The sun hadn’t even risenwhen Ophelia woke up briefly, Cypherion and I at her bedside.
“How do you feel?” Cyph checked.
“Tired,” Ophelia barely whispered, voice distant and eyes on her wrist. The blood had been cleaned and the wound wrapped, but I had a feeling that didn’t matter. Nerves rolled off Cyph’s shoulders as he slipped his hands into his pockets. We both knew what question was coming. “Where’s Tolek?”
From the doorway, Mila released a soft, “Oh.” I hadn’t realized she was here, but the sound made my chest ache.
Cyph swallowed, hesitating, and my heart pounded in the prolonged silence. “He’s not here.”
Ophelia’s unfocused magenta eyes flared with panic, and she appeared ready to find the gryphon once again. “He’s not?—”
“No,” Cyph quickly corrected. “He’s not in Damenal, and I’ve already written to him.”
Ophelia blinked up at us, brow creasing as she tried to put it together. My Bind emptied into voided loss as she asked, “Where is he?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Tolek
Sapphire’s hoovesclattered to the stone terrace in the wake of the rising sun cutting through the fog draped across Banix. Neither of us had been able to sleep, so I took her out early.
The swampy Engrossian Territory never appealed to me, but from the back of a pegasus, the crawling deep green trees and layers of thick moss stretched across the land like eager fingers, and something about it was eerily beautiful, like it was welcoming wayward and rotten souls. The pointed onyx spires of the Banix Citadel, their Spirit Temple, and the Valley Palace reached high into the clouds in opposite corners of the city, gleaming black in the morning light.
Sapphire nudged my shoulder after I dismounted, and I ran a hand down her neck, brushing away a fly that settled in her mane. She huffed, turning her face to the sky.
“I know,” I agreed. “This isn’t where I want to be either.” If anyone on Ambrisk loved Ophelia as much as I did, it was the pegasus before me. “Get some rest,” I said, patting her and sending her off, though I knew she would be jittery.
I understand that.
As Sapphire left to park herself in the palace stables, and I crossed the terrace into the suite Barrett had assigned me, I could admit the aesthetic of this place wasn’t horrible. It was simply a different kind of beauty than Damenal or Xenovia. I was intent on enjoying the view from a bath, but I hadn’t expected the prince to be sprawled across my bed at this hour.
I halted. “Let yourself in?”
“Let yourselfout?” he countered with a pointed look at the terrace and a dramatic crossing of his legs.
I leaned against the doorway, evaluating his boyish smirk for a moment. The one that hid how very distraught he was about…everything. “Shoes off my bed,” I said.
“Technically it’s my bed.” Barrett grinned, but he sat up and threw his feet over the edge of the mattress.
I couldn’t argue with that given the entire palace belonged to him, so I strode across the room to the dressing chamber to grab a clean tunic. I’d thrown on a thicker wool one for the flight, but with the adrenaline that barreled through my veins from the skies, I was sweating.
“Couldn’t sleep?” Barrett asked, when I walked back out and poured myself a glass of water from the silver pitcher beside the bed. The prince’s wolf, Rebel, trotted through the door to my bedchamber, stopping at his owner’s feet. Large enough to ride, he turned a wide-eyed stare on me that was as inquisitive as Barrett’s.
I swallowed and murmured, “I swear Rebel grows every time I see him.” Shaking my head, I added, “No, I didn’t sleep a wink.”
“Me neither.” Barrett squared his feet on the ground and braced his elbows on his knees. “No word from her?”
I clenched the glass so hard it nearly shattered. Setting it down, I took a breath and braced my hands on the nightstand. “No.”
“Bant’s cock.”
Ophelia hadn’t written as of when I left Xenovia. Last I’d heard, she’d explicitly told me not to come for her. Despite the uncomfortable tangle of inadequacy that spurned in me, that message alone assured me something was truly wrong. Ophelia knew I’d seek her out in any realm, slaughter any god. For her to urge me away meant…
I refused to consider the worst.That Echnid had truly gotten his claws in her.
The tattoo across my back burned like Spirit Fire. But this was where she wanted me to be right now—even if I didn’t understand it.
“What time are we meeting?” I asked.
