Page 28 of A Legacy of Wrath and Reckoning

Kej pressed a brin fruit into her hand. “The city has been overrun by vampires and their thralls; most of the citizens have fled. Aurelia forced her way into the palace the day Ranon was resurrected.”

“Of course she did.” Zylah thought of Jilah and the children, of where they were and if they were safe. Daizin howled somewhere nearby, and she felt Kej relax a little beside her. “The two of you are getting on well,” she said dryly before taking a bite of her brin fruit.

She recalled how things had been between them outside the mine: bickering, mostly, but that was Kej, always riling up those around him, affectionately pushing buttons, regardless of the recipient.

“He needed a friend after what Laydan did,” the Fae said beside her, his face turned away in the direction of Daizin’s howl, Zylah presumed.

“A friend, huh?”

Kej elbowed her gently. “Just a friend.”

For now, those three words seemed to say. But Zylah didn’t tease him further. Laydan hadn’t just betrayed Daizin, he’d broken his heart, and though she didn’t know the Fae well, he didn’t deserve that.

Shadows worked their way into the edges of her sight as Zylah finished her brin fruit. “I think our break is over.”

Kej huffed a laugh. “No rest for the weary.”

But guilt trickled through Zylah at his words. She shouldn’t have been resting at all. Not when Holt was out there, and that thought had her racing after Daizin’s shadows across the snow.

It took five days instead of three to make it to the meeting point, a large cave network nestled in the mountains. But Zylah already knew, as she let her abilities unfurl ahead of them, strands of magic spreading through the caves to search for their friends: it was empty.

“There was an attack here,” Daizin said as they approached. Zylah tucked that piece of information away—that his and Nye’s shadow communication was limited.

“It’s empty,” she told him.

Kej made a whining sound, and Zylah shared the sentiment. Five days, wasted. Four more nights where Holt’s pain had cut through her, over and over and over. She would take all of it if she could, if it meant helping him.

“We’re about a week away from Virian,” Daizin explained. “That’s where they’ll be headed next.”

A whole week. They’d already lost so much time. Zylah pressed a hand to her heart, wishing she could know for certain that Holt was in the city. That she could figure out precisely where. Magic pressed against her skin as Kej shifted back, a string of curses muttered under his breath.

“Looks like you’ll have to put up with a few more nights’ shitty conditions, Prince.” Daizin’s shadows licked at Kej’s feet as the Fae paced, and Zylah might have smiled at that had she not been so preoccupied with Holt. Two months until the blood moon, and two weeks of it wasted on travelling since she couldn’t evanesce. Couldn’t evanesce, but could feel the hum of the earth beneath her feet, could feel Kej’s and Daizin’s magic rippling from them, could feel all kinds of useless fucking things, but she couldn’t reach her mate.

She wanted to tear her hair out at the unjustness of it, to scream and shout until her voice was hoarse. But she didn’t. Instead, she worked with the others to set up for the night, Kej rejoicing when he found a bottle of wine in the supplies Rin had left behind for them. A drink would be a welcome reprieve.

“I’m sorry I suspected you,” Zylah said when the three of them sat around a fire a short while later, handing Daizin the bottle of wine. Suspected he’d been the one to steal the key, and not Laydan.

“I’ve done my share of thieving and deceiving, Zylah. I’m used to the suspicion and raised eyebrows that come with it.” Daizin’s voice was steady, something she’d had time to analyse in the days without her eyes to rely on his expression for clues. Steady but kind.

“I’ve done my share of thieving and deceiving, too.” She understood all too well the desperation that drove someone to those tasks. Even when she’d first met Daizin in the fighting ring back in Varda, he was doing it for the same reason she was, because he’d needed the coin to survive. “And I’ll gladly do more than that. I’ll do whatever it takes to find Holt.”

A hand rested over hers. Kej’s. “You know how much I want that to happen, Zylah. I’ll help you however I can.” His body bumped beside her, and she knew he’d elbowed Daizin.

“I’ll help, too,” the Fae offered.

Zylah couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. Of relief, mostly, but part hysteria, too. The old her wouldn’t have accepted help, but for Holt, she would take all the support she could get. She took another swig as Kej pressed the wine bottle back into her hands. “To unlikely alliances.”

Chapter Sixteen

“I’msofuckingsickof snow,” Kej grumbled on the fourth morning. The day before, they’d been forced to take shelter far earlier than they’d have liked, the snow too thick and heavy to continue.

Zylah had been tempted to test her magic and try to steal a sled, but she wasn’t entirely sure how well that idea would go down with either Kej or Daizin. And besides, the combination of an item so large and one she didn’t know the precise location of was far beyond what she knew she was currently capable of achieving. Though not through lack of trying. Every few minutes she tested her ability to evanesce, called and begged and pleaded with whatever magic now ran through her veins to move her through the aether the way it once had, but it never answered.

Now and then she caught glimpses of snow sprites with her strange new vision, gentle light and the suggestion of soft white fur amongst the snow, there and then gone. A reminder of her father, as they always were. If he truly was somewhere watching everything unfurl, if what he’d said had been the truth, that she was his legacy, Zylah only hoped he was proud. Though she’d never entirely subscribed to the notion. His legacy was the apothecary, the lives he’d helped, the people he’d loved. The sum of all his actions over the course of his life. His decisions. Something of his own making, as Holt had put it.

Zylah dodged a rock, no longer relying on Kej or Daizin to cut her a clean path through the snow. Her magic was growing stronger, and though she hoped it meant she was getting closer to Holt, she knew it could just as likely be a whole host of other reasons. Some connection to Ranon, perhaps, though the thought had her swaying on her feet, bile rising in her throat.

Kej had been questioning her about Ranon’s maze, fascinated by every detail she fed him. “Father is going to tear out a few hearts when he finds out the court was built by Ranon.” The Fae barked a quiet laugh, petting Kopi on the head as they paused for a rest.

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