Page 153 of The Ashborn

Vaerin turned, the red scowl glowing over his lip. “The war is over. The queen has what she wants. She’s sworn to stop her pursuit of the child if we leave now.”

Dren nodded. Younger then, his skin was worn from battle, ash settling between fine lines forming on his forehead. He had a full head of hair as dark as night. He looked at Kienna and smiled. Then he disappeared.

Vaerin waited for a time, then turned as the Elvish army surrounded them from behind. Queen Elira stood in front of them. She locked in on Vaerin. Vaerin ignored the stares. Instead, he held his hand out to his sister as she caressed Galric’s cut cheek. Avenna looked pained as she stared at Vaerin, but she rose anyway.

“Come, Ave. I will keep you both safe.”

Avenna glanced back at Galric, a tear falling down her cheek. Galric nodded to her. “Go, my love. She’ll need you more than me.”

“She cannot become this, Ave,” Vaerin said fiercely. “You understand. She will remain in River Storm with me, and you cannot allow her to transform. The world will turn on her. I will have no choice but to turn on her.”

Avenna nodded and walked off into the forest.

Very much alive.

The vision faded, and Kienna stood in front of the Ash tree again, only the initials to ground her. King Vaerin’s hand on her shoulder startled her, but she didn’t pull away. She worked to understand what the king would gain if what he showed her was true. Or what he’d gain if what he showed her was a lie.

“I won’t fill in the void of what happened to your father. I won’t assume I know what they did with him, but you must know it was not me.”

“So, what then?” Kienna scanned him for any hint of deception. She almost prayed for a hint of truth. What if she could allow herself to dream of having a mother again? Would she give it up to go back to her, knowing who she was?

“We need to fight back,” Vaerin sighed, brushing the trees around him. “They broke their oath to leave us be. We must tear down their city and the source of their magic. For the sake of the realm, my child. You know how to open the wards. I sense the knowledge in you. Tell me how, and we can make them pay. I can truly make them pay.”

Kienna’s head reeled from all the information the king threw at her. She tried to push past the songs in her head and then the riddles. She couldn’t rely on them anymore. She couldn’t rely on herself not to overthink and panic. She could only rely on what she knew, and that was from the letter Avenna wrote her. She warned against Vaerin and Elira. They would try to control her.

Two sides of the same coin.

She was tired of being controlled.

—Broan—

Broan blasted through as many Umbrin as he could to get back to the others. Seeing Baila fighting Danek gave him pause before he jumped to help. He hadn’t seen Baila since their arrival in the Elvish city. Danek mentioned he and Kienna fought her in Dalelry, but she and Broan never managed to sync up.

“Good to fucking see you, Vinebitch,” Broan said, holding his sword in front of him.

Baila tilted her chin and laughed. “You’ll be a lot easier to kill.”

Broan tightened his grip on the blade. “I guess we’ll find out.”

She filled her body with a glowing green, the brown freckles of her face glowing like the flecks of lichen on stone. Baila really did look like a witch with how she channeled nature into her body like poison.

Broan angled himself next to Danek, rolling his sleeves. “Alright, Brother. I guess we go out fighting.”

“I don’t plan on dying.” Danek spun a swirling torrent of wind that deflected a set of vines flying their way. Broan puffed out his lip and shrugged his brows. That was impressive. Baila grunted from the effort, weaving the plants around to get a space in between them.

The wind blew so violently that anything in its path fell apart. Broan slammed his fist into the ground, pushing a pile of rubble toward her. He got lucky when it knocked her down and managed to take out another set of Umbrin. More pooled out of portals. Where the fuck were they coming from? And how was the king doing this?

“Keep them out of here,” Connak yelled from the center as Danek cut into one at the same time he deflected Baila’s attempts of covering his feet with vines. “I’m pulling at the tether. He’s projecting, so something should pull him back.”

“Let me toss you in the air,” Danek said to Broan.

“The fuck you will!” Broan didn’t intend to fly anywhere.

“It’s all wind,” Danek grunted. He spun his body up and around the other side of Baila, pushing winds high enough that the Umbrin barreling for them couldn’t make it through. Their bodies flung in the air. “My guess is if you come down hard enough, you can shake the earth. Channel the energy toward the portals, and see if we stop them.”

Baila ripped vines from the ground, clinging to them for balance. She didn’t look confident like the Baila Danek described in Dalelry—or Dove Port, for that matter. Granted, Baila didn’t appear to be carrying a shadow blade.

“Fucking hell,” Broan grumbled. “Do it.”