“Alright, I’ll go to the Perch to get that message sent off, and I’ll make sure the caregiver knows we need our timberwings ready as soon as they’re finished hunting,” Lu says as she starts to walk toward the front door. She pauses just at the doorway to the hall and looks over her shoulder. “Don’t do too much this time, Rip.”
Slade stiffens but doesn’t reply. She sighs and then walks off, the door closing after her.
As soon as she’s gone, Judd jumps up. “I’m going to go get the damn wine while she’s out. I know she stashed it somewhere. Whistle if she comes back.”
I can’t help but smirk.
Judd looks at Slade just before he disappears down the corridor. “I’ll get food and water packs ready and start closing up the house, too. You go do your thing, but like Lu said, don’t do your thing too much.”
When he walks off, I frown over at Slade. “What are they talking about?”
His steady eyes settle on me. “Well…there’s more that I haven’t explained about the rip.”
Slade and I enter the cave, the dim blue shade surrounding us in its subterranean midnight. I let my head tip back, let my gaze run across the shadowed dips and curves of the ceiling. The fingers of the stalactites reach down, pausing in their grasp, while the little clouded beetles cluster together against the fluorescence, making their whole bodies glow.
I may not have been in Drollard for long, but I’ll miss these caves. I’ll miss the way they’ve given me shelter from the world for these past few weeks. Like a cocoon for a caterpillar, I’ve been encased in their hollows, enveloped in their protective shells. But now, I’m ready to leave their protection—to face the world outside.
I’m still no winged butterfly, but I do feel as if I’ve been reborn. My metamorphosis has been twenty years in the making, but I’m ready to be what I’m supposed to be.
My old life had to end, had to be cut away, burned down to nothing but gilded ashes. And I can either remain stagnant in these ashes or I can root down into them and sprout up anew.
I can thrive.
But these cocooned caves—I will miss them.
“It’s peaceful here,” I murmur.
Slade nods, but I can tell that he doesn’t hold the same quiet esteem I have for it.
“You don’t like it here, do you?”
A little chuff escapes him. “I was responsible for yanking all of these people with me from Annwyn. The raw magic of the rip killed some of them and badly injured others, my mother included. We were stuck in these caves for weeks. We had nothing. No food, no homes, nothing but the clothes on our backs. One of the Oreans tried to jump back into the rip, but it nearly killed them.”
I try to picture that, picture him going from this horrific fight for his life—a fight for his mother’s and brother’s lives—and then suddenly being yanked through a rip in the world and shoved here, in the middle of nowhere.
“Did you know you were in Orea when you fell here?”
“Not at first. But I figured out pretty quickly that we weren’t in Annwyn anymore. I could feel it.”
An old memory trickles into my mind, like the gentlest first drop before the rain. “Yes. I remember that—remember how strange Orea felt in comparison. I don’t really remember Annwyn all that much, but I do remember that when I came here, something just felt...lacking.”
Slade nods, and I know he knows exactly what I mean.
Elore’s house comes into view, its rooftop practically gleaming. “How did you all survive?” I ask. “This isn’t exactly the best place to suddenly be thrust into.”
“It was good in the sense that no one was here to see us arrive, no one here to see the rip. But it also meant that we were stuck in this frozen wasteland with nowhere to go. And I was responsible for it.”
“You didn’t know it would happen. The rip was partly your father’s fault too. And who knows what he would’ve done to everyone if you hadn’t gotten them all away.”
“Not everyone fell through the rip, but for those of us who did...those first few days still haunt me.”
My heart aches at the stark rawness of his voice, at the way his tone drags like grit against an open wound.
“Every single Orean was ill when we first fell here. No one could do much more than roll over and vomit. It was up to me to take care of everyone, to make sure no one else died, including going off to find food.” My heart twists painfully in my chest. “We stayed in this cave, close to the rip, but the adjustment was agonizing for them. Their bodies weren’t used to Orea anymore or to losing the fae-blessed connection to Annwyn. For a while, I wasn’t sure if they would survive.”
“Great Divine,” I say, swallowing thickly. “What did you do?”
“Luckily, the illness wore off for most, and then I discovered the timberwing nest here, right where the Perch is now. The flock was completely wild, and I nearly lost a hand a time or two, but I finally won one of them over. I think it might’ve been the last wild timberwings in Orea.”
My brows lift in surprise. “Argo?”
Slade shakes his head. “Argo’s mother. Without her, I wouldn’t have been able to hunt large game for us to eat. Wouldn’t have been able to get to the coast where I was able to steal supplies. We survived off bare bones for the first couple of months, but slowly, we made a life here. A few of the villagers had magic too, which helped. One of them could form rock, and he helped build the houses and hide Drollard’s existence.”
“I can’t believe you were able to do all of that,” I say with awe. “Especially in a completely new world you’d never even been to before, all while you were essentially ripped in two.”
“I made a lot of mistakes in the beginning. I wish I would’ve figured things out sooner. We might not have lost some of the others. But in the end, traveling through the rip was too taxing on them, and the conditions here were terrible. A lot of them blamed me for it.”
“You were fifteen,” I point out.
“And very fae,” he counters. “With a mother who could no longer talk or interact and a brother who was ten years old and scared out of his mind. The Oreans didn’t resent me right away, but it came. With time. Especially when they realized I could leave and they could not.”
I pause. “What do you mean?”
He stops to turn toward me. “Lu told me what you said at the pavilion, that you could sense something was...off about them.”
“Yes...” I say.
“You were picking up on their life force being connected to Annwyn.”
My eyes go wide. “What?”
“Everyone here in Drollard—they’d been taken from Orea by my father hundreds of years ago, when the Bridge of Lemuria still stood. Living in Annwyn fae-blessed them with long life. But when we came here... The rip is their last connection to Annwyn. If they stray too far from it, they will die instantly.”
My hand flies to my mouth. “So none of them can ever leave here.”
“Only Ryatt and myself and the very few children who have been born.”
“Like Twig.”
He nods. “Like Twig. We worry that leaving a child here too long will make them dependent on the rip as well, so I bring them to Fourth Kingdom with me when they’re old enough to be away from their family.”
“But what about Ryatt?” I ask. “He’s technically not fae like you, so why is he able to leave?”
“The only theory I’ve come up with is our mother must have a very strong fae bloodline—far stronger than Orean—which would make sense with how powerful her magic used to be. So I suppose that’s what made it so his life force isn’t dependent on the rip, either.”
I drag a hand through my hair, eyes straying off to the crevices of the cave, though I’m not really seeing them.
“I know this is a lot to take in.”
Blowing out a breath, I nod. “Yes, but I’m glad you’re telling me.”
This time, it’s Slade who squeezes my hand. “As I said before, I will tell you everything. I just don’t want to overwhelm you.”
I give him a soft smile. “For what it’s worth, I’m proud of you. For saving everyone. For protecting them. For figuring out everything when you were only fifteen years old, when you could’ve easily given up.”
Slade reaches up and trails a light finger over my cheek. “Giving up isn’t in my nature.”
“You are very stubborn when you set your sights on something.”