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When we reached the horses, there were—thankfully—enough for everyone, and Kalen led one over to me. I started at the sight of his sleek black mane streaked with silver. He looked just like Midnight, but…that was impossible. A chasm opened within my heart as I gazed into the horse’s bottomless black eyes. Midnight had been so brave, so selfless. If only I could go back in time and stop him from helping me. He deserved so much better.
“This is Silver,” Kalen said, handing me the reins.
I stroked the horse’s nose, trying not to show my disappointment. I’d known this could not be Midnight, and yet…for a second, I’d let myself hope. “Hello, Silver.”
He nuzzled my hand, and before the tears could fill my eyes, I blinked them away. As the others climbed onto their horses, I leaned in and whispered, “I promise to look after you. And if I run into danger, please don’t follow.”
“Are you talking to your horse?” Fenella called out as she steered toward me.
“Yes, just sorting some things out.”
Alastair’s horse trotted up beside us. “You know, most horses don’t know how to speak Aesirian.”
I glanced up at him. “Is Silver not a joint eater, like the others were?”
“Silver is a just normal horse, I’m afraid,” Kalen said with a soft voice, as if he understood the direction of my thoughts. “All of these are.”
“Ah.” I rubbed Silver’s snout again. “Well, he’s quite the beauty, whatever he is.”
After climbing onto the horse’s back, I followed Kalen and the others out the city gates and into the heavy mist. With no more buildings around us, the world was an endless landscape of gray. It was as if nothing else existed but the fog. Out here, everything was gone.
As the horses took off at a gallop, a chill went through me. It had been easy to forget what it was like being out in the nothingness of this place. The city had felt like a different world, one where mist and life existed in tandem. But beyond the safety of the walls, only death remained.
Time passed by in a blur of thundering hooves and foggy haze. When my thighs started screaming, we stopped beside a river to let the horses drink and to give me a brief respite. As I rubbed my legs, I reminded myself that my training needed to be focused on more than just weaponry. I was no more used to spending hours on horseback than I had been the last time. I knew how to ride now, but that didn’t mean it was pleasant.
After resting and nibbling on some bread and dried meats, we resumed our charge through the darkness. The hours crawled by, each one slower than the last. At long last, the vague forms of towering mountains rose through the mists, and Kalen slowed his horse to a stop at the front of the group.
I’d never been happier to see those jagged peaks.
I tugged on the reins, bringing my horse to a halt beside his. “I thought I’d be able to see the chasm by now.”
“It’s just over there.” He pointed at the nearby ground as the rest of our party slowed their horses to a stop beside us.
All I saw was endless gray fog. Only a hint of orange pierced the shadows.
“Last time I could see it so clearly,” I said. “Even though the darkness is permanent here, the sun from the Kingdom of Light once shone through the mist and showed the path to the bridge. Now, the only thing I can see is…”
The mountain.
Memories suddenly rushed into my mind in fragments. A small girl ran through the mists, screaming. Her long golden hair whipped behind her like frayed ribbons. Her terrified eyes burned holes through my skull. She was so small, so helpless. And then she became me, and I became her. Terror churned within me like a violent storm. In my mind’s eye, I fell from the horse and clawed at the ground, but my hands made contact with nothing at all. They plunged through the earth, sucking me inside the dirt until all that existed was a deep black nothingness.
I blinked, and the image whispered away.
Panicked, I looked around. Niamh and Fenella stared back at me, and Alastair gave me a gentle smile. I loosened my tight grip on the reins. I was still here on the horse. Everything was fine.
“Tessa?” Kalen edged his horse closer. “Are you all right?”
I opened my mouth to explain, but I didn’t fully understand it myself. Had that little girl been me? And if so, what did it even mean? Nellie said I had experienced something terrible in the mountains, and maybe this was it, but…it still didn’t make sense to me. How would I have crossed the bridge that young? Oberon or his guards would have spotted me.
“I just…” I sighed and shook my head. “I don’t know. I may have remembered something from my past, but it’s not important. Let’s keep moving.”
He didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t push, either. I was grateful for that. “Which direction should we go?”
“It’s too dark for me to see.” I frowned at the looming mountain range. “Remember where we used to meet? We need to go to that hole in the wall.”
With a nod, Kalen took the lead again. Our progress was slower now that we’d neared the Kingdom of Light…which I supposed wasn’t called that anymore. These lands were Kalen’s now. The Kingdom of Shadow had swallowed the light in its mists. Frowning, I gazed up at the distant orange haze. The sun still remained above Alybria, even though the barrier had been destroyed. Why would it be there and not out here? This had once been the Kingdom of Light as well, and the sun had shone brightly in the sky until the day Kalen had lost control of his mist.
I started to ask the Mist Guard what they thought, but Kalen drew his horse up short when Boudica landed on his shoulder, back from scouting ahead.
