Page 5 of The Blood Crown

Tears stung her eyes, but there was no time for them now. No place for them here.

They followed the sloping hills of the Shades as the sun arched over the sky. The journey back to Ravenstone would take them nearly ten days on foot covering as much ground as possible while the light kept them safe.

It was chilled in the Grey Wood, but winter hadn’t descended further down in the Shades just yet. Edible berries and plants were still plentiful, and they stopped to take their fill where they could. She could recognize the poisonous shadeberries on sight, but the others that grew further up in the hills weren’t familiar to her. Thankfully Ven and Karro were well-versed in the wilderness that spanned the in-between.

Small animals had been easy to find this far up into the foothills. Ven taught her how to make a snare and how to build a fire so that the smoke wouldn’t be seen, he and Karro making it look easy to survive with nothing but the clothes on their backs. It was the first time she’d truly been without the comforts she’d grown accustomed to. But survival made anything tolerable.

The furry tails of ground squirrels jostled over Karro’s shoulder where he’d strung them. She didn’t dare speak of the gnawing hunger that had little to do with filling her belly. But she knew if she felt spent, Ven and Karro must be fighting off their thirst as well.

Venom burned through her calf with each step, the boots she wore rubbing at her heels. Her thighs burned with the constant uphill walking, but the pain was a blessed distraction from the thoughts that hounded her steps, swirling through her mind until they were near deafening.

It was too quiet now. Too calm.

Everything that had happened in the previous days had kept her so focused on survival, on finding the lost relic and protecting her home, that there hadn’t been energy for anything else. But now—there was too much ofnothing.

If she had just stayed in the human realm . . .

The mere thought felt impossible, as if something visceral inside of her would not have allowed her to stay.

Her eyes drifted to the roughly hewn male beside her, her heartbeat picking up. Did Ven still think of the promise that he made to her in Eisenea as she had every night since? Or had everything between them been erased with her decision to go back?

The sound of rumbling water filled the clearing just beyond the copse of trees, and sunlight glittered on the surface of the river.

The water was clear and cold as Aurelia splashed handful after handful onto her face and neck, submerging her hands into the river to rinse the acrid stench of demon blood from her skin, washing the taste of ash and bile from her mouth.

“We’ll follow the river from here.” Ven knelt beside her at the river’s edge, beads of clear water dripping at the nape of his neck, clinging to his black hair. Grey grime sloughed off his bronze skin as he cupped his large hands and dipped them into the water over and over again, the movements efficient and practiced.

“Why the river?” she asked.

Karro drank a handful of water, wiping his mouth across the sleeve of his shadowskin. “Because there is ancient magick in the waters. A remnant of a dead kingdom that the demons still fear.”

Aurelia drank deeply, not realizing how parched her throat had become until she’d taken her first mouthful and gulped it down greedily. Setting her foot onto a rock, she scooped up ahandful of water, pouring it over the deep scratches across her leg. She was healing quickly, but the cold still stung.

Ven stilled beside her in that unnerving way of his, watching her. The sharp angles of his face were just as striking as they’d always been, making her breath hitch and her pulse thrum as crimson eyes studied her.

“How did you leave?” he quietly asked, a sharp edge to his words.

“I don’t know,” she admitted, not daring to meet his gaze. “I just—did.” The memory of passing through the mirror sent a fresh wave of goosebumps across her skin.

There hadn’t been much thought in those final moments as she left the Capitol. Only instinct. She’d watched Cog fly above the wardlines, completely unaffected by them and she wondered if maybe she could do the same. Something pulling at her, tugging at her, to go back through the mirror.

“Whydid you leave, Aurelia.”

His gaze branded her as she studiously picked the rocks and dirt from her skin, choosing to focus on the sharp sting of the demon venom making its way out of her system.

“It was too dangerous to stay,” she finally offered.

It was a half-truth. She’d needed to get the ring out of the Capitol. She’d needed to get herself as far away from her family as possible—what remained of her family. But neither of those things pushed her feet through that mirror.

“The human realm is sealed.Safe.” He bit off the last word like a curse, catching her off guard.

“I know,” she ground out. “Thank you.” She didn’t give it begrudgingly. Countless innocent lives had been saved thanks to the Wraiths and the Allokin spellmasters.

“I’m not looking for gratitude.” Ven rubbed the caked grime from his skin like it was an affront. “I told you before we parted ways that we would find a way for you to stay. I held up myend of the bargain—I ordered Lanthius to seal the wards as you requested.” His gaze was searing now, anger leaking through his words. “If you’d stayed there, at least you would have beensafe.”

Karro suddenly found the forest behind them very interesting, slipping away quietly as he threw an apologetic glance over his shoulder toward Aurelia and disappeared behind a cluster of trees.

Fine. She could use a good fight. She’d take anger over whatever this nauseating feeling of betrayal was that lingered in her gut, twisting and coiling around her until she could barely breathe.

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