However, it would be for naught if we couldn’t discover whatever it was the damn Gray was hiding.
We stood in the training area in front of the estate, Wielders all around us acting as sentries while others trained, using their new powers or learning how to fight as Danes. Or to fight for the first time, as it was in the case of the Wielders who’d had magic their entire lives but had never been soldiers.
To be part of the realm didn’t mean you were forced to fight for it. There were other ways to fight other than with blood and possible death. Our bakers and teachers and scholars…all of them fought in their own ways.
But now, many of them were coming with us wherever we went. To fight The Gray.
They were battling for their people, too. And that meant we had taken this time in the lull between skirmishes and pain to train them.
They would be some of our last resorts because I would not let them become cannon fodder.
But everybody needed to know how to use their Wielding to protect themselves and the person next to them who may be weaker.
That meant long nights of training for my uncle, and even longer nights for those watching.
“Is the sentry back yet?” Teagan asked from my side, rolling his shoulders back.
“Should be soon. I hate sending out so many scouts at once, but we need to determine how to get to The Gray.”
“You know that it may all be for nothing if he attacks us first.”
“That’s why we’ve been fortifying the Fire Estate while training and readying to travel if it comes to that. It won’t be easy, no matter what, but we can do this.”
“It’s not like we have a choice,” Teagan rumbled, playing with the Fire at his fingertips.
“Are the women and the others okay?” I asked casually, searching for the sentry. He should be here soon, but I wasn’t going to hold out too much hope.
I was running out of it as it was.
“They’re doing fine. Why do you ask?” Teagan asked.
“Because you’ve been growling at Wyn every chance you get. More so than usual.” I turned to my best friend.
Teagan was silent for so long that I wasn’t sure he would answer. “After we lost Arwin, I wasn’t sure how we would make it.”
“He wouldn’t have wanted us to give up,” Teagan said, shrugging, even though I knew the loss of our trainee had done something to him. It had broken something in all of us.
We had lost Arwin because we hadn’t been strong enough to save him.
I just hoped we were better now.
“Wyn is learning how to use her new powers, so she’s spending more time growling at Rhodes than letting me work with her. It’s fine,” he added quickly when I raised a brow.
“Really?”
“She’s not my soulmate. We’ve known that for a long time. And, in the end, that’s not going to matter, is it? Not if we can’t find The Gray and end him. Not if we can’t find a way to mend our realm.”
I nodded, tension taking root in my shoulders.
“I think Lyric has a way,” I whispered.
“What do you mean?” Teagan asked.
“When the time comes, and the battle finds us, I think my soulmate is going to sacrifice herself. I think she’ll somehow use all five elements, and that will be how she protects and heals the realm.”
I hadn’t even meant to say the words out loud. But as Teagan took a staggering step back and looked at my face as if he couldn’t quite believe I had so casually said the words aloud, I knew I had to let it out, or it would be too much.
“And you’re just going to let her?” Teagan shouted.
“I do not let Lyric do anything,” I said.
“So she dies, and the realm is safe. And you’re fine with that?” Teagan asked, his voice rising even more.
I gave him a sharp look, and he quieted down a bit. I knew that nobody had heard our exact words because we were far enough away from the group, searching for the sentry, but I didn’t want others to overhear.
“I’ll be damned if I let her die alone for us.”
I didn’t need to say anything else because Teagan shook his head, sighing.
“Because you’re planning to go right along with her to protect everyone.”
“She’s going to do what she has to, and I’m willing to make sure she doesn’t have to do it alone.”
“You sound insane,” Teagan said, and I knew he was trying to lighten the mood a bit, but that wasn’t going to happen, not at this time of war.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do, but I do know I’m going to protect her. I’m going to protect our people. And I’m going to kill The Gray.”
“Unless Lyric has to do it,” Teagan countered.
“If that’s true, then I’ll stand by her side and help her wipe off the blade,” I vowed.
“I like the sound of that.”
I narrowed my eyes as I spotted something in the distance. “Scout’s on his way.”
“Is that Heath?” Teagan asked, and the sentries moved around as if sensing Heath was coming, as well.
Heath was an Earth Wielder, and he was special.
He could use the Earth around him to create compressed stone that was crystallized and could reflect light. He could also breathe through soil somehow. Meaning, he could burrow beneath the topsoil of the earth around him, and travel long distances that way, conserving energy and making it so most people couldn’t even sense he was there.
That we could see the plume of dirt above him now, told me that he was letting us see him.
There was a reason he was our best scout.
Teagan and I ran forward to meet him, eager to hear the news. I took one look at him and fell to my knees in front of Heath as he collapsed in front of us.
Jagged claw marks marred his shoulder, split his abdomen, and blood poured from his mouth.
“Dear goddess. Heath,” I muttered.
“I’ll go get Ridley,” Teagan said and ran back towards the castle.
I knew others were shouting, things were getting done, but I just looked at the man I had sent to his death and felt the blood drained out of me.
“Heath,”
“He’s at the Lumière Court,” Heath whispered, blood bubbling from his mouth.
“Don’t speak,” I growled. “Save your energy.”
“We both know I’m dead.”
“No,” I gritted out.
Suddenly, Lyric was at my side, Ridley next to her. “Heath,” she whispered and reached out to grab his hand.
She had only met him twice in her time here, yet the tears that flowed down her cheeks were real.
She was everything. She had cracked my ice, even though I had flames running through my veins.
And now a man I had called a friend, someone I constantly sent out on dangerous missions, was dying in my arms.
“Lumière Court. Army there. And The Gray. Attack soon. They’re…coming.”
“Heath,” I growled. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.
The people near me would understand the pain in my words, and what I needed to do. I would be the king in a moment, but for now, I needed to be the man who was losing someone he had sent to his death.
And when the light faded from Heath’s gaze, and Ridley slowly closed his eyes, I shut my own, my whole body shuddering. Suddenly, Lyric was there, wrapping her arm around my waist, leaning her cheek on my shoulder.