Page 40 of Crown of Wrath

Now it’s time to go. I glance at Cole and see him smiling and staring around himself at the village that’s still standing. “This was good,” he says.

It’s true. What a simple idea after months of complicated decisions and plans? Today, we stopped soldiers from coming in and murdering an entire village.

When we talked to the priests, they opened their doors and said that we were welcome to search the entire temple. I used my House of Earth powers to search for any hidden places, and there weren’t any. No, we didn’t find the relic, but we saved this village. A hundred people will have a tomorrow because of what we did today.

It feels good even though we’re nowhere nearer to stopping Gethin. “It is,” I agree. “Are you ready to go back to Stormhaven? Or are we going back to Aerwyn?”

“I don’t see why we’d go back to Stormhaven. Darian is busy with my father, and Lee is already on the hunt for Vesta. I would prefer to stay far away from Darian and my father.”

I nod to him. “To Aerwyn it is, then. I’ll enjoy spending some more time with my Da. I feel like I need it.”

Cole smirks a little. “I already told you that you need it. You may feel better today, but you’re not healed, Maeve.”

He’s right. When he takes my hand, his warmth reminds me of just how broken I still am. Physical touch is still strange. It makes me shiver a little. I take a deep breath as I wrap my fingers around his hand. “Ready?”

“I’m always ready for you, Maeve,” he whispers, and the shiver that rolls through me is hard to ignore. Flirting. More things that still make me nervous.

And yet, I can’t help but remember those times when flirting had been as easy as breathing. Those days in Draenyth when I smiled so sincerely, when I’d woken up to him shirtless beside me, his hands on my body. The idea of such an intimate touch makes me want to retreat from him, to hide behind the stony mask of the Queen of Earth. I don’t let myself go there, though.

Instead of responding, I step through the world, pulling Cole behind me into the void. I breathe in the darkness that surrounds us and let it fill me up. That darkness and my Da are the reasons I’m not cold like that. They’re why I can smile.

I don’t know what would have happened if Cole hadn’t brought me to the void that day to let me taste the darkness.

The moment is over too soon, as I feel Cole tensing. He’ll never be like me here. He’ll never find solace hidden in the oceans of emptiness. The darkness will always be a pressure on him rather than freedom. Instead of forcing him to feel it for longer than he wants, I reach out to the shadow under my bed in Aerwyn and pull us into the physical world again.

We travel hundreds of miles in a moment, and this time, I feel a little bit of the exhaustion that I know other shadow walkers feel every time they travel long distances. We’ve been shadow walking more than normal, and it’s taking a little bit of a toll on me.

I step forward, my boots tapping a soft rhythm on the white oak floor covered in dust. “Da, we’re home,” I say, announcing our presence in case he’s in another room. There’s no need to scare him.

He doesn’t respond. I shrug and look at Cole, who’s just shaking off the effects of the void. I pause then. Something’s different. Something’swrong.

It’s quiet. No, not quiet. It’ssilent.

Even to my High Fae ears, it’s silent. No birds. No crickets or rabbits moving in the grass outside the cottage. No wind. No branches rustling against the walls of the cottage.

True silence and an overwhelming stench of salt and citrus.

My eyes open wide as Cole notices it, too. In a flash, we’re running out the door. The hinges break behind me as I slam it open. It’s been more than a week since we paid any attention to the Nothing. That’s plenty of time for it to move across Nyth.

“Gods damn you,” I whisper as I see the white mist surrounding everything. Aerwyn is covered in it. Bog. Rivertail. Lirael. Duncan. Everyone.

My heart sinks. Everyone that I know. Everyone that I’ve grown to love. Every person I’ve cared about, other than Cole, Darian, Lee… andmy father.

“He’s there,” Cole whispers from behind me, as though he’s reading my mind. There, across the clearing, Da stands with his back toward us, a foot away from the white mist. Everywhere else, the white tendrils and walls of mist writhe and move, shifting and devouring the clearing.

Where he is, though, nothing moves. He stands as if mesmerized by whatever he’s seeing through that mist, and the Nothing seems just as mesmerized by him as it doesn’t swallow him up. It’s perfectly still, like the surface of a lake at dawn. Like clouds turned into glass.

I stare at him for a half second, but then I’m moving. “Wait!” Cole shouts, but it doesn’t matter. We both know this is a trap for us. We fought it, and we were winning, so now it’s come back to get its revenge. It’s trying to catch us by using my Da as bait just like it used that little boy the first time I saw it.

Except I’m not that stupid Wyrdling anymore. I’ve fought the Nothing, and there’s no way it’s going to catch my Da. Thedarkness under my feet turns into revulsion shadows, and as soon as I touch the void, I’m reaching out for one near him.

But when I reach for them, they refuse to become mine. It’s like someone else already controls them. When I’d stolen the Shade’s shadows, it had felt like this, but no one should be able to keep them from me. I wear the Painted Crown. Each time I try to control shadows, they resist. Every single one near my Da is uncontrollable.

I don’t have time for this, so I retreat to where I fell into the void, and as soon as I hit the physical world, I’m running.

Cole is already in the air, riding on black raven wings. Shorter than the enormous eagle wings that he usually uses, these are meant for aerial acrobatics rather than long distance flying. I’m running, and he can’t keep up with the power of Earth propelling me forward in long strides, my legs a blur of movement below me.

“Da!” I shout at the top of my lungs. “Da! Come to me!”

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