Page 130 of Ecliptic

The closer we walked to Indrasyl, the darker and more desolate the Lirien Valley became. No birds or any living things were in sight, and my throat closed as I thought of the beautiful starwings who once thrived here but were now extinct.

I gulped, glancing up at the sky. It was morning, yet the clouds were so dense they completely blotted out the sun.

Indrasyl finally came into view, stretching above the Voro-Kai like a dark tower. Her twisted branches and blighted bark no longer saddened me. It enraged me. A fury rose beneath my skin and urged the Light in me to thrash and swell.

The grotesque demons surrounding her made me want to explode like a supernova. Nothing had ever looked more wrong. She was sick, dying, and encircled by those who meant to destroy her. I prayed she was still alive, somewhere deep inside, holding out for hope.

When my gaze lowered to the Voro-Kai, my blood froze.Though I had seen the horde before—mere fetuses in murky cocoons—they were now mature beasts of darkness, equipped with fangs, tusks, and jagged claws.

Rowen halted our army with a closed fist.

The Voro-Kai were the only thing standing between me and the salvation of worlds.

You’d think there would be a calm before the storm, but there wasn’t. Instead, the air whirled with tension and dread. I could barely breathe as my inner tornado built into a swirling vortex. Even my tongue tingled with notes of metal and ash. It was as if I could already taste the impending bloodshed.

I glanced at Rowen, committing every line of his beautiful face to memory.

He drew my left hand to his lips and kissed me just below the ivy ring. “No one will touch you. Your path will be clear, Keira. I will get you to Indrasyl, even if it’s with my last breath,” he said like an unbreakable vow. Little did he know it was a vow to my last breath, not his.

Suddenly, an emptiness ached in my chest. “Where is Maddock?” I asked, realizing he was nowhere to be seen.

Rowen and Dyani looked around, but it was as if he had vanished into thin air.

“Have you seen Maddock?” Dyani hissed to the soldiers beside her.

A Wyn soldier with obsidian skin and dark green eyes spoke up. “I saw him leave just after we fell in line. He said the Light Bearer asked him to get her another weapon.”

My voice went numb. “I never asked him for anything.”

“He’s gone?” Dyani asked, not hiding the disgust in her voice. Her grip tightened on her blades. She must have grabbed another Ever-burn, one for each hand.

My knees went weak, and I nearly sank to the ground. “He told me he didn’t want to fight again. That he felt worthless,” Ibarely whispered. I should have told him he wasn’t worthless, not to me, but I was too concerned with my own problems to notice he had no intention of fighting this battle.

Dyani scoffed in disgust. “He deserted us.”

The words didn’t sound right. Not after everything he’d promised. But as I desperately searched for his warm eyes, the truth plunged into my gut like a sinking ship.

I should have known he would leave, but that didn’t stop the sting of betrayal any less.

“I’m so sorry,” Rowen said, squeezing my shoulder. “He’s gone."

“I couldn’t care less,” I said quickly, biting my lower lip to keep it from trembling.

The words weren’t true.

I cared.

I cared with every fiber of my being. Or what was left of it. He went like a thief in the night with my Light and soul flame bond. He’d driven his hand into my ribcage, grabbed onto vital organs without a care in the world, and wrenched them from my chest.

The gaping hole bled and convulsed, but I couldn’t think of the wound he’d created, healed, and ripped open again. It hurt too much.

I had confided in him, telling him what I needed to do. And still, he left me.

Maddock was a deserter whose cowardice would outlive me. Once I was gone, Rowen would seek a way to exact revenge; maybe he would hunt him down and kill him. That was if I succeeded.

I locked my knees and faced the enemy ahead. “Let the coward go. We have a battle to win.”

Neither the rattle in my bones nor the breaking of my heart was enough to drown out the sea of demons grunting,“Take. Take. Take.”

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