Page 197 of Ash and Feather

Should I just abandon it and go aid the others?

Was this part of the trial? A trick of some kind? Maybe I wasn’t supposed to be in this city at all. Maybe I’d made a mistake, keeping the dagger a secret. Maybe it had been a test to see if I would blindly follow orders, and I wasmeantto challenge said orders.

I didn’t know, but I was sure of one thing:Whatever happened next, I had to get to the rest of my court.

I just hoped I wasn’t already too late.

Sheathing Antaeum, I broke into a run.

I raced through the city at a wild, otherworldly pace. Each slap of my feet against the dirt was like the pound of a war drum beating faster, more frantic, with every second.

I could still feel Mairu’s magic tingling in my skin—I was likely a mixture of my sister’s appearance and my own at this point, but it didn’t matter; I didn’t slow down long enough for anyone to even try to identify me.

Once I was out of the city, I flew. My wings sprouted more effortlessly than ever before, carrying me up, up, up above the trees.

It wasn’t hard to find the battle—the scent of blood and magic was impossible to miss.

I followed that scent trail for several minutes, until I heard shouting, thundering boots, clanging weapons growing louder and louder. Smoke filled the air, along with strange drifts of purple mist.

An acrid, nauseating scent soon stood out, even above the blood and smoke. From those purple clouds, I suspected. More poisonous weapons the elves had developed.

Another sharp sensation struck through my core, accompanied by a horrible sense that something was falling. Something was fading.

Another vision flickered through my mind. It was accompanied by the familiar feel of Dravyn’s warmth, this time, and so it was easier to focus on it, to hold on to until I could make sense of it.

Until I could see what was happening through his eyes.

The image that formed was almost perfectly clear. An actual setting appeared: flat stone, surrounded by boulders and sparse trees—a dip in the top of a cliff, it looked like. A hiding place.

A still body lay in the middle of it.

Valas.

I froze in shock at the sight, forgetting for a moment that I was in the air. I plummeted several dozen feet before finally regaining my senses. I pulled up sharply. The world spun around me. My thoughts tumbled and roared until I made my lips move with a command for myself.

Find them.

I could track Dravyn through this chaos.

I’d made my way back to him through worse.

Within minutes, I managed to find the familiar threads of his power and weave mine through them, tying an invisible knot between us so I could pull myself toward him.

I made certain to swing wide and fly high—above clouds of concealing smoke and powder—so I wouldn’t draw attention to where I was going.

Once I was confident of my destination, I descended as quickly and silently as I could.

Dravyn rose to catch me, breaking my recklessly fast landing and bringing me safely to a stop.

I ran my hands across his chest, his arms, up to the sides of his face, making sure he was truly solid and safe.

Then I immediately dropped to my knees beside the God of Winter.

“Don’t touch his wounds,” Dravyn warned, placing a hand on my shoulder and gently holding me back. “The poison might be contagious.”

That poison had turned most of his body an unnatural shade of pale blue, yet his godly features still looked beautiful even in this sickening sheen. Like he’d been preserved by the cold glamour of his own magic.

His breaths were so shallow they hardly moved his chest at all.

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