the wind, reaching down into my fucking soul and sealing itself there.

This is mine.

My kingdom, my land to rule, my world to protect.

A heated presence closes in on my side. “She’s something, isn’t she.”

Callahan sounds as humbled as I feel, and all I can do is bob my head.

“I could never turn my back on it. When Màiri gave me the choice, and my mother begged me to leave, I could never walk away knowing that all this could disappear and I might never see it again.”

I understand that now more than ever. Seelie and the magic of this world are one and the same. And now that I’ve lived it, felt the majesty of it running through my veins, I couldn’t be anywhere else. And to think I might never have experienced this. Granny and Grandpa lived for over a century knowing this was here and unable to return.

Mom never got to witness it.

Turning to Callahan, I see the determination that still lives within him. “Then let’s go find out how to save it.”

◆◆◆

I’m more aware of our surroundings for the second half of the climb, my gaze constantly drawn to the view that subtly shifts depending on which way you look at it and the position of the sun.

We stop a second time for more food, and to see to our needs behind boulders that offer little privacy. Didn’t think I’d ever hear Brodie taking a leak, but here we are.