Page 12 of Ignite
Zephyr’s wings beat harder, followed by a burst of excitement rippling down our bond.
“I hope to the goddess you know what you’re doing.” My teeth chatter as the mountains around us disappear.
My eyelids flutter heavily as the wind cools my warm skin. There’s a call inside of me, beckoning me to sink back into the safe numbness and retreat into myself. I blink harshly, forcing my lids open.
Is this how it ends? Riding on the wings of my wyvern—not felled by a lunatic dark goddess or the end of a sword, but soaring through the night air into blissful nothingness—leaving behind those who fought so hard to get here.
For a moment, my life was destined for bigger things—maybe even for greatness. But perhaps I was wrong. Maybe the Goddess of the Moon wants nothing to do with me now that I didn’t finish my trial. Maybethiswas always how my life would end.
I wait for some brilliant flash of light, for the bite of death sinking its teeth into my soul, but it doesn’t come. It isn’t an unending void beneath us. Salty water sprays my face, splashing onto my cheeks and into my mouth. It isn’t death that awaits us, but the sea.
The moon shines onto the water, casting an elongated glow across the surface.
My panic subsides with the shock that rolls through me.
Death didn’t come for me after all. Relief washes over me, followed by a welling of determination. Those lost in the trial need us.Graylenneeds us.
If Daimon isn’t going to help us, then I’ll find another way.
I glance over my shoulder, catching sight of Calix and Maddox, but the others are lost among the sea of wyverns behind us.
Zephyr glides up beside the other wyvern, flying wing-to-wing. The other Rider stares straight ahead, her posture poised but comfortable—as if she has done this a thousand times.
The sea stretches out as far as I can see in all directions. With a quick glance over my shoulder, I find that the land behind us is fading. All that’s left are the tall peaks of Zenovia. From here, I can see we weren’t evencloseto the middle of the mountains, let alone the end of them.
Wherever the curse takes place, we must not have been near it. The blight that separates Crea and Penyth isn’t one I’ve gotten this close to, let alone the mountain ranges that it cuts through.I’ve only ever seen glimpses of the mountaintops, with no concept of just how deep they run. Never did I think they were this wide—this vast.
We may have gotten away from Daimon and Vidaris this time, but there would be no escaping the darkness that Moros laid to keep the kingdoms apart.
Darkness clings to Zenovia like a blanket, but it’s different from the darkness of night. It’s inky and thick, pulsing as if sentient. I shiver and twist back around, my eyes widening as an island comes into view.
The Rider shouts, a strange mix of a scream and a howl. Her wyvern mimics her, its cry sharp and piercing, rattling my bones.
There are too many trees to see much of the island, every inch of the cliffside filled with thick foliage, vines, and branches. Seawater crashes against rocks the size of Zeph along the shoreline, where remnants of a beached ship lie scattered across the sand.
We fly over the massive trees with trunks wider than a small cottage, the island untamed and seemingly uninhabited. But then movement catches my eye—small shapes, just quick blurs. Not uninhabited after all.
The trees sway toward us, their limbs reaching up as if to catch any exposed skin or hanging limbs they can get themselves wrapped around. Zeph flies a little higher and blows out a sharp breath from her nostrils as if sensing it, too.
Somethinglives here, and whatever it is, it knows we’re here.
The Rider releases another howl, her wyvern once again mimicking her with its wings slowing. Zephyr does the same, an eager energy buzzing from her in waves. We hover in the air, the silence—save for the deep whoosh of wings gliding—startling. Sudden.
My eyes search the trees beneath us, the tops of some so close I could reach out and pluck a leaf off. Movement catches my gaze again, the leaves rustling and swaying—not from the force of the wyverns, I realize, butopening.
Of their own accord, the trees part, giving way to a forest floor shrouded by night. It’s just enough for both of us to fit through one after the other, the trunks so tall that Zeph and the other wyvern still have to flap their wings a few times before we reach solid ground.
The dim light provided by the moon disappears as the trees close above us, bending back to their natural state and cutting off the sky from our view. I blink, my thoughts racing in wonder at how the trees could move like that.
That’s when I realize my friends are nowhere to be seen. I’m alone with this foreign Rider and her wyvern. I swallow, panic creeping back and awakening my body as if I were struck by lightning.
“Kauri,” the Rider says suddenly, her voice causing me to jolt. “The trees.”
Her arms spread out wide as if this explains something, but I have no clue what she means.
With the ground still beneath me and my heart rate increasing, reality sinks its claws into me.
“My friends.” My voice is steadier than I thought it would be. Strong. “Whoever you are?—”
