Page 104 of The Trials of Ophelia

And a shriek split the air.

Mila.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Ophelia

It was barely midday when we reached the trench, but that ghostly presence had breathed over my shoulder the entire journey. The yawning mouth cracked the land, six warriors and their mares set against a force threatening to pull us within. I was sweating in the saddle despite the autumn breezes whipping through Bodymelder territory.

“The bridges are ancient,” Jezebel observed. I followed her stare down the cliff-face. Cracked brown rock stretched across the gap, chunks missing sporadically. At our backs loomed the orange and red tangles of the Gennium forest. They sprouted up from the land across from us, too, like this crack in the earth was a severance of the forest, never meant to be here.

There were legends about how the trench had formed, torrential storms to cataclysmic quakes. Each dated back many millennia, and there were too many to even call to memory now.

“They’re wide enough that the horses can cross, though.” Cypherion dismounted Erini and stood before one of the many paths across the trench. “We can walk, they can follow.”

“Are you certain it wouldn’t be better to go around?” Santorina offered.

“It would take much longer,” Vale said. She joined Cypherion at the cliff edge and leaned forward, searching for another path. His jaw ticked as he watched her.

Going around the trench—while the safer option—meant extra days of travel. More time for Kakias to realize where I was and put my friends in danger. Perhaps I should have separated from them. Taken different routes and reconvened in the mountains where the queen was less likely to reach me.

As I opened my mouth to suggest it, though, Tolek hopped off Astania and approached me. “Don’t even think about it.”

“What?” I tilted my head and swung one leg over the saddle so I was facing him, a picture of sweet innocence.

“We stay together.” He placed his hands on my thighs, fingers curling into my skin. “You can’t run off. Please.”

It was the pure hint of begging underscoring that final word that reminded me how unfair it would be to him if I left. How I was already hurting him each time my scar ached. How he felt safest when I was within arm’s reach, flesh against flesh.

I slid off Sapphire, landing perfectly in the cave of his arms. Those chocolate eyes stared down at me, a mixture of heat and vulnerability and need that scorched through my body.

“Never,” I promised.

Wind whipped around us again as I pushed onto my toes and kissed him. Blatantly and openly, not caring where we were or what we faced next. Only Tolek and me, centering each other for a moment of lips against lips, his tongue caressing mine.

“I will never leave you,” I swore as we caught our breath. A relief I wasn’t sure I understood swept through him, so fierce it seeped into the air between us.

Before I could question it, though, another blast of wind battered us with the force of a stampeding army. All six of our mares stomped their hooves, whinnying. Sapphire and Astania pranced circles around us.

“What in the fucking Angels?” Tolek muttered, his arms wrapping around me. Jezebel and Santorina attempted to soothe their horses.

Vale shrieked. I spun to see Cypherion pulling her back from the cliff edge.

“Damien’s cursed Spirit.” He stumbled back, picking Vale up. Cyph turned to us, eyes wide. “We have company.”

Shoving out of Tol’s arms, I rushed to the edge of the cliff. He gripped my wrist to keep me from leaning too far, but it was unnecessary. Looking down into that trench even the slightest revealed a swarming black cloud gathered at the northern end.

Power like inky tar speared outward, speeding toward us. They twisted above the forest across the way, like a dusty burst of an Angel’s power, but dark and twisted.

As I had the thought, the ground rumbled beneath our feet, leaves shaking from their branches.

A bolt of agony shot through my scar, fighting against my Angelblood as it had at the induction ceremony but so much worse.

And I shrieked as a war broke out within my body, and Engrossians poured over the edge of the trench.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Malakai

---