Sobs wrench from my soul, anguish suffocating me. “But—”
“I will find you. I will find you in that life. I fucking promise you that. But you have to go.” Two wet tears split down his cheek, and the sight makes anguish split through my soul. “Please, baby.” His beg bleeds through the cracks of his voice. Stabs straight through my heart.
“Slade…”
He gives me a nod. Tries to give me his strength. His dark eyes and darker aura bore into me, surround me.
“I’ll find you, Goldfinch. I swear to you. Now fly.”
So with a sob suffocating my throat, I close my eyes. Lift my arms. Suck in a breath I wish was filled with his scent. Then, I tip down into that fathomless, familiar unknown.
Through the rip in the world, with a rip torn through my heart, I plunge out of Orea, into the storming depths of Annwyn.
Alone.
CHAPTER 65
SLADE
I watch her drop.
Watch her pitch into the churning, storming sky, ripped straight into Annwyn. Watch her disappear through the slash I tore open.
I need to keep my grip on the ragged, frayed ends for as long as I can. Give her as much time as I’m able. My fists are squeezing so hard I can’t feel my fingers, power bleeding out of me too fast to sustain. But still I wait, shaking, draining, spikes punching through my spine while fangs pierce through the insides of my cheeks.
Not yet.
I feel my knuckles pop, feel my braced legs waver. Yet still, I hold the rip open, counting every second, because I don’t know if the tear needs to stay open for her to be safe, for her to reach Annwyn. But if it does, then I need to hold on.
So I do.
When my knees hit the cracked, decayed ground, I do.
When my head bows, hands quaking, I do.
When my breaths come out in painful bursts, when my jaw pops, when my back arcs, when my heart feels like it’s going to explode through my own festering veins, I do.
I hold it far longer than my body wants to, expel more power than I have. I hold on until my body can’t give any more of this raw, exposed power. Power that I shouldn’t even be capable of using, and certainly not to rip holes into the world.
When I’ve given my very last piece of power, the rip shatters shut.
The noise is nearly deafening as the air snaps back in place.
My power cracks with its collapse, like a piece of mountain crumbling off. Its jagged, plummeting form crashes into a sea that swallows it whole, leaving no trace of it behind. It’s as if the rip was never even there.
I collapse onto the ground.
The world spins, my chest feels hollow, and I don’t think I could muster a single scrap of power, rot or raw, even if my life depended on it. I feel like death, like I could roll over straight into a grave.
But I made her a promise.
So instead of allowing myself to succumb to the darkness my consciousness wants to pull me into, I roll over. Push myself up.
Fall to my knees again. Sway like a damn tree in the wind, slumping against the fabric barrier that’s still standing. Silently yelling at myself, I try to threaten my legs to hold me, though they’re not fucking listening.
Just when I worry that I really am going to collapse in unconsciousness, two hands appear, a hard grip wrenching me to my feet. I whirl, nearly stumbling right back down, but the hold steadies me, keeps me upright.
“Relax! It’s me.”
I blearily blink at Ryatt as he comes into focus.
“Fuck. You look…” Ryatt trails off, apparently unable to vocalize just how bad I appear. “Did you just do what I think you did?”
“Rip another tear in the world to save Auren? Yes.”
“Fuck,” Ryatt says. “I never should have said what I did before—that Auren should come here. I was so fucking wrong.”
If I didn’t feel like death, I might reel back from shock. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you admit you were wrong.”
“Come on, I gotta get you out of here,” he says with a grim expression. “You’re in no position to defend yourself like this. When that barrier comes down, those fuckers might try to come for you.”
I look over my shoulder at the monarchs and nobles, at the handful of guards.
They’re fucking lucky I’m too weak to use any more power, that the shield was up and didn’t let me rot them to dust. Because if things were different, if I weren’t so wrecked right now, they’d be dead. Based on their faces, they know it.
Queen Kaila looks nervous. King Merewen is downright terrified. I think the new Fifth King might’ve shit his pants.