Page 83 of Daughter of the Dark

There was too much of her own sorrow to witness his. Instead, Solana got to her feet in a daze and took in her surroundings. Anything to keep her mind from dwelling on the fact that she had only just found her father to lose him again. A wound long healed over ripped open twice in the matter of a few days.

If she let herself dwell, she would become something that nobody needed. A monster of the world’s making.

The wide-open back door to the tavern caught her attention. Through the narrow opening, she could see the floor shimmering with shattered glass and what looked like blood, but that she hoped was pisco.

The alley they were in was full of debris. A drying cloth with a blotch of blood. Several wooden crates smashed into sharp pieces. It looked as though a war had started and ended while she was gone. Solana stepped over a small pile of splintered wood and started walking away.

“Where are you going?” Reyes called after her. A warm hand wrapped around her wrist and gently spun her around.

She glanced at his hold, confused as to why she couldn’t feel it, and then looked at his face. There was blood caked underneath his nose and a bruise blooming on his jaw. Uncertainty and determination warred within his eyes. His hair was the most disheveled she had ever seen it, and for a brief moment, she felt it between her fingers, felt him beneath her body, felt his gift under her skin.

The memories grounded her, reminded her of her purpose and of his question. Problem was, she didn’t have an answer, and she wasn’t sure she would ever again.

“I’m going somewhere I can figure out what to do next,” she said, and her voice sounded off even to her.

Concern was heavy in the lines around Reyes’s mouth. His thumb rubbed a circle into the sensitive skin of her inner wrist, making her already sludgy awareness slow further for an entirely different reason. How easy it would be to ignore all of her responsibilities and lose herself in him.

“I know a place we can go.” He bent to eye level with her and spoke slowly. “Can you get us there in one piece?”

“I can try,” she replied with a shrug. “Tell me where.”

CHAPTER THIRTY

The best Solana could do was get them to a place nearby that they had visited once while hunting. It was at the edges of Sonqo, a courtyard with a small fountain in the middle where the horses had drunk while Solana stretched her legs, before she had become accustomed to riding. The fountain was destroyed, and water pooled in the middle of the square. Reyes grabbed Solana’s hand and pulled her into the shadows of the closest building. A curtain fluttered in a window across the street. She felt raw and exposed in a way she had never felt in the callejon.

There, her people knew her by name. They mourned the loss of her mother with her, despite how badly she wanted to claim that pain as her own. These people only knew her as the Demon Hunter of Supay, and Masimu as the Traitor of Supay, as the decrees proclaimed. Nobody would mourn the loss of him. Perhaps, after all of this, the king would paint her face next to her father’s, the sum of her reduced to another cautionary tale for any who dared defy the king.

They turned down a small alley behind a row of houses and then turned again toward a door set into the corner of the last building. Reyes pressed his palm to the wood and the handle turned with a click. The hallway beyond was pitch-black. She could hear their breathing, feel the pulse of Reyes’s heartbeat pressed against her hand. For a moment, Solana considered whether this could be a trap, but the thought was fleeting. A leftover habit from when they were closer to enemies than allies.

Now she didn’t know what they were.

The hallway brightened enough that Solana could see the outline of Reyes and the room ahead. There were dark shapes that she assumed were furniture, and then a dim orange light appeared, along with a face attached to a familiar person.

“Gods, Reyes,” Cora whispered. She rushed forward and Reyes released Solana to catch Cora in a tight hug, her head cradled gently in one hand against his chest. Everything had felt distant and muffled until that point, when a flare of envy lit within Solana.

It was silenced when Cora reached for her, drawing her into their hug and pressing against the ache of loss threatening to drown her. “You’re alive,” Cora said breathlessly.

Their arms around her back were like a band of strength that carefully rearranged the bricks inside of her that had been erected after so much betrayal and death. Solana slowly exhaled and sunk into their embrace. She didn’t protest or pull away when they didn’t let go and spoke over her head.

“Nikolas?” Cora asked.

She felt Reyes shake his head, and then Cora’s forehead pressed against her temple. Reyes’s chin rested on the top of her head. Solana let herself be held and share their pain, committing all of it to memory. This was why she continued to fight. This was all that mattered.

“I’ll make coffee,” Cora finally said. She pulled away slowly, reluctantly, and looked into Solana’s eyes. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Didn’t you know I would be?”

Cora shook her head. “There were so many choices you could have made. Nothing is certain, but what matters is that you’re here now.” She gently squeezed her cheeks and then padded away.

More of the room had come into view, but Solana was distracted with considering Cora’s words. There were so many choices you could have made.

“I’ll go wake the others,” Reyes said suddenly, his voice close in the quiet. “And then I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”

She nodded absentmindedly and took off in the direction Cora had gone. The house smelled old but not unclean, as if it had been sitting empty for many years. The black shapes she had seen were pieces of furniture covered in blankets. There was a fireplace on one side of the room and a large table on the other covered in maps with ilyas marking certain points across it. Next to them were scribbled words in Reyes’s handwriting.

Leaning closer, Solana saw that they were notes. There was one by the Academy that said, too many risks here. Another by the docks in Qhilli that said, contention—citizens unlikely to cooperate. They were right about that. The docks in Iques were circled, with several question marks nearby. Solana slid her finger from the southernmost tip of Qhilli, up and over to the west and along the forgotten coast there, where she knew a certain group of people who worshipped the muki lived very quiet lives in a small patch of forest bordering an empty shore.

If they were looking for Killian and his undead army, that would be the perfect place to start. Solana plucked an ilyas from a pile on the table and placed it over the spot.