Page 78 of A Legacy of Wrath and Reckoning

“Zylah?”

“It’s nothing,” she breathed. “I’m fine.” Fear swelled inside her again. Fear that they would never be that to each other again. That he would walk away when this was over.

But Holt took a step towards her. “I thought I saw—”

“Another memory?”

He studied her face, a hand flexing at his side. Kopi ruffled his feathers at her neck, and Holt reached out to him instead. “I’ve been thinking we should go to the Aquaris Court,” he said, his attention on Kopi. “Their library might have something about the blood moon.”

It was precisely what she’d wanted, but she’d felt certain he’d been about to say something else, disappointment leaving her hollow. “We can ask Nye when we return.” She rested a hand against his elbow, moving them to the next location before he could reply.

“But since we’ll be halfway there,” he said when they reappeared, taking her hand in his and evanescing again, some unspoken game playing out between them.

Zylah laughed as they arrived at another section of forest, her disappointment lifting with his light mood. “You want to sneak in?”

“I’ve no issue letting Malok know why we’re there.” Holt moved again, releasing Zylah’s hand after he evanesced them to the next point. “The fact he isn’t with his children and his niece tells me everything I need to know about his priorities.”

Zylah caught her breath, air clouding in front of her as she considered her answer. She hadn’t got to this part in their story yet. “He declined to help since I couldn’t deliver what he asked of me… wouldn’t hand over his army because I failed his task. Nye took matters into her own hands.”

“Failed? Nye tells it a little differently. I knew Malok’s history with humans would make him difficult to persuade but…” Holt surveyed the forest, his disappointment palpable in the small space between them.

Zylah spotted the fresh shoots of an alcane; the plant secured a high price in certain markets for its lethal properties. “But you hoped for better.”

His gaze slid to hers, his expression echoing some of that hope. “I wish he could see how easily humans and Fae can coexist. How fear is all that’s stopping it from happening.”

She thought of her childhood in Dalstead. Of all the ways Arnir had tried to eradicate the Fae from the city. How small her life had been that she’d never considered what life might have been like beyond it, beyond her village and the others that bordered the city.

“Growing up, I couldn’t have imagined it,” she admitted. “But I’ve seen your vision. What that version of the future could look like.” The way Kej and Rin had smuggled humans into the Aquaris Court. The way Zack and the Fae had been living together in the tunnels. The way Holt had convinced the Black Veil to work with the Fae uprising. “Tell me: in your future, who rules Astaria?”

He was quiet for a moment, considering his words, though she knew he’d have put many years of thought into his answer. “Having a human on the throne wouldn’t be such a terrible thing if we were working together.”

“A crown cannot rule it.” Zylah knew that for certain. Arnir and Marcus, humanandFae, had both been corrupt monarchs. Had both used their position for their own personal gain at the expense of Astaria’s citizens. “An elected council made up of humans and Fae, perhaps.”

“A council,” Holt repeated, watching closely as Zylah carefully moved a snoozing Kopi to her pocket and covered her eyes. They were nearing the court, and Zylah wanted to use the cloth to her advantage, as Nye had put it. “Jesper was Arnir’s only heir, but the prince was… vocal about his conquests. The mothers to his illegitimate heirs might step forward.”

Zylah scoffed, making a mess of the knot and smoothing it out to start again. “So let them. Let the humans cast a vote for who they want to represent them. Let the Fae do the same.” Everything they were fighting for… it was just an endless cycle of the fighting that had come before it. A coalition wasn’t enough. They had to implement changes that would benefit Astaria for generations to come.

“It could work.” Holt brought his hands over hers, arms either side of her head to fasten the cloth for her, eyes darting to her mouth. “You should present the idea to the others.”

“Shouldn’t you?” she asked, pressing a hand to his chest to hold him in place before he could evanesce them again, his heart a steady beat beneath her palm. “This is yours, Holt, all of it.” His arms drew her closer, and suddenly it felt like they were having two conversations at once.I am yours, she wanted to tell him, show him, but she couldn’t, not yet, not with the ghost of whatever Ranon and Aurelia had done hanging over them still.

The sadness that poured from him was unmistakable, the way his shoulders fell as he took her hand again and said, “It stopped being mine a while ago.”

Zylah’s heart raced in her chest as they passed through the aether, her control on what she let pass down their bond slipping with the effort to maintain it, to respect his need for mental space. But there was no time to offer him reassurance. The moment they reappeared in the forest not far from Maelissa’s court, both of them stilled at the sound that echoed through the trees, the unmistakable shriek of a thrall.

Followed by another, and another.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Theirhandsbrokeapartto draw their weapons; Zylah retrieved Kopi from her pocket, the movement waking him and sending him flying into a nearby tree. They were close enough to the court for him to come and find them when it was safe, and she didn’t want him getting caught up in any fighting.

Threads unravelled from Zylah and spread in every direction, waves of magic rolling down some of the strands and back into her. “Near the court,” she told Holt. “They’re searching for a way in.”

She didn’t wait for him this time when she moved, certain he could follow her evanescing. He reappeared beside her in the cover of some bushes, both of them taking a second to assess the scene before them, to plan their attack.

Finn and a few of the other Fae Zylah had met during their last visit to the court fought a group of thralls and two Asters, the beasts working together to drive the Fae back against the rock face that bordered the court. Holt and Zylah moved together into the fray, both of them aiming for the Asters first.

Zylah had almost forgotten how huge the beasts were as she narrowly evaded a clawed hand swiping for her face, returning the strike with a slash of her sword against one of its fur-covered hindlegs. She pivoted behind the creature as it howled, a flick of her wrist sending roots bursting from beneath the snow to wrap around its ankle.

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