Page 188 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

“Very funny,” Mal said, turning his back to us.

“Kilian?” I asked, tucking my hands under his shirt.

He pulled us closer. “Hm?”

“Good night.”

“Good night, my love.”

Chapter twenty-eight

Sudus

Snowlin

We boarded an illegal ship to Whitebridge early this morning in a northern Brogmere wharf while Visha and Kilian took another to travel further west. Once they were outside of Melanthe’s veil they would be able to fade to Olympia without being traced.

Even though we were almost reaching land, the thought that I would get to see my siblings soon had not settled with me. The fact that they were still alive had settled with me to begin with. It felt like all this time I’d chased spirits to sedate my grief and it had helped, but now, it was coming true. What would they be like? Would they remember me? Would they hate me for running? Would they even want to come with me?

Malik stood solemnly still and quiet beside me, silently observing our surroundings, ready to jump at the sound of danger.

Men, women and children had taken shelter under deck, travelling hidden towards the warmer lands. It should have surprised me, but it didn’t. Isjord was said to be the capital of Numengarth, but it wasn’t kind to many in the ways it should be. Work was hard and life was a standstill of frost, short days, long nights and the four walls of your house. It paid well to keep you prisoner of your own lifestyle.

My face was hidden under a hood and a scarf, but few were not sparingly glancing at me, they were fully staring at me.

“Golden eyes,” a little girl spoke from her mother’s lap. “Ma says not many have gold eyes.”

Horrified, the mother slapped a hand over her daughter's mouth. “She is tired, miss, forgive her.”

The girl bit her mother’s hand and spoke a little too loudly, “But you said only the prime Verglasers have yellow eyes, ma. To see the sun in their eyes even when they feel the coldest. To be reminded—”

The mother shut her daughter up with both hands.

“That heat lives within us and the cold without. To not allow our hearts to grow cold,” I finished. My bloodline was the hearth of blistering ice. Eons ago, Krig’s Aura had grown so powerful that they’d become something of fear. Afraid that magic would overtake their humanity, Krig had gifted one last thing to his strongest Aura—the eyes that I loathed.

“A pretty tale,” I said, reaching into my pocket and handing a piece of chocolate Lara had given me before the trip to the little girl. “For the gruesome truth that Krig blessed needed reminders to behave humanly.” Pulling the scarf down to reveal my face, I put a finger over my lips.

Both the mother and daughter gasped and then quickly nodded before curling in silence.

The ship successfully reached shore and we soon moulded with the tight moving crowd toward the large port. The stench of fish, guts and salt was heavy in the fishing city, but the mud foam I took when we boarded ship had numbed my stomach from reacting.

“Why did you show your face to them?” Mal asked as we parted the heavy line of buyers and sellers.

I ran a hand over my forehead that puckered with sweat beads from the heavy sun. “They needed a reason to not be afraid and I gave it to them.”

He flicked the roof of my hood. “Thought you liked being feared.”

“I do, but I like controlling fear better.”

The sea line town was one united cluster of bodies hurrying from one side to another. Mal had grabbed my arm after almost losing me in the crowd twice. A bazaar stretched in the frontlines of the city, filled with all sorts of vendors bargaining their trade with everybody passing their stalls.

“We need a compass,” Mal said, dragging me over a line of stalls.

My gaze caught on something while he perused for the compass. Tens of white sunstones of all shapes and sizes were laid on a jade velvet stand.

“It is a good choice,” an elderly lady sat behind the stall said as she fanned a large azure parasol to her face. “Sunstone symbolises new beginnings. A new day ahead and a bright future. If you wear it out in the sunrise—”

“It glistens,” I said as a dull ache throbbed in my chest like an old wound reopening. Had he been here? Had Sam stepped here? My eyes drew shut, hoping to feel his presence at least one more time. But he was gone. Like my mother was gone.