Page 69 of The Bones of the Cursed

The moment I could no longer feel her presence, a fear like never before flooded my body. It felt as if a piece of me disappeared—a piece I had just found. We haven’t had enough time.

I follow Kailu in a haze, leading my horse with no clue of where we’re even going.

Kailu stops at the base of the last hill to the Vale, dirt from the road swirling around his boot. “Malakai?”

I look at him without really seeing him.

“Malakai.” He says my name with more bite behind it.

I blink.

He reaches across the gap between our horses to clasp one of my shoulders, giving me a gentle shake. “Snap the fuck out of it, Mal. We will get her back. You are her mate. You would know if she was dead. She is fine and we are going to help her. We need to both be strong for her—we can’t fall apart.”

“You’re right.” I clear my throat. “She’s smarter than anyone I’ve ever met and stubborn as hell. Let’s bring her home.”

We slowly make our way into the Golden Vale. I always loved coming here as a boy. My sister and I loved picking flowers and playing in the stream. I liked to hang from the branches of the trees and scare her. She liked to shove me into the stream in retaliation.

A pang resonates in my chest. I miss Ayda. I want her to meet Alanis. She would love her.

Shaking the thoughts from my head, I dismount and walk to the edge of the waterfall and peer over. Mist shrouds the area, but I can clearly see what waits below.

“Aeros.”

We quickly make it down to where Aeros is tied to a tree, pacing at the end of his lead with worry and agitation. When he sees us, he throws his head up, prancing, and only calms when I’m close enough that he can shove his nose into my chest. I smooth my hand over his neck as I look around for any sign of where Alanis went.

“I’ll run a perimeter around the lake,” says Kailu. “The portals have been in bodies of water, so she might have gone through here.”

I nod and scan the trees, then walk to the edge where the second waterfall drops into the ravine below, but I see nothing. No sign of anything but a lone deer drinking from the water.

The rickety bridge catches my eye as the mist rising off the waterfall parts, as if brushed aside by a gentle hand. The vines growing over from the weeds on the other side give it an enchanting appearance.

“No sign of her in the lake,” Kailu says as he joins me. “I even took a quick dive to look around.”

I laugh at his wet, shaggy hair. “I don’t think I’ve seen your hair this long in a while. Are you in a midlife crisis?”

He gives me a look that screams “Fuck you.”

“Well, when you find out the girl you’re falling in love with ismates with your best friend and you may or may not lose her, it tends to take it out of a male.” He gives me a sharp smile.

I squeeze his shoulders in a reassuring grip. “We’ll get the answers to all these questions.”

His worried gaze flicks away and then back. “What if we get the answers and she still isn’t my mate?”

Breathing deeply, I try to calm him even though that is an unspoken fear of my own. “I’m glad to have you call me a friend again, and that will not change. No matter what happens.”

Kailu gives me a sad smile. “You were always my friend. I was just a shitty one.”

I laugh. “You always were a pain in the ass.”

As we make our way to the bridge, my eyes immediately fall on the wishing well and its wilted flowers. My mother and father never let Ayda and I cross the bridge, always claiming it was too unstable as it hadn’t been used since Paliri’s father ruled, the Fae we call the Lost King since no one ever discovered what happened to him or where he disappeared to. Even with the area being abandoned for so long, flowers should not look like that. They’re crispy to the touch, like the sun fried them to death. Frowning, I peer into the well and stumble backward, unsheathing my sword.

Kailu immediately appears at my side, sword in hand. “What is it?”

“I have no idea.”

The smell that greets me as the first figure appears over the edge is enough to cause my breakfast to rise up my throat. Shit. That’s all I smell, piss and shit.

The figure heaves themself over the well’s wall and another follows behind. They tense when they see us waiting with swords out. Humans. Even through the muck, I can see their uniforms well enough to recognize they’re soldiers.

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