Page 76 of Renegade Kingdom
Dean stood apart from the group, his body coated in a thin layer of frost that was only now beginning to melt. His eyes were distant, troubled, and he kept looking down at his hands like he didn’t recognize them. Whatever had happened to him in the fog, whatever power he’d called upon to create that frozen wasteland, it had shaken him in ways I didn’t yet understand. He’d dived deep into the Winter magic, and I could tell he was struggling to pull back from it. To remember who he was beneath the ice.
Tank was limping. He tried to hide it, adjusting his gait to minimize the unevenness, but I saw the pinch of pain around his eyes. The careful way he held himself, protecting his left side. He’d taken a hit somewhere in the fog, and he was hurt more than he was letting on.
Ryder and Maddox both looked drained but whole. Whatever they’d faced, they’d come through it together. Fizzle was perched on Ryder’s shoulder, his feathers ruffled but his eyes bright with something that might have been pride.
And Damon.
Damon was still at my side, the sword I’d given him hanging loosely in his grip. His face was spattered with blood that wasn’t his own, and there was a wildness in his eyes that hadn’t quite faded. But when he looked at me, when our gazes met, I saw him. The real him. Still there. Still in control.
I wanted to collapse into his arms. I wanted to collapse into all of their arms. But there was no time for that. Not yet.
Because behind us, looming against the strange twilight sky of the forest, was the Fifth Court.
Or what was left of it.
My heart dropped into my stomach as I took in the sight. Ancient walls, crumbled and broken. Arches that had once soared toward the sky, now collapsed into piles of rubble. Towers that had been reduced to stumps of shattered stone. Theentire structure looked like it had been ravaged by war, or time, or both. Centuries of decay compressed into a single, devastating image.
It was in ruins. Completely, utterly destroyed.
We’d come all this way for nothing.
I felt Damon take my hand, his fingers threading through mine and squeezing gently. I looked at him, and I knew my devastation was written across my face.
“Things are never what they look like in Nymeria,” he said quietly. “You should know that by now. Have hope.”
It was hard to have hope looking at the skeleton of what should have been our salvation. But I squeezed his hand back, drawing strength from the contact, from the bond that was coming to life between us.
Fizzle made an impatient sound and launched himself from Ryder’s shoulder. “Finally,” he huffed as he flew toward the ruins.And without waiting for any of us, he disappeared through a ruined archway into what remained of the court.
We all exchanged glances. A silent moment of connection, of reassurance, of making sure we were all okay before we moved on to whatever came next.
Tank moved to my side, and I saw him wince at the motion. “Don’t worry about me,” he said before I could speak. “I’m fine. We need to keep moving.”
I wanted to argue. Wanted to make him sit down and let me look at his injuries. But I could feel the exhaustion pulling at me too, and I knew he was right. We couldn’t stop here, exposed in the middle of a forest amongst the things that had just tried very hard to kill us.
Dean was still pulled back from the group, still looking at his hands with that troubled expression. The fact that he was holding himself back from me concerned me even more.
“We should follow Fizzle,” Maddox said. “If there’s anything left standing in there, we might be able to find a defensible position. Somewhere we can rest for the night.”
Rest. The word sounded like heaven. My body was screaming for it, my magic depleted to levels I’d never experienced before. But I nodded, because he was right, and we all needed it more than we cared to admit.
We walked toward the ruined court together. Damon stayed at my side, his presence steady and grounding. The others fell in behind us, forming a protective wall at my back without anyone needing to say a word. Even now, even exhausted and hurt and shaken, they were still my shields. Still my anchors.
I hesitated at the threshold.
The doorway loomed above me, cracked and crumbling but still standing. Beyond it, I could see Fizzle perched on a fallen pillar, watching me with those always knowing eyes. Waiting.
Something was wrong. I could feel it, though I couldn’t quite put my finger on what.
When we’d first entered the forest, I’d felt something. A calling. A pull that drew me forward, guided me toward this place. Nymeria’s voice, Fizzle had said. My mother, reaching out to bring me home.
But that feeling was gone now. The thread I’d been following had vanished, leaving nothing but silence. If the court was truly in ruins, if hope really was lost, surely I wouldn’t have felt anything in the first place. Surely Nymeria wouldn’t have called me to a pile of rubble.
“Are you okay?” Tank’s hand came to my shoulder, warm and steady.
“I’m confused,” I admitted. “Something doesn’t seem right. I felt something before, leading me here. But now it’s just... gone.”
“Are we still in the illusion?” Ryder asked, looking around warily.
