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Chapter 45

last update Last Updated: 2023-09-22 16:42:48

“And how exactly do you presume we get to Elsiande? Isn’t it a few days’ travel by horse?”

She bit her lip and grinned up at him.

“Oh no,” he muttered. “That look usually precedes us being tortured.”

“I have an idea.”

“If someone catches us, we’ll probably be kicked out of the mountain,” Fordham reminded her as they crept through the dragon quarters.

“Where’s your sense of adventure, princeling?”

“Securely on the ground,” he muttered.

She turned around in surprise. “Are you afraid of heights?”

“Heights? No,” he said at once. “Falling from extreme heights—like off the back of a dragon, for instance…”

She laughed. “Dragons are perfectly safe, and riding one is the most exhilarating experience of my entire life. You’re going to love it. Or… at least, you’ll get used to it since you’re trying to get a dragon in a few weeks’ time.”

“Fine,” he muttered.

Maya grinned at him and then continued through the cavernous rooms where she had spent so much of her time, growing up. She could name prac
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    In fact, the home was very easy to find once they were heading in the correct direction. There were many homes set into the hillside, but most of the them followed the pattern of the city, sprawling one-story stone mansions. Ellerby’s home was large, but it went straight up four stories with wide-set windows and enormous gardens. How he ever accomplished true gardens here in this rocky land, she would never know.Maya debated on going around to the back. He had seemed afraid in his letter, but it hadn’t been tampered with. No one would suspect they would borrow a dragon and fly south in the middle of the night.She opened the gate leading up to his mansion, surprised to find it wasn’t locked, and then Fordham followed her to the front door. No lights were on inside. It was the middle of the night. She was not looking forward to breaking in to his home.With a sigh, she knocked on the front door anyway.“Everyone is asleep,” Fordham whispered.“I know, but common courtesy.”They waited

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    “Which makes them even more valuable,” Maya said. Her eyes flicked to Fordham. “The weapons deal.”He nodded. “That’s what we saw. Those were no ordinary weapons, and Clare is no ordinary dealer. That’s why she interrogated us, thinking we were working for the Society.”“She thought that they had found the new stash of artifacts,” Maya put together.“Yes, and she must be working with Basem to get these artifacts onto the streets.”Ellerby looked faint. “If that’s the case, then… we’re already too late.”“Too late for what?”“To stop him.”Fordham left Ellerby’s side and came to stand with Maya. “On the contrary, I think we finally have a shot.”She looked up at him, filled with determination, and nodded. “I think you’re right. We will do what we can to save your nephew.”Ellerby’s eyes filled with tears. “I don’t even know if he’s still alive.”Maya ground her teeth. “Then we will get revenge for what he has done to you.”“We need to go,” Fordham said. “We have to get back by daybreak

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    She reached her room without running into anyone but paused at the door when she realized that it was ajar. Her heart rate kicked up as adrenaline coursed through her. Someone was in her room.She could sense the person now that she was paying attention and not worrying about Fordham’s rejection or Helly finding her. Who the hell was in her room? And what did they want?A minute was all she had to make her decision. She decided against using fire. It would blind both of them when it came down to it. Her eyes were adjusted enough to the dark. She silently pressed the door open.Her stomach flipped as a figure stood at her dresser. She had a long mane of ash-blonde hair. Suddenly, Maya felt like she was in the midst of her vision. The girl with the ash hair. Who was she? What was she doing here?A sense of foreboding hung over the moment. Something was wrong. Was this person here to finish what Basem had started? Fear crept through her, and she tried to lash it down into place, but afte

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    A council meeting will be held to decide that,” Lorian said. “She doesn’t qualify. She has no tribe, and we have never had a half-Fae.”“You never had a human before either, and you let two compete last time,” Aurora shot back.“And look at how that turned out,” Lorian snapped.“Just because there are a few loud bigots doesn’t mean that we should go backward! We must stay the course or else people will think that all they have to do is cause enough fuss and we’ll take away other people’s rights. That is not the Kinkadia that I know and love. And I won’t stand by and let you use your prejudiceMaya wanted to duck out of sight. She’d never had someone like Aurora , who was so full of privilege, so very Bryonican royalty, stand up for her… to completely defend her. She barely even knew her.Lorian opened his mouth to object again, but Aurora barreled forward.“And on the second account, my mother and I have agreed to select Maya into Bryonica under the House of Drame.”Maya’s stomach flo

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    Footsteps sounded behind her, and she didn’t have to turn her head to know that Fordham had followed her into the mayhem, as he had been doing for weeks. She didn’t slow. He would catch up to her. She kept moving forward, glad for those hours and hours of running so that by the time she reached the first line of Red Masks, she wasn’t winded.Maya used her wind magic to bowl through the first group, and they hastily fled. But she could see the leader up ahead. Their leader was holding up a large, swirling gray orb, much like the amber one Basem had used against her.This was her chance to get revenge for what those people had done to her. This was her chance to end it. No longer would Red Masks walk her streets. No longer would they terrorize humans and half-Fae. No longer would they try to take away their rights. It could end right here, right now.The crowd had cleared enough for Maya to slow as she approached the leader of the Red Masks. He turned to face her. He was a large man. Th

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    Maya came to, gasping for breath. She put her hands on her knees and tried to suck in enough life to leave that horrible nightmare behind. She knew that it was the faerie illusion that she had walked into. That it was designed to warp reality and pull out her deepest, darkest fear. She had just lived it—marrying Ashby March and living a life where no one ever saw her for who she truly was. She had come out on the other side of it, had risen above the adversity, but it had felt so very real.Her body trembled with exhaustion from the illusion, but she was no longer helpless. Her magic flared bright and bursting within her, and all of her injuries had been healed. She straightened to her full height and found herself before a gaping audience. The cave was large enough to hold the five dragons—Avirix, Netta, Tieran, Luxor, and Evien—as well as their five Dragon Blessed handlers. Standing before them were the four competitors who had made it this far. Aurora stood with wide eyes, farther

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    You got tested?” he asked in exasperation. “Why does that not even surprise me?”“It wasn’t purposeful. I wanted to know what testing was, but when I stepped inside, Gelryn said he’d been waiting for me.”“Ominous,” Fordham muttered.She laughed. “A little bit. But it ended up being fine. He actually left and went to the Holy Mountain to try to find information on my visions.” She shrugged. “I don’t know if he’ll find anything, but he seemed confident.”“That’s good at least. You need to get those under control.”“Hey, they’ve helped you!”“They have,” he admitted. “I just don’t want them to control you.”She nodded and fell silent. They did control her, and if she didn’t find a way to stop them, then they always would. It was why she’d gone to Gelryn in the first place.They continued trudging through the plane and watched as they crossed over the South River without ever getting wet. Then, the landscape turned rocky, and suddenly, they were in the mountains. The sun was low on the h

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    He came to his feet. “Well, that’s lucky.”She swallowed back the lump in her throat. Marc here to save us after all.”“We should probably set out at dawn,” Fordham said. “Together, we can get out of here.”“All right, princeling,” she said with a half-smile. “But first, we’re going to need some pinecones.”Fordham didn’t ask, just helped her cover a few pinecones in sap, and then she cracked the two biggest sticks she’d found on a sharp piece of rock, placing the sap-covered pinecones inside and dipping them in the flames.He looked at her, impressed. “Torches. How did you know how to do that?”“House of Dragons teaches us more than just etiquette,” she said with a grin. She brushed mud off his brow and laughed. “You look ridiculous.”“I ate poisonous berries,” he reminded her.And then they both laughed.The weight and fear of the night before had dissipated at dawn. They had gotten through a lot together this last month. This was one more adventure.Together, they tracked through t

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    With a determination set into her very marrow, Maya left for the portal room. It was not a long walk, and within minutes, she was at the end of the hallway. She waited patiently for the two guards standing in front of the room to turn and walk the other way. She didn’t know what kind of gods’ luck this was, but as soon as their backs were turned, she hustled down the hallway. With her heart in her throat, she turned the doorknob and entered the room, carefully closing the door behind her.The room itself was enormous. Big enough for multiple dragons to comfortably stand in. This was only the Fae entrance. There was a separate tunnel that the dragons could enter through that disappeared deep into the mountain. And standing as large as a house was a giant stone archway, magnificently carved and ornately built. The center of the archway shone a brilliant iridescent. Just as in her vision, there stood a goblet on a table next to the archway.Maya warily approached it. She looked into the

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