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The idea of disappearing with him again makes my stomach roil, and I take a step back, shaking my head.
“I’m hardly in danger here, right? Couldn’t you leave me to explore the fields and come back for me later?”
He twitches, brows drawing together before nodding once. “All right. But don’t wander far. Meren is that way”—he points over my shoulder—“and I wouldn’t want you getting into trouble.”
“Of course not.”
Railan hesitates, but I give him what I hope is a convincing smile. I have no intention of staying put, but he doesn’t need to know that.
“I won’t be long,” he assures me before disappearing with a shimmer on the air.
I wait a few minutes to make sure he doesn’t return to see if I’ve kept my word. When nothing happens, I spin on my heel and start off in the direction he told me not to go.
I’ve never heard of Meren in any of the stories about the Shadow Realm, and my curiosity is piqued. Maybe it’s nothing but a barren wasteland; maybe it’s the key to getting out of here. But I can’t know either way until I see it for myself.
Railan’s claim that it would take months to traverse the Shadow Realm on foot from one end to the other flits through my mind, and I nearly stumble over a small rise. That may be true, but why would he warn me away from Meren if it wasn’t close enough to walk to?
I don’t know if it will help me get out of here, but at this point, more pieces to the puzzle of how to escape this place are better than less.
The healing fields stretch out in front of me with no end in sight, rolling with gentle hills that remind me of the farmland I rode through after leaving Pramis’s territory. That seems like lifetimes ago, yet it’s only been a few weeks.
I carefully pick my way down into a little valley and prepare to climb up the other side. Tossing the edges of my cloak over my shoulders, I’m beginning to wish I’d left it behind. Sweat beads between my shoulder blades and drips down my spine as I crest the next rise.
I squint toward the horizon and think I see a point where the color begins to fade back to shades of gray, but it’s so far away it’s impossible to tell if it’s really there or my eyes are playing tricks on me. Determined to find out one way or another, I begin my journey again.
When the air shimmers with power, I stop short and mutter a curse under my breath. I haven’t even moved completely out of sight of the pear tree, and already Railan is back to collect me.
But it isn’t Railan who materializes close enough to touch.
Thieran crosses his arms and stares down his nose at me. “Where exactly do you think you’re going, little one?”
Chapter Fifteen
Elora opens her mouth to answer me, but thinks better of her reply and snaps it shut. Inhaling deeply, she lets it out in a huff of breath and smiles. If she’s going for polite, she’s missed her mark because her smile is all sharp edges and hard angles.
I’m the last person she wants to see right now. And something about that is immeasurably pleasing.
“My lord,” she says in that way I hate. I wonder if she knows I hate it or if it’s just luck on her part. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Yes,” I drawl. “In my own realm. So surprising.”
Her eyes narrow at my sarcasm then dart over my shoulder, and she forces her smile wider. She looks wild, ribbons of hair blowing around her face. As much as I might wish to see her in a gown, I like the look of her in her leathers, fierce and challenging.
The thought brings a scowl to my face, and she takes a step back. I’m here because I sensed her wandering where she shouldn’t be, not to have fanciful thoughts about what she chooses to wear. No matter how perfect her curves look wrapped in leather breeches and a corset that begs to be untied inch by torturous inch until…
“You didn’t answer my question,” I bark, watching her mimic my stance with her arms crossed over her chest. “What are you doing out here?”
“That wasn’t your question, my l—”
“I swear to the gods,” I say through gritted teeth, and her smile turns smug. So she is doing it to irritate me. “Where are you going, Elora?”
“That way.” She gestures with her chin. “Railan had urgent business to attend to.”
I sensed the souls’ arrival on the air the same way he did. What I did not sense was her return to the palace. It took me longer than I would like to locate her, forcing me to unearth my connection with her after burying it so well these last few weeks. That steady thump, thump, thump of her heart next to mine.
“And why are you going that way?”
She tilts her head, eyes searching mine. “Seemed like as good a way as any.”
