Page 76 of Flight of Fate

She’d never have become your mate either,something whispers at the back of my head, and I’m not proud to recognize it as the voice of my selfishness.

We march through the forest for a while, our attention on the bootprints of the Flames that took Ayna away. The scent of her blood is coating the air as we follow the trail a short distance south before turning east to where Herinor and Silas must have hit the trees. Ignoring the twinge of pain in my chest as I leave the proof of Ayna’s existence behind, I scan the firs for signs of two fae males having come by. Naturally, there are none. If they had to resort to walking, footprints would be all over the place—that would also mean that they were injured to a degree that doesn’t allow them to shift into their bird form and take off. A small relief that we don’t stumble upon more blood and uneven prints in the hoarfrost.

“We can’t be far.”Kaira has been walking parallel to me, a few tree rows south so we cover more ground. Her idea. With the mind link, communication over such a short distance is possible without drawing attention to us by needing to speak up.

I only wish Kaira understood Crows well enough to know we become untraceable if we choose to. So, unless Silas and Herinor crashed through the trees in their fae form, there will be little proof they fell from the sky at all. Picking up my pace, I examine the narrow space ahead.

It’s too small to be called a clearing but wide enough to see the long, broken branches hanging high up in the firs—and the imprint of two long bodies in the soil at the foot of the trunk. My heart beats faster at the pair of bootprints leading between the trees on the other side of the space.

“Found them,”I report, refraining from admonishing Kaira for making too much noise as she bounds through the thicket to get here faster.

Eyes wide with fear and hope, she searches the space for the two males until she finds the dent by the tallest fir. “Where are they?” In her excitement, she forgets to use the mind link, her voice bouncing off the trees. Her eyes grow even wider as she realizes she practically shouted out our location for any enemy close by, and flaps a hand over her mouth.“Sorry,” she whispers through the mind link.“I hope I didn’t just alert Ephegos’s men of our presence.”

In response, I shake my head at her.“Chances are equally high we alerted Silas and Herinor of our presence and they’ll come to us before we need to go looking for them.”

Kaira does an excellent job at pretending she isn’t struggling to stop herself from shouting Herinor’s name into the forest as she observes the footprints leading away.“These tell me they both walked out of here alive.”The relief in her tone is so pronounced I feel it wash through my body for a moment.“And no blood?—”

Before her impatience can get the best of her, I gesture at the tracks.“Let’s go find them, shall we?”

Kaira is jogging ahead before I can finish my sentence, and I follow, my Crow senses taking in our surroundings for any hints of danger. Even with the sun fully risen, its pale light catching in the ice crystals on the trees casting little rainbows into the bleak, gray world, the forest is still too quiet. Not the gentlest of breezes stirs the air, like the forest is holding its breath so as not to draw the attention of a predator eyeing it from a distance.

“They didn’t shift into their bird form,”Kaira narrates as we follow the winding tracks beneath naked oaks and sad evergreens.“That means they were either injured or preferred to remain on the ground.”

“They have access to their weapons and magic in their fae form while they are faster and more agile in their bird form,”I explain as we turn hard east, Kaira ducking into a thicketblocking our path and picking aside the already bent and broken branches where the two males must have passed through. I follow, one hand on my sword while the other is shoving aside the twigs assaulting my face.“There are valid reasons for choosing either form independent of injuries.”

The look Kaira throws me suggests she’d prefer I stop talking, even if it’s only through the mind link. But when I exit the cluster of young firs, neither of us remembers to speak because the clearing we step into is drenched with blood and scattered with corpses.

While I’m making a quick tally in my mind—seventeen bodies—and assessing their armor (all gray and nondescript), Kaira is covering her mouth with both hands, smothering a scream as her eyes dart from body to body on the search for the black leathers of the two males we know walked onto this killing field.

“They’re not here.”I loose a breath, bracing for the assault of iron and salt coming with the next inhale. So much blood.“Whatever happened here, Silas and Herinor didn’t fall in this battle.”

“Or someone dragged their bodies away.”Sadly, Kaira’s horrified tone is fully justified. It wouldn’t be the first time soldiers brought back the corpses of their enemies as a token to their generals and kings.

Before she can spiral into a place so dark there’s no coming back from it, I grab her hand and squeeze gently while I send out the feelers of my recovering magic to assess the space ahead.“They might as well have slaughtered all their opponents and walked away.”When she gives me a doubtful glance, I add,“Both Silas and Herinor are seasoned warriors. Even before the Crow Wars here in Eherea, they stood on the battlefields of Neredyn. They know how to handle themselves in an attack.”

“The same waywehandled ourselves?”The fear shines through in every word, and I’m not proud to admit that she’s right. The day before, we’d been a group of four magically gifted creatures and two human rebels, and had it not been for Ayna’s sacrifice, none of us would have walked away from that clearing.

Listening to the silence of the forest, I make my way around the edges of the bloodied area, pulling Kaira along as I look for signs of magic involved in the battle that obviously took place. A battle very different from the one we fought.

“No burn marks,”I comment as I step past a female soldier whose arm has been chopped off, the crimson puddle beneath her shoulder and head frozen. Her unseeing eyes stare up at the treetops from a bluish-tinted face.“These corpses have been lying here for hours. Probably through the night.”

Kaira withdraws her hand from mine to pat my shoulder, a gesture so familiar it could have been Royad, whose presence used to be my biggest comfort for all those cursed centuries. Now I have a family so much bigger than just my cousin. A family worth fighting for.

It’s that thought that has me crouching low to examine the human-made blade still clutched in the hand on the detached arm, but before I can touch it, something else catches my interest.

“Careful with the armor. If it’s coated in the serum, you might lose what little of your powers you have back when you touch it,”Kaira warns as I reach for the leathers covering the forearm, for the long, thin vial strapped to the inside just beneath the elbow.

“What’s this?”Instead of picking the vial from the arm with my bare hands, I slice through the leather strings holding it in place with the tip of my sword and toe it away from the dangerous clothing with the tip of my boot.

“If you have me guess, I’ll say magic-nullifying serum.”

And despite the picture of violence and death spreading at our feet, when our gazes meet, a grin spreads on both Kaira’s and my faces.

Forty-Five

Myron

We spendvaluable minutes doing a thorough sweep of each corpse, careful to cover our hands in a piece of fabric cut from the lining of our cloaks as we collect vials from pockets and hidden compartments in their armor. When we’re done, we have gathered at least three vials from each dead soldier, bringing us to a total of over sixty vials.

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