Page 41 of Hopeless Realm
Stiffly, my spine straightens. With a cloud of dust, my wings stretch out before snapping tightly against my back. Darrio takes a single step away, giving me and my overly dramatic wings a little space.
With my head held high, I pass them. The sound of my boots pressing to the old, worn floorboards sounds through the deteriorating shack. The door’s still open and the sunlight greets me. It feels warmer now, more stripping, like I’m naked with no secrets left to hide from the all-seeing heavens.
Ryder stands with his fists shoved into his pockets. Daxdyn leans against the beam of the porch. Both men turn to us when we step out.
“What did you see?” Ryder asks, his eyes hooded with emotions that I can’t seem to understand.
Death can cause an ugliness to crawl out of all of us.
What did Ryder see?
“I saw Tristan.” I slowly take a seat at the edge of the porch, my feet scuffing over the dry dirt. “He brought the nix to the human world. It was in more disarray than normal.”
“The nix?” Dax’s eyes widen. “Those things would annihilate the human population in … less than a week.”
My stomach sinks.
The Eminence will come and it’ll either rain wrath on this already demolished world, or it’ll restore it to the beauty it once was.
Shit.
And here I thought I was going to fuck up the Eminence job. Tristan’s got to be more underqualified than I am …
“What did you see?” I peek up at Ryder. Light streams all around him, igniting his features into shades of gold.
The muscles in his arms tense. He just shakes his head.
“Nothing. Nothing really.”
Daxdyn’s eyes narrow on his friend as if the prince’s emotions are telling him otherwise.
I, too, stare at him in speculation for a long while. He holds my gaze until I finally relent.
“What did you see, Darrio?” I shift my attention to the fae standing at my side. His height seems monstrous from this angle.
The thin cotton of his shirt pulls tight as he folds his arms across his chest and stares out at the expanse of land from here to the gates. His calculating gaze trails over every scrap of iron before he speaks.
“I saw the Armed Seven. But it wasn’t me who was leading them.” His silver eyes are star struck from the intense sunlight as they fall on me. Every dark lash is defined in the lighting. “It was you who was leading the largest army of the seven realms.”
My lips part as I consider his words. I was leading the Hopeless army? Internally, I pat myself on the back for having an entire realm of warriors at my command.
But deep down, I think I might throw up from the growing mountain of responsibility that’s piling into my life.
The four of us are quiet for a moment, thinking everything over.
My attention settles back on Ryder. Why won’t he just tell me? What if he knows how this all ends? What if …
“My sister’s in my head again,” Dax says, wincing as if pain is shooting through his skull.
Ryder said their sister was a telepath. Is she always able to get inside their minds?
“Let’s head home. We need to get things in order.” Darrio takes the uneven stairs at a quick pace, as if he’s already on his way.
“We need to get to the mortal realm before Tristan does,” Dax argues.
“No. No we don’t.” Ryder puts his hands up, taking a step closer to Dax as if he can block our path.
“They’re right, Daxdyn. We need a plan. The four of us can’t intercept a horde of nix. They’ll eat you weaklings for breakfast.” I give him a wink and he rolls his pretty eyes at me.
