Page 129 of Tears for a Broken Sky
“If you see him,” I said, my voice fraying, “stop him. By any means necessary. Even if…”
I didn’t finish.
Leo flinched, like the thought physically hurt. But he nodded. Maddie’s eyes were steel. No questions. No hesitation.
Leo grabbed her hand and they were gone—vanishing into the haze.
I stood with Caelen, smoke and ash spinning through the air. The scent of burning wood, blood, and salt clung to everything.
Caelen looked at me. “We’re really going after him?”
“We’re finding him,” I said. Because saying anything else would break me.
“What if we’re too late?”
“We’renot.” My voice was sharp. “We can’t be.”
He didn’t argue. Just adjusted the straps on his sword and took off down the western ridge, where cliffs gave way to ravines. I followed. Because standing still another second might tear me apart.
The trail was hell.
But I followed it to the ruins of an old outpost.
I knew we were in the right place.
The dirt was torn—scuffed, scattered. Like something had torn through here.
Worse—there was blood.
Still wet in places.
“She was here,” I muttered.
“Phoenix,” Caelen called.
I turned. He was at the cliff’s edge, staring down. I stepped beside him—and my stomach dropped.
Snagged on a gnarled branch halfway down the ravine, a length of gleaming steel swayed in the wind.
Slade’s.
The one that never left his wrist.
Caelen didn’t speak. He didn’t have to.
That one glint of metal said it all.
He fell here.
Or was thrown.
And my chest—it felt like it might cave in.
“We have to get down there,” I said, voice clipped.
“Phoenix—”
“You can go back if you want,” I snapped. “But I’m not leaving my brother down there. Not this time.”
