Page 50 of Burning Crowns

‘Actually, she taught me to better my aim.’ Wren fired the stick at him, grinning as it bounced off the back of his head.

Alarik turned to glare at her. ‘I know you like to pretend to forget, but I am still a king.’

‘Not in this land,’ she called after him.

His laughter flew over his shoulder. ‘In every land, Wren.’

By late afternoon, they were finally approaching Glenlock, where spindly wooden houses clustered around a sprawling silver lake, gazing at their reflections. The lake town looked particularly beautiful in the setting sun, like an oil painting come to life.

They gazed out of the carriage as they passed, admiring the little town in companionable silence, until at last, the road ran out. Wren climbed out of the carriage and looked to the west, where the Mishnick Mountains skewered the darkening horizon. She circled her scar and, though it ached still, she found she could breathe a little easier. They were almost there.

The coachmen unbridled three of the horses and unloaded their satchels, before heading back to Glenlock, where they would rest for the night before returning to Anadawn.

Tor came to stand beside Wren, surveying the wilderness ahead. ‘Our journey grows more treacherous.’

Wren glanced sidelong at him. ‘You can ride, can’t you?’

Tor smirked. ‘Beast or horse?’

‘Now you’re just showing off.’

He laughed loudly. The sound found wings and soared across the valleys and Wren burned to follow it. Deep into the mountains, to the magic that awaited them there.

Rose

CHAPTER 18

After ensuring everything at Anadawn was in order, Rose departed the palace the morning after Wren, with Celeste at her side. They reached the edge of the Ganyeve Desert just before sunset. They’d been riding for several hours, and Rose guessed they still had several more to go. Rose thanked the stars that in the previous months, the Sunkissed Kingdom had come to reside closer to Anadawn than ever before, but if she had her way it would linger right at the edge of the desert, a stone’s throw from the Eshlinn woods beyond her palace.

Thankfully, their horses were far from tired. Rose’s mare was a dappled silver, with a moon-white mane and tail. It was a Yulemas gift from Shen, and she had loved the horse at once. Shen had been just as moved by her gift – an intricate sundial inscribed with some of Rose’s favourite romantic poetry, where a different line was set aglow every hour of the day.

She’d christened her horse Starlight, and when Wren had laughed and told her that it sounded like a name a child would pick for a horse, Rose had simply shrugged. ‘It suits her,’ she’d insisted, brushing out Starlight’s shining mane.

The following morning, Wren had decided to name her horse Breeze, and Rose had smiled, thinking they were not so different after all.

Celeste had taken her own stalwart horse, Lady, and both women travelled in companionable silence as they crossed into the desert. The horses were surefooted and quick, and Rose had the feeling that they would find their way back home to the Sunkissed Kingdom even if she wasn’t guiding them. For a long time, the only sound was the gentleshhhof their hooves hitting the sand and the occasional melody of the shifting dunes, ringing in their ears.

Rose would forever associate the sound with the first time she found herself in the desert with Shen, and even now, hearing the hum of the restless sands made her want to urge Starlight faster so she could be reunited with him all the sooner.

She hadn’t told Shen she was coming. With birds dropping from the skies of Eana, she had no way to safely send him such an important message – and if she could, she wouldn’t need to take the trip herself. Rose knew she was going to the Sunkissed Kingdom with a mission, and a serious one at that, but she also couldn’t deny how much she yearned to see Shen. And this time it would be her surprising him, instead of the other way around. She couldn’t help imagining the look on his face when he saw her riding through the ruby gates of the Sunkissed Kingdom. Rose could perfectly picture his eyes lighting up as they landed on her, his grin spreading until his dimple appeared. She would leap from the horse and run to him, and then—

‘Stars!How is it still so hot?’ Celeste’s voice broke through Rose’s daydream. ‘The deeper we go, the worse it gets!’

Rose laughed, remembering how she had felt when she had first awoken in the desert. ‘It will cool now the sun is setting. Soon, the moon will rise.’

Celeste wiped her brow. ‘I thought I knew heat. I’ve spent long summers on the southern seas with Marino. And there, the sun beats down on you from aboveandreflects back up at you from the sea. Butthis? This is simply unreasonable.’

To her surprise, Rose found she didn’t mind the heat. Not the way she once did. She grinned as she thought about telling Shen how she was adapting to his homeland. She was no longer the sheltered flower she once was – no, she felt that she was now someone who could flourish anywhere she went.

She was stronger than she’d realized.

Stronger than anyone had realized.

And that made her feel as if she could face anything. Even Oonagh Starcrest.

‘It is beautiful, though,’ said Celeste, almost as an afterthought. ‘Especially now the stars are coming out. I don’t know what I imagined but it wasn’t this.’

Rose knew exactly what she meant. As they rode on, the sky darkened from a riot of pinks and purples into an indigo tapestry dotted with silver-bright stars.

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