Chapter 43
Lyv's hands shook as she pulled her hair back into a braid, watching as her silver streak weaved in and out of it. She hated being alone, especially over those last few days. Even though they'd been filled with last minute preparations with the dragons from dawn to dusk, it was still knowing that she would come back to her rooms and not have Jai waiting for her as he sat up and read a book in bed. Or that she didn't have to take time to make sure Elys was washed up and in his pajamas, waiting on her to come in and read him a story.
Thia was the same. She'd been staying at her family estate to be close to the dragons, but she admitted she didn't like not having Gideon there beside her.
"As much as I love him and can't stand him at the same time, I don't like not having him here," Thia sighed after that first day everyone had been gone. She, Lyv, and Laurel were in the dragon quarters at the Branvon estate, eating a dinner Laurel had brought from the palace.
Lyv didn't like it either, so of course, Thia ended up spending the night with her where both of them tried not to worry over their mates and everyone with them too much.
Now, though, Lyv tried to breathe, tried to lessen the nausea that made her stomach roll with nerves. Thia left before first light, wanting to make sure everything was prepped and ready to go. Lyv couldn't get herself out of bed for a few hours after that, though. When she finally managed, she took a longer than necessary shower and didn't even bother with waiting for her hair to dry naturally or even by magic before she started on her braid. Her shaking hands weren't helping, clumsy fingers tangling up when she was halfway through, making her restart for yet another time. The fourth time, to be exact. She let out a string of curses.
It took everything in her not to knock everything off of her bathing room countertop. It wasn't because she couldn't finish her braid. No, it was because that feeling of something being utterly wrong started from the moment she woke up that morning just a half hour before. Not that anything had happened just yet, but she knew there would be.
Posy and Jett, who had been practically clinging to her for the last four days, sat on the small shelf bolted to the wall beside the mirror. They were holding hands and watching Lyv's every move, knowing there was only another hour before they had to say goodbye for who knew how long.
"Calm down, Lyv," she whispered to herself, dropping her head as she leaned forward against the marble counter. Her light and dark magic started to jump inside her, knowing her emotions were on edge. "Everything will be all right. We'll all be all right."
Deep breath.
Then another.
Lyv looked up at Posy and Jett just as another voice sounded from the doorway.
"Do you want me to help?"
Laurel leaned against the bathing room doorframe, having obviously been watching her for a few moments without her noticing.
Lyv gave her a wavering smile. "Do you mind? Jai usually does this when I can't manage myself."
Laurel stepped forward, her hands expertly starting on her braid once again. "You know, I used to demand Jai be the one to help me with my hair when I was little. He would complain, but I always got my way seeing as he loves spoiling the females in his life. And I know he loves playing with your hair. He told me when he was both sober and drunk...though drunk's always a lot funnier."
"He did not."
She laughed and winked at her in the mirror. "He did. He's told me plenty...and a lot I probably didn't need to know, too."
Lyv's face flamed, even as she laughed.
Laurel finished off her braid quickly, expertly tying the leather strap around its end, then put both hands on her shoulders.
She gave her a grateful smile in the mirror, covering her hands with her own. "Thank you."
Laurel nodded, moving so she could wrap her in a hug from behind. "You sure you're all right? I haven't seen you struggle like you've been over these last few days. Even Eamon's noticed since he's been spending so much time with you and Thia. We're all worried. Worried about everything going on really. Nervous? Because you shouldn't be. Not with everyone who will be right there beside you."
It wasn't just nerves. It wasn't just that over half of her family she loved absolutely was on the other side of Shoal's Crossing or that they were about to step foot on land cast into darkness. The moment she and Thia stood at the end of the dock to watch the ships depart, an utter sense of wrongness wouldn't leave her. Something was going to happen before the two of them and the Eld dragon riders flew over to meet up with them.
And the only other time this had happened...well, it was when Jai was stabbed by a blade coated in minette spider venom and teetering on the edge of death.
"Not that," Lyv whispered, curling her fingers into fists. "I just...something isn't right. I can feel it. I just want to get over to Escarral as fast as we can."
"You're all packed up and ready, aren't you? I know Thia and Donovan are and waiting for you outside. Your mother, too."
"Of course. Let's go."
Laurel helped her slip on her leather riding jacket, fasten her sword and daggers onto her body, and even finish with the buckles and laces on her boots as she secured her cloak beneath her chin. Lyv's hands wouldn't stop shaking and she still had to fight back the nausea that rolled in her stomach. She tried and tried to get some sort of thought to Jai and silently begged for one in return, but their distance from one another was too great for fully formed sentences. All she could get was feelings of anticipation and nervousness.
They'd obviously just made it to Escarral. That much she could tell.
When Laurel stood back up, she huffed out a breath, hands on her hips, and gave Lyv a bright yet wavering smile. "I wish I were going with you, but I..."
"But you're needed here. For Archer and everyone still in Dalcaine...including Rhea and Sora, so please keep them sane for me and Ada," Lyv finished for her, turning to lean back against the counter. "We'll come back, you know. All of us."
"I know you will." But the tightness in her shoulders said she knew otherwise.
No, not all of them would return. This was war and there would undoubtedly be casualties. It was Lyv's mission to make sure there weren't as many as there could have been.
Which was why they would first aim for the coast a few miles south of the port town where Jai and the troops from Dalcaine landed. She knew she'd told Jai to put the same enchantment on the Ethran weapons, but why shouldn't she when she would be closer? They would have undoubtedly made it to Escarral by then, too, since word from one of Serena's sentries had come that morning. They'd picked up speed and were just an hour or two behind the rest by then.
And in a few hours, every willing and able person and creature would be on Escarrali soil.
Lyv walked slowly with Laurel down the hallways of the palace, Posy and Jett both perched on her shoulders and holding onto her ears for balance. She said her goodbyes to the two pixies once they passed through the gardens where their house was perched. Posy was a flood of silent tears as she clung to Lyv's cheek, even as Lyv whispered her promises of seeing her again in a few weeks. With one last kiss, the female pixie flew inside her tiny home. Jett stared off after her before hugging Lyv then. When he jumped off her shoulder, he took another moment to flutter in front of her face, blowing her a goodbye kiss before following after Posy. By then, Alexea had joined them with Eamon on her heels before they started through the city of Ayveri for one last goodbye.
Lyv stared at all the people she passed, going about their day like normal even though there was still tension hanging about. The woman and children, the elderly, the guardsmen who had stayed behind to defend the city all stopped to stare at their Crown Princess, dressed and ready for battle.
She couldn't think about how some of these people, her people, wouldn't see their loved ones again, even though they knew it, too.
And still, they saluted her as she, Laurel, Alexea, and Eamon passed with a fist over their hearts and bowed heads.
It took everything she had to blink back her tears and hold her head up high.
The thunderous roars shook the ground beneath them as they approached the Branvon Estate. It didn't take long for Lyv to catch sight of her own dragon, who'd been hanging around a certain older female for the past week they'd been back in Ayveri. Roshan was still as enamored with Eld Commander Donovan's Kova, even though the Tarvor Red female pretended not to even notice him. Now, though, she seemed to tolerate him being around, her silvery eyes following every move he made as Thia and Donovan secured his armor on his black and red body.
Erly and Lyv's mother's Chesnan were side by side just like they always were whenever they were together, both holding as still as possible as every piece of armor was fastened into place. Without even having to be close to it, Lyv felt the hum of magic infused with the steel.
Bridget caught sight of them first. Thia and Donovan were so wrapped up going over the last of their plans of flight formations they didn't even notice at first. By the looks of it, they were mapping out when they would separate and split up into two groups. Once everyone was rested, a third of their aerial forces were to set off for the south, meeting up with the troops from Ethran.
"All ready to go?" Bridget asked as Lyv pulled her bag from her shoulder to shove it into Roshan's saddlebags. Lyv wasn't going to stow away her weapons. She wanted, needed them on her for some sense of control.
"She's a little on edge this afternoon," Laurel whispered to her mother before leaving Lyv with her.
Moments later, a hand touched the small of her back as soon as Laurel, Alexea, and Eamon disappeared. "Lyv?" her mother said quietly.
"I'm fine," she managed to choke out, though it sounded anything but truth.
Bridget glanced back at the others, who shuffled off to talk with Thia and Donovan, before she reached up and brushed back the shorter strands of hair that fell from Lyv's braid. "What's wrong, my love?"
Lyv's hands were shaking again as she tried to buckle the saddlebag. She growled in frustration when she couldn't get it. Roshan looked back with worried gray eyes as Bridget murmured and finished buckling it for her.
"Lyv."
"What?" she snapped.
Bridget stood her ground with one brow raised, crossing her arms as she waited for Lyv to cool off. It took longer than Lyv wanted, her mind racing with their plans, trying to get anything she could from Jai, and trying not to vomit at the thought of what was going to come next over those following weeks they were in Escarral.
"How did you do it?" Lyv finally whispered, slumping back against Roshan's side as her shoulders sagged forward. "How did you keep your cool during the war with Guinevere? I know she didn't have magic herself during that time, but she and her men had iron to fight with. How am I supposed to defeat not only her, but Corliss as well? I can't...I don't want to have to resort to dark magic, even though Jai controls it with me now. I want to take care of Guinevere with my bare hands, but Corliss..." She trailed off before she sucked in a deep breath, held it, and then slowly let it out in an effort to calm herself. "Now that I know what she went through, now that I know she had people who loved her then and still love her now, I don't want to have to kill her. I want to get her back. I want to get her back for you and our family, for Allel, Kalla, and Mik...and for Cleo. Cleo deserves it more than anyone to have her mother back. I don't want to take her away from her when she's already lost her father and her sister."
Without even saying a word, her mother stepped forward with arms open. Lyv didn't even hesitate to curl herself against her, holding her tight. With one hand on the back of her head, Bridget kissed her temple. "I'm so very proud of you, Lyv. You know that, don't you?"
"Sure." She didn't sound convinced just then, though.
She laughed and leaned back to take her face in her hands then. "I am. Your father and I both are. Before you came back to us, I could have never even dreamed you up exactly as you are now and will be. Sure, we got as much as we could manage about you from Jules when she sent updates from Escarral, but the moment I met you, you far exceeded my expectations. I'm still mad Alberich got to meet you and spend time with you before I did, though."
Tears had already welled up in her eyes before her mother even finished. She tried to blink them away and failed, but her last sentence managed to make her laugh. "Seriously?"
"And you know what his one sentence message was when he sent it to me in Eld? She's even more than we could have ever imagined. That bastard was so cryptic I almost lost my mind trying to figure out what he was talking about, but then I knew."
Lyv managed to laugh as she wiped beneath her eyes.
"But then I realized he was talking about you. By then, we'd gotten word from Jules you'd been sent to Dalcaine, so we knew you were close. Then another from Ayveri once you revealed who you really were and why you were sent there to the royal family. They sent it to all the ruling families, but no one knew you were ours other than the people in Asturia. You have absolutely no idea how much I wanted to fly down to Ayveri with Chesnan just to take a peek at you. We didn't know how much you knew about...about who and what you really were."
"You do realize I would have known exactly who you were, right? Even with the glamour still on, the one you put on me as a baby, I still looked exactly like you."
"I know. To be honest, I wonder how Guinevere kept herself from taking your life when you were the spitting image of her rival. Or maybe she just relished in the fact that she had you all to herself and she took you away from me and Alberich. Though I wish we were both there during your childhood, I don't think you would have what you do now if Guinevere hadn't taken you."
Lyv's chin dropped to her chest. "Jai and I...we were just talking about that the other night."
"When you two snuck off to Grandcrest House, right? To spend some time together, right?"
Her cheeks flamed. "Momma!"
"What? I want grandbabies. And by the tales Gideon likes to tell, it won't be too long before I get one..."
"Stop."
Bridget laughed as she pulled Lyv back into her embrace, kissing the side of her head again. "I love you, my darling Alyvia. I loved you when you were taken away from me by Guinevere and before then when I thought I was losing you. Even though I might have almost lost my life in putting everything I could to protecting you when I was just a few months along, I would do it over and over again. Because I got to have you. I was never going to let you go when I prayed night after night for you, when I loved you even when you were just a whispered wish to the stars and the Mother above. I hope you know that."
"I do," Lyv somehow managed to choke out. "And I love you, too."
***
There was no need to command the dragons to fly as hard and fast as they could toward the human lands. They did it themselves.
Lyv and Roshan took point with Thia and Erly flanking on her right and her mother and Chesnan on her left. The entirety of the Eld army of dragon riders and their mounts were in formation behind them with Donovan and Kova leading. With every passing moment they got closer to Escarral, the air chilled around them. Lyv managed to wrangle her cloak as it flew out behind her and wrapped it tight around her body, using her fire magic to keep her warm, too, just as everyone else was doing. The heat Roshan was giving off beneath her created enough warmth, too.
Hours passed without stopping, not that they would have been able to over the waters of Shoal's crossing. The closer and closer they got to Escarral, the clearer she could feel her bond with Jai, both through their mating bond and their mental one. His thoughts were a flurry of lists as they set up camp at the desolate area where the port town once stood.
Thia whistled from beside her, pointing south. The fleet of Ethran ships were anchored and the guardsmen were ferrying supplies to the shore. Tents were being put up, horses fed and watered, and fires blazed to break against the cold.
When Lyv and Roshan flew past the first of the Ethran ships, shouts of surprise quickly followed. Though they knew the dragons would be amongst their ranks, seeing them closing in on their landing point was still a surprise. It didn't take her long to place the enchantment, though, doing the same thing she did before in blanketing her magic across everyone, finding every piece of weaponry and armor.
Turning Roshan north, the two of them quickly caught up with the others as they flew lower, talons skimming over the water as they headed for the entire Dalcaine fleet of ships in the distance. Lyv's heart was racing, knowing it would only be a few more minutes before she was with everyone again.
Good thing, too, because as soon as they were a mile from the port town, it began to snow.
***Oh, cliffhanger chapters, how I've missed you! Couldn't get right into the action, could I? We had to see what Lyv was up to during these few days. But, of course, there will be action in the next chapter! Have I mentioned how excited I am for the rest of this book? Ha!
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Happy reading!
- Ansley***