Zaine has lost what is most important to him: the one and only girl who held his heart. After a year of searching for her and her Xelloren kidnappers with no luck, he closes off his heart and forces his hopes of ever seeing her again to die.
But one...
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The frozen snow crunched underneath my boots as I trampled around the thick evergreen trees of the forest. My breath puffed up around my face with each exhale and despite the thick leather and insulation of my coat, a chill still crept up my spine. It was always cold during the winter in the Neutral Territory, but the past few years had felt like another Ice Age.
Though perhaps it was simply the absence of Liberty's fire in my life.
"I thought the scouts said it was only a couple miles north. I feel like we've been walking for ages," Meghan said as she tore at the piece of bread in her hands, nibbling on its edges.
I resisted the urge to sigh. If it had been up to me, I would have come alone. But with the dangers of the forest, coming without someone to back me up wasn't an option Commander Dafton was open to. Meghan was great and I loved her as much as the next big brother loved his younger sister. And sure, she was great with a sword. But her lack of patience grated on my nerves.
"There's a reason we haven't been able to find it before now, Meg."
"Yeah, yeah. I know. But the least the scouts could have done was give us a realistic timeline."
"They probably did," I told her bluntly. "You're just being dramatic."
She glared at me and I met it with a cool glance out of the corner of my eye.
Throwing a piece of crust over her shoulder, she rolled her eyes. "It's just cold, is all."
Like I can't tell. But I didn't say this. Instead, I released a heave and picked up my pace slightly.
While the scouts had been out hunting, they'd run across the very fortress we'd been searching for for the past several years. Somehow, they'd stumbled across it completely accidentally, tucked in a clearing in the dense trees.
It was all a little strange to me. Sure, our scouts were searching out further than they'd ever searched before, but a fortress would be hard to miss with the size they'd described. And it's opulence. Martis, a wide-eyed recruit a year my junior, couldn't stop describing its perfectly polished stone walls, precious jewel-encrusted sconces and pillars, and glittering gold roof. Something like this should have been seen even through the wide trees surrounding it. And so close, too.
It didn't add up. How had we missed it for so long?
"You know..." Meg started as she rolled a bite of her bread between her fingers, molding it into a small ball. I forced my eyes away from her snack and to her face. I wish I hadn't. I could read every thought in her mind the instant I met her brown eyes.
"No."
"I'm not saying‒"
"Yes, you are. And no."
She let out a heavy sigh. "Zaine, you know I'm not the type of person to get my hopes up just for any flippant reason. But sometimes, can't we allow ourselves a 'what if'?"
