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I shook my head, gulping air until my heart slowed. “I-I-I’m not injured.”
Satisfied with my reply, Gavyn took hold of my hand again, and raced us into the wood.
Our steps were swift and hard, pounding over the wooden planks of the crisscrossing walkways. After a time, Gavyn ignored my protests to remain on the path, insisting he could taste the sea in the air, and bolted through the raw forest.
All around were lush trees, ferns with glossy black leaves that looked like pieces of the night sky. The deeper we ran, the more shrubs with thorns as thick as fingers grew. On every branch were amber berries bursting at the skin with silken juices. Air grew thicker with floral perfumes, then layered with a hint of brine and a taste of sand.
My legs screamed, and my lungs felt as though they would combust in flames by the time Gavyn slowed our pace, and drew us between two trees with twisted roots like eels flailing on the surface of the sea.
Mutely, Gavyn peered over a ledge. “The shore is not far, but it places us in the open.”
“Then we run fast,” I said.
Gavyn’s teeth flashed, his brutality on display. “As you say, My Queen.”
The hillside was rocky and twisted around trees perched along edges that dropped into deep ravines.
Our pace was slower than before, but as the trees thinned, I kept my focus on the black glass of the sea, as though I might see crimson sails approaching.
Cool air stung my cheeks, a wind carried the scent of dampleaves and bark, and a strange flicker of seafoam green lights twinkled in the treetops like stars. The glimmers appeared whenever I was at least five strides away, then they’d dull as I ran by.
Like a bit of magic guiding me forward.
Almost the way I imagined the stars leading Nightfire to his lost love in the sky.
The thought breathed new life into my lungs; I took it as a bleeding sign from the damn Norns of fate that this was my path to find the love robbed from me by the cruelty of others.
When the wind thickened with a faint bit of salt and moss, tears squeezed from the corners of my eyes. The sea. Gentle waves crashed over long, curved sandbars stocked with bits of crystal, so with every pass of the tide, the beach looked like a reflection of the stars above.
“Hurry,” Gavyn urged.
My bare feet kicked up sand with every furious step.
“It will be uncomfortable,” Gavyn said, without facing me. “The shift. I’m told by my sister it is like little nicks of a blade during the travel.”
I cared little if it felt like my bones were being ripped free from my body. If I was free of here, if I was back in the arms of the Ever King, I would pass through the three hells without an uttered complaint.
From the tower of the palace, a bell, booming and furious, rang out in the night. In the darkness, shouts, horns, more ringing alarms sounded off.
“Make ready,” Gavyn shouted. His heavy steps broke the water’s edge.
My body slammed backward. For too many agonizing breaths, I thought my skin might melt off my bones. The sharp tang of blood spilled over my tongue. A haze boiled in my brain. I blinked through the stun to muffled cries.
There, knee deep in the water, Gavyn kept ramming his shoulder against an unseen barrier, like he was trying to break through a door. “Livia, it’s pushing me back. I can’t get through.”
Fear lived in the dark shade of his eyes. I tried to race for the shore again, but a blast of fire shot down my arm. I fell forward, breathing in damp sand. Blood dripped from my palms. The flesh looked as though I’d fisted burning coals.
“Gavyn.” My voice cracked. “I cannot leave. I . . . cannot follow.”
“No.” His voice was as though he’d drifted underwater. “No. Try again.”
I held up my battered palms. “It’s the spell. The elven told me it . . . it’s fatal, Gavyn.”
His mouth twisted like he wanted to shout his anger, curse the wretched luck, perhaps plead for me to try again.
“Go,” I said gently. He shook his head. “Please, Gavyn. Find Erik. I will try to find a way to break free of this place. Do your part and bring my king to me, and I shall do mine.”
“I can’t leave you,” he said, slamming his fists against the invisible wall between us.
