My half-sister is not wrong, but it does little to temper my rage. I should have kept her safe, instead, she saved my life and risked her own.
I had hoped for some clues at Stonehill Castle, but of course there were none. And despite the refugees of my capital city swarming to the castle for safety and help, despite the chaos caused by battle and death, I left the moment I felt Ari call for me with blood.
Kayla insisted on coming, though I know she worries for her charge, Daison, who didn't make it out with the others. She worries for the people under my care. But she too loves Ari, I remind myself. She wants her safe and home almost as much as I do.
"There is nothing out here," Kayla says as we walk further into the wildness that is the outer edges of my realm. We are coming close to the Outlands, where rebel Fae likely gather to strategize their next move.
They must have her there, in the Outlands, on the edge of our world. Where else could they have taken her? Certainly not to one of my brothers—none of them would work with Fae. And if the raiders still have her in my realm, they are more foolish than even I have given them credit for. I already have what scouts I can spare searching my lands. With orders to kill.
The pulse in my wrist changes and I stop, looking around at the withered trees and old stones. "She's close." The white wolf at my side sniffs at something in the air and growls. I rest a hand on Baron's head. "Find her, boy. Find Ari."
He howls and leaps through the snow. Kayla and I follow behind. In moments, Baron turns into the mountain and disappears.
A cave, nearly hidden by snow-covered vines, is carved into the stone, and Kayla and I duck to enter, both of us pulling our swords out in preparation.
Baron doesn't waste time checking to see if we're following. He shoots through the darkness toward a destination only he can smell. Kayla flicks her hand, and a glow of soft white light appears before us, illuminating the darkness—she knows she can use her magic with me, if not with anyone else. We creep forward, Kayla's light and our enhanced night vision guiding us.
We travel through narrow passageways guarded by stalactites and stalagmites that threaten to impale us with one wrong move, until we reach a cavernous space with two towering blocks of rock standing as sentinels at the corners of a stone door. In the middle is a spiked imprint in the shape of a hand.
My mark blazes. She has to be here somewhere.
Kayla walks up to the door and examines the markings carved into stone. "This is Fae magic," she says. "Only a Fae can use this, I think."
"Do it," I say.
"I'm only half Fae, Fen. It might not work." But she puts her hand over the spike and shoves her flesh into the door until her blood covers the imprint.
Nothing happens.
I curse and punch one of the stone pillars.
"That's not helpful," Kayla says, tearing a piece of fabric off her shift and wrapping it around her bleeding hand.
I walk over and stick my own hand over the spike. I hear something, the faint sound of metal grinding, but then nothing. Using sheer strength, I attempt to open the stone door, but despite my considerable power, I cannot budge it.
"Go back to Stonehill," I command Kayla. "Put together a crew. Find Ace and get his help. Tell him we need something that can open this. I'll wait here. I will break down this door and dig my way to the center of hell to save her, if I must."
Kayla hesitates, and Baron glances between the two of us, waiting. "Fen… " her voice is soft. Conciliatory. And I know what she's going to say before she says it. "We don't even know where this door leads. If it leads anywhere at all." She lays a hand on my arm, as if to soften the blow of her words. "Let us research. Let us think this through. And let us go back to Stonehill. Your city is burned. Your people displaced. They've lost their home. Their loved ones. They need their prince."
"Ari needs me more."
I consider staying. But Kayla's words haunt me. What would I do alone in the cave? Beat my stubborn head against the stone waiting for it to break? I will be more useful in Stonehill, so I leave with Kayla, even as Baron dances in circles around the strange door, howling and growling and sniffing and wagging his tail in distress. He can feel her. Smell her. He knows they took her this way. But neither of us can crack the code of how this door opens or where it leads, so we have no choice but to head back to the castle. The sun is near setting by the time we return.
We walk through the city more slowly this time, taking in the damage. The burned houses and destroyed food stores and fallen trees. The bodies that litter the streets. The stench of burnt flesh that still lingers in the air despite the storm.
"We will need to put together work groups to collect and bury or burn the dead," I say as we walk.