Throat thick with emotion, Lucian nodded. “Best plan I’ve heard all day.”
She smirked at him. “You’re not the only one with brains in this family, boy-o.”
Lucian laughed, the sound foreign and rasping, but no less real. “I’m starting to see that.”
“Better late than never.”
Lucian shook his head and held out his arm. “Careful. I might just put you in charge.”
Desda grinned. “You couldn’t handle it.”
“Is that so?” Lucian said, helping her navigate the rough terrain.
She nodded. “I wouldn’t bother myself catering to fragile male egos. It’d be too much honesty for you lot to swallow.”
More laughter rang out and Lucian felt some of the pressure in his chest ease, just a little. If he could still laugh, perhaps things weren’t quite as dire as they seemed.
Perhaps there was still hope.
Perhaps.
Chapter 4
Kieran spat out a mouthful of sand and wrapped the torn pieces of his tunic more firmly around his nose and mouth.
“It must be here somewhere,” he muttered, eyes frantically scanning the horizon for something other than the yellow dirt he’d been wandering in for the past two days.
Since he hadn’t planned on an extended trek through what was essentially a desert, Kieran didn’t have any of the supplies that would have made such a journey tolerable. Namely water. Or food.
He’d gathered what he could find in the jungle before he’d crossed the border between the two lands, but it ran out on his first day, and he lost sight of the Mother’s Tears—the river that bisected Elysia—around the same time.
Now, half-starved and beyond thirsty, Kieran was officially losing his mind.
The hallucinations were the worst of it. Tricking his eyes into seeing what couldn’t possibly be there. Trees. Shelter. People. Time after time, he stumbled up another sand dune, only for the thing he’d been chasing nowhere to be found.
Once a bustling center of trade, the Vale had been a desert oasis. Bordered by both the river and the sea, it had been a hub of learning, a place where the Chosen could gather and share their goods and their knowledge. Now there was nothing left of it, save a few crumbling ruins and an endless sea of sand.
Jealousy was a cruel mistress. She couldn’t abide others having what she coveted for herself.
A few centuries ago, war tore the Vale apart. What had once been a beacon of life and learning, gone overnight.
The irony of his situation wasn’t lost on him. If Kieran was one to believe in karma, he might even say he’d deserved his fate, to wander lost in the remains of a city destroyed because of his inability to accept his lot in life.
But Kieran knew what very few did. The Broken Vale wasn’t just home to dust and dirt. It was also home to the sole gate in all of Elysia. The same gate he’d come through twenty-five years earlier.
The fact that the gate had been destroyed and that only a Gatekeeper had the magic necessary to open the door between worlds didn’t matter. Kieran was certain that if he could only find the gate, he’d figure out how to get back home.
“It has to be here,” he said again, a slight whine threading its way through his words.
He couldn’t accept any other possibility. There was nowhere else for him to go.
His memory of his travels through the Broken Vale were spotty at best. He’d been too blinded by the hope that he’d finally find the woman from his dreams to pay much attention to his surroundings, but he knew the trip to the citadel had only taken three days. That meant he had to be somewhat close to the gate’s remains.
Spinning in a slow circle, Kieran squinted in the distance, eyes straining to make out something—anything—in the endless yellow.
He almost missed it, his eyes passing over the broken arch only to fly back and widen in disbelieving delight.
Heart stuttering in his chest, Kieran let out a watery laugh. He’d found it. His lips were cracked and streaked with dried blood, but he didn’t care. He barely felt the painful tugging as he smiled in sweet relief.
A wave of energy surged through him and he took off running, legs and arms pumping in a graceless sprint across the sand.
His flight slowed as he approached the spot where he’d just seen the familiar stone arch.
It wasn’t here.
Kieran spun around, desperately searching for the pale gray stones he’d spotted from his perch on the dune.
There was nothing here but more sand. His eyes had played tricks on him once again.
“No!” The broken cry was torn from his throat, scraping the parched flesh like razor blades.
Kieran sank to his knees in the sand, the final shred of hope he’d been clinging to snuffed out.
“No,” he whispered, his hands sinking into the scorching sand as his head hung in despair.
He was too dehydrated for tears, but that didn’t mean he could not weep. His shoulders shook with the force of his tearless sobs, until he was no longer strong enough to hold himself up. Flinging his arms out on either side of his prone body, Kieran stared up into the cloudless blue sky and knew with absolute conviction that he was going to die here.
And not one person, in any world, would mourn him.
Chapter 5
Lucian tightened the straps of his pack before setting it beside the single wagon they’d managed to salvage. Two healers had survived the attack and had been able to take care of the others’ injuries so no one had need of the wagon to travel. That meant Lucian could hide Effie inside of it along with the rest of the supplies they’d pulled together.
Now all that remained before they could go was for Lucian to go get Effie and pray that no one discovered her. He didn’t have much hope for the latter part, but he’d convinced Kael to take the lead and get a head start with those traveling on foot. Lucian would remain behind and follow with the wagon. If nothing else, it bought him a little more time.
“You sure about this?” Kael asked for the seventh time that morning.
Lucian speared him with a look and didn’t bother answering.
Kael sighed. “Alright, well I guess we’ll take off. No use wasting daylight.”
“You know what to do if you come across signs of the corruption?”
His brother nodded. “Circle around and send word via the Triumvirate’s mental link so you know the new path.”
Lucian nodded. “Good.”
“Luc, I don’t like splitting up.”
“So you’ve said.”
“These people aren’t warriors,” he tried again.
“That’s what you, the Night Stalker, and the Shield are for. Besides, these people fought and survived once. They can do it again.”
Kael scowled. “You’re a stubborn ass, you know that?”
Lucian brought up a hand and squeezed Kael’s shoulder. “Love you, too, Brother.”
“Just . . . stay safe, alright? Don’t take any unnecessary risks where Ef—”
Lucian clamped down hard on Kael’s shoulder. The other Guardian winced and corrected his misstep.
“—she’s concerned.”
“I won’t.”