AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I may not have known him as well as I would have liked,” I began hesitantly, gently twisting his head to face me. “But it sounds like he loved you dearly. And not many of us are lucky to have that kind of unbreakable bond.” I swallowed the lump that always appeared when I thought of Liam. “Nic would have wanted you to continue on. To live your life and honor him by simply remembering all the good that he was.”
And he had been good. Funny and sarcastic and all kinds of warm. I felt as if someone had cut off a limb, like our little ragtag group had lost something vital—a piece of our united heart. It would never beat the same.
Jake squeezed his eyes, jerking his head out of my grasp.
“It’s also normal to grieve, Jake. To feel this pain.” I tilted my chin, snuggling close so my shoulder rested against his chest. “You, Nic, and Patrick were there for me when no one else looked my way. You became my friends.” The lump in my throat grew. “But you are not alone. Not anymore. I know I am not the same. Nowhere near what Nic was to you. But I promise you this… From here on out, you aremyfriend,mybrother. My family.”
It stunned me how easily the words came out. And how much I truly meant them.
In Jake, I had a brother. Two more in Patrick and Alec. It was now us against the curse of a goddess. Us against the demise of our kingdom. And we would either triumph together or die together, and that bound us.
A fresh wave of tears trickled from his swollen eyes, disappearing one by one into the swirling haze as the moon vanished behind a shroud of clouds.
I was just about to leave Jake to his grief, to allow him to mourn in peace, when a hand fell heavily on mine, stopping me.
“And you, Kiara Frey, are my friend. My sister. My family.” Jake’s fingers crushed my own, an unspoken promise passing between us. Briefly, he glanced to the hand he held, and he nodded. I didn’t ask if he knew what lay beneath, if he’d seen my scars. I found it didn’t really matter.
So I sat there, right beside him with our hands entwined.
I didn’t have the delusion that this would be our last burial.
We’d lose more friends, but that time had yet to pass. And right now, I was grateful to find myself in the company of someone I was honored to call my brother.
…
The next day went by just like the first.
We trekked through the Mist, the blue-tinged fog now up to my mid-calves. No one spoke unless absolutely necessary. When dinner was ready and the fire roaring, we ate silently and settled in for the night. There were no stories told beside the fire.
Again, I draped myself around Jake like a human blanket, Patrick curled up on my other side. This time, Jude didn’t deign to glance my way. He had made a point to steer clear of me.
By the new day, none of us felt rested, but we continued on, Jude guiding us with the scrap of a map the king had gifted him.
A part of me wanted to ask Jude if I could see it, to get a better sense of where we were headed, but like all the others, I’d misplaced my spirit and lost my resolve.
The third day after Nic was killed, when we were well and deep into the land of no return, I began to feel a profound unease. It crept across my skin like a million tiny insects, stinging my flesh.
This sense of disquiet worsened as the day progressed, the once red ring around the moon gradually turning a hue of sickly yellow. It did nothing to alleviate my anxiety.
I couldn’t help but feel like something was coming.
What that thing was, I hadn’t the faintest idea, but we’d gone days without a new incident, and that screamed that it was only a matter of time before our luck ran out.
Starlight was just as agitated and restless as I, the old mare’s ears flicking in warning. I shushed her and comforted her as best as I could, but she would not settle.
The deeper we traveled, the more the brittle underbrush gave way to razor-sharp reeds the color of cinder and ash. They sliced at the white trunks with every gust of wind, swishing in the air like honed knives.
I was so lost in the shifting scenery that I barely heard the telltale whoosh of an arrow.
“Ki!” Patrick screeched, forcing my head to twist just before the sharpened tip would’ve pierced my skull.
Starlight reared back on her hind legs as I jerked on her reins, the mare letting out a distraught whinny.
“Attack!” Jude thundered from the front of the line.
I glimpsed a flash of steel as he unsheathed his sword, and then there was the pounding of his steed’s hooves. Quick as the arrow that had nearly ended me, Jude materialized at my side, the commander wildly scanning the tree line for the source of the attack.
My heart hammered behind my ribs, and I wasn’t sure if I was breathing at all. If I’d been an inch to the right, I would have been dead. Buried beneath the Mist and the gray soil that covered these cursed lands.
