I look into the wooded area that leads farther up the mountain. I am so not dressed for that hike. My jeans and long-sleeved T-shirt won’t provide enough protection from the elements, and my hands are already numb from digging in the cold soil. I want to go down, but up will take me away from the remnants.
Sosch sluggishly climbs from my arms to my shoulders. I let him stay there, then I finger-comb my hair so that it’s covering most of my face. After tugging my sleeves down over my hands, I have most of my skin hidden. I don’t waste any more time; I silently jog to the woods.
Honestly, I shouldn’t call it a woods. It’s more like a few scattered trees that decided to brave the increasingly rocky soil. They don’t offer much protection from the wind or from any eyes that might look this way, whatever this way is. The Realm has four mountain ranges. This could be any one of them, but…
But Paige and Lee are in the camp. There has to be a gate near here. Of course, a gate won’t help me unless I find a fae I can trust to take me through it. I wish there was some way to know where I am, where I’m going, but there’s not right now. All I can do is put as much distance as possible between me and the camp. When the sun rises, maybe I’ll be able to orient myself.
Hours later, the sky brightens. I’m not going up the mountain anymore because I can’t. The incline is too steep to attempt without a rope. As it is, there’s a very real possibility of breaking my neck. I set Sosch on the ground because I’m worried about him falling or making me lose my balance. I’m weak, partly from not eating or drinking and partly because I’m just so damn worn-out.
Sosch chirps and scurries over the rocky ground. I let him lead the way because he’s choosing a path I can actually follow. I feel bad, though, that he’s stuck with me. Normally, he wouldn’t be. Fae open fissures so often, he’s almost always able to scurry into the In-Between and hop out wherever he wants. Guess being stranded is a downside of getting attached to a human.
I press on and try not to think because I don’t want to face the truth: I don’t know if there’s any chance in hell that I can make it to civilization. The sun hasn’t burned off the fog below yet.
It doesn’t until midday. I’m staring at the dissipating clouds, trying to decide if I’m hallucinating or if there really is a city down there, when Sosch and I come across a stream. He’s already there, lapping at the water, when I fall to my knees beside him.
Minutes later, I have to force myself to stop drinking—I’ll make myself sick if I continue—then I turn back to the city below. It’s huge, filling up the plateau between the base of the mountain and a large body of water…
Really?
I’m not hallucinating, but this isn’t just any city.
“It’s Corrist!” My voice is hoarse, weak, but I grab Sosch and hug him to my chest. He squeals, then scurries out of my arms. Once he’s firmly back on the ground, he looks up at me with the kimki equivalent of a glare.
“Be happy,” I tell him. “We’re not going to die.”
I’m surprised as hell that the remnants are camped so close to the Silver Palace. Lena sent rebels to search up here, but they found nothing. Either the remnants had their camp hidden by illusion, or they just recently moved into these mountains. Right now, I don’t care which is true. The morning fog made the valley below seem deceptively far away, but now that it’s cleared, I can see that we’re not as high in the mountains as I thought. Sosch and I might even make it to the city by dark.
Reinvigorated, I lead the way back to civilization.
TWENTY-FIVE
WE DON’T MAKE it by dark. We don’t even make it by morning. Sosch abandons me around noon, and it’s at least another hour before I reach the plateau that lies between the base of the mountains and Corrist’s silver wall. The stream Sosch found joined another stream, then another and another until it fed into this river, the one that hosts Corrist’s gate.
I’m too tired to worry about a rebel archer shooting me as I make my way to the wall. The air down here is warmer, but I’m still numb. My feet are moving only because I haven’t let myself rest. If I stopped even for a minute, I don’t think I would have had the strength to keep going.
A fae calls out from the wall when I’m within a hundred feet of it. My mind is just as numb as the rest of me because I can’t seem to make sense of his words. It’s not until an arrow stabs into the ground at my feet that I force myself to stand still, to think.
“I’m McKenzie.” It takes three tries to get those words out.
No one answers. Not for several long minutes. I don’t call out again or move from my current location. The fired arrow is evidence the fae don’t trust what they see.
Finally, the portcullis begins to rise. Chaos lusters strike across the arms of the human who ducks under it.
“Naito!” I’m smiling and moving forward despite the fae drawing their swords behind him. He made it out of Boulder. I’ve been worrying about so many things, I didn’t realize I was worried about him, too.
“She’s not an illusion,” he says, as I throw my arms around his shoulders. He staggers, probably because I’m not doing a great job of keeping myself upright.
He keeps his arms holding mine when he steps back and surveys me, head to toe. “What happened? Aren said he saw you fall, and he’s…He’s not doing well.”
My heart thumps against my chest, aching and anxious, but relieved as well. Aren is alive. “Where is he?”
“In the palace,” Naito says, guiding me under the silver wall. He calls for some of the wall’s guards to follow us, and while we’re walking through the Inner City, I tell him where I’ve been and where the remnants are. I don’t know their exact location, of course, only that they’re in the mountains overlooking the city and that they’re being led by a fae named Caelar.
As soon as we step inside the palace, my legs start shaking. Now that I’m safe, it’s like they’ve given themselves permission to give out on me. I need to sit, to sleep, but I need to see Aren more, so I force myself to keep walking, ignoring my body’s demands to rest. I make it as far as the three steps that lead down to the statue garden before my knees buckle.
“Shit, McKenzie,” Naito says, keeping me on my feet.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine.” He lets me go but keeps his arm raised, ready if I fall again. “Go to your room. I’ll send Aren.”
That sounds like a great idea, now that he mentions it and now that I know I don’t have the energy to search for Aren myself. So, instead of following Naito through the statue garden, I turn left, staying under the covered walkway. It’s not until I step inside the residential wing that I remember I’m going to have to go up to reach my room. I don’t know how I’m going to make it, but I walk to the staircase.
And stop.
Aren’s there, sitting on a step halfway up with Sosch in his arms. Aren’s eyes are closed. His forehead is pressed to the kimki’s, and he’s murmuring something I can’t quite make out. With Sosch in front of him, I only see half of his face, but it’s clear he’s in pain, more pain than I’ve ever seen him in before. He looks haggard, and the way his shoulders slump toward the ground makes my heart break. I remember the way he screamed my name outside of Nakano’s compound, and I know that I can’t ever let him hurt like this again.
“Aren,” I call out, placing one hand on the banister.
He looks up.
Our gazes lock.
He pales as if he’s seen a ghost, and I pour all my energy into climbing that first step. I need to close the distance between us, touch him, taste him, tell him I want forever with him.
I climb another step.