Page 148 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

I look at myself in the mirror. I look different in them. Like a warrior. Older. No longer like a shy, frightened girl.

I braid my long hair and then step back out to Riven. He’s been looking out the window and turns when he hears me.

His eyes rove over me, lingering a second too long.

“What?” I feel a sting of heat, despite my anger.

“Nothing. It’s just… it suits you,” he says, his voice a touch hoarse. Then he steps close to me and shoves a dagger into a sheath sewn at my ribs. With a last glance over me, he says, “Keep it close tonight. Let’s go.”

He leads the way toward the dungeons, but then to the left, down another corridor, and there’s the smell of hay and horses when I go down the steps, stumbling into a vast stable with stalls on the left and right, most of them empty because the horses have already been taken to Niavara.

I look at silver name plates on every stall, pausing in front of one that reads Stormhunter. The dappled stallion that stands in that box looks mostly like a horse, but also not. Two large horns protrude from his forehead, rising up high, just next to his ears. He’s also much bigger than any horse I’ve ever seen in the human world. His tail is a lion’s, swishing restlessly back and forth, his neck slimmer and longer, as are his legs, and his eyes are a pale, milky gray. Like the gray of my childhood.

“Not this one,” Riven says and gestures to two horses next to Stormhunter.Moonshine Meadow and Violet Daffodilspringthe sign reads.

“Is that a joke?” I can’t help it, despite my tension, despite my own inner turmoil, I have to stifle a laugh.

Irritation flickers over Riven’s features. “This is not funny, Melody.”

“I don’t know what about those names isnotfunny. Whatever. Iwantthis one,” I say before Riven can answer. There’s an untamed fierceness in Stormhunter that attracts me. That calls my blood. “Hey…” I whisper, carefully stretching my hand out.

At first, the stallion scuttles back, but then he stretches his long neck and gently places his nose against my palm, becoming calm.

I smile at him. “Okay, so you don’t seemto mind taking me to Niavara?” And maybe beyond, I add silently. Maybe I won’t need Sarynx’s horse at all.

Stormhunter snorts. I take that as his agreement. Riven just watches me with his eyebrows raised and a slight frown, but he doesn’t say no. Not that I would have listened.

I saddle Stormhunter quickly. There was a time when Lyrian taught me how to ride. I even had a horse of my own. Lyrian called him Roach because he couldn’t stand him, like he could not stand so many other creatures, but I loved Roach fiercely, with all my tiny little heart. But that was before I got older and Lyrian realized the horse might be something I could escape on one day. Lyrian sold him.

My heart aches at the memory. Riding and cuddling with Roach had been the only almost-happy moments in my life. I shove the memory down and carefully lead Stormhunter out of his box before I swing myself up on his back. Riven is already sitting on a huge, black mare with silvery horns that curl down on either side of her head, her mane reaching down almost to her hooves in waves.

Just then the double-winged door to the stables opens and two guards appear.

Riven starts to say something just as I gently press my legs into Stormhunter’s belly. As if the stallion read my mind, he makes a jump toward them, and I hold on tight, digging my fingers into his mane. He bolts past them so fast they can’t do anything but stare after me, the fae horse swift as lightning and impossible to chase.

The horse gallops down the long, serpentine road that leads from the Fortress to the desert. His hooves move so fast all I can make out is a blur and a cloud of stirred, red dust behind us when I briefly glance back over my shoulder.

Riven’s black mare finally catches up once we reach the flat desert ground, passing the spot where I was almost eaten by that oversized worm. But right now, on the impossibly fast horse, none of this matters. My dark hair has come loose of my braid, streaming unbound as I let go of Stormhunter’s mane, stretch my arms out, and lean back into the wind until I’m lying flat on the horse, cradling that strange, giddy feeling inside me I realize is… joy.

I whoop and Stormhunter neighs in sync with me before he goes even faster. I lean forward, pressing my body flat against his as the world whips past. This is what flying must feel like. How Caryan must feel when he soars through the skies, riding the wind.

Moments like these I might come close to happiness.

The outlines of the town come into view—ochre-colored, rectangular buildings with flat roofs that people are using as terraces emerging out of the dust the closer we get.

We reach the outskirts as darkness falls and the blood moon climbs above the horizon, full and redder than ever, dipping everything in a scarlet twilight.

Stormhunter slows to a canter before easing into a trot alongside Riven’s mare as we pass through the mighty city gate, its façade the same dark and golden-veined stone of the pillar in the Fortress. Huge figures in the form of naked fae with long spears in their hands flank it, sinister expression on their faces greeting everyone who comes through.

“Is this the main gate?” I ask.

Riven nods once. I look for the ruins Sarynx had spoken about to the west. I think I might, indeed, be able to make out some huge columns in the distance, the last remnants of a building that might have once been the library.Later.

Half-naked fae flock the ancient streets of the town. Torches burn in front of every house, along with fire that flickers in huge metal bowls every few meters. Smoke hangs thick in the air and the flames’ shadows dance upon the walls. An eerie music follows us everywhere like a lure, drums echoing through me, wild voices beckoning.

Riven’s riding next to me now, and a hush falls over the crowd when they spot us, throwing us long, penetrating stares. I keep my hair over my face to hide my human ears while the horses find their way through the swaying and chattering crowd, as if they know the way by heart.

I dig my fingers back into Stormhunter’s mane as my eyes flick over fae fucking in corners, blood dripping from their lips and long fangs.

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