Heart of Ash (The Dark Arcane Series: Book 1)

Chapter Forty One

Kade and Darius were practically jogging to keep up with King Yeona, in another attempt to talk to her as she stormed away, trampling through the snow.

After the events of last night, she'd announced that she no longer had any interest in helping them, and would be pulling her troops from the forest, and she would be gone by tomorrow—which was today.

Kade had barely slept the night, spending most of it with his heart racing and his stomach churning up a frenzied storm. He hadn't wanted to wake up the others so he'd panicked in silence. Every sound he'd heard in the night could have been the flint army leaving, or the Elites approaching, or even the Captain or Temas paying him a personal visit.

If Yeona stuck to her words yesterday, and kicked them out of the north, Kade had assumed that at least there would still be an army here to face the Elites. But now...the Elites would have free reign across the north.

He could only assume the Captain was going to be there, too, at the front of the pack heading the charge. A group of Elites as large as a hundred would almost certainly be lead by the Captain.

He remembered working alongside the Elites while training under the Captain. Some spoke—Temas, mostly—others didn't. He had no idea where they were recruited from because they certainly weren't raised from children by the Captain as Kade was, and they didn't seem to talk about their families. Despite having varied appearances, they all shared that same almost stilted speech, and Darius had described their ability to make the pressure in the room shoot to the roof.

Some days, there would just be a new Elite standing there in uniform and that was that. No questions were asked.

There was no sign of a wolf beneath their skins.

"King Yeona! Please, wait!" Darius called out desperately. He had somehow managed to pull off the large, padded coat he was wearing with spectacular sophistication. "We can discuss—"

"There is nothing I want to discuss with you," Yeona snapped, barely pausing as she strode across the campsite, skirts swirling. She looked fearsome enough that people lowered their eyes as they saw her.

That was how people treated him, he realised, when he wore that damned black uniform.

"You can't leave," Kade stressed. The thought of facing a hundred Elites without an army was inconceivable and as much as he hated having to rely on her help, they needed her. "Without you, we'll be slaughtered, the tree, everything, will be gone."

Yeona stopped so abruptly he had to slam his heel into the ground. She glared at him with eyes of black fire. She was carrying so much anger—at them, at Ashyn, at everyone. He'd mourned and watched others mourn and knew there was no persuading someone like that, even Darius.

"Tell me, outsider, do you know for sure what will happen when the Elites cut down your precious tree? Can you guarantee the world as we know it will end as an absolute certain? As you have claimed to know before."

He struggled for an answer but Darius came through, "Nothing good can come of it, that's what we know. And regardless of the tree, what about your people? The Elites are an invading force, they could continue on to the city."

"They could," she emphasised. "But they won't. You told me yourself, they're here for the tree, not for the north. And even so, I'll be able to protect my people better with my forces concentrated where my people are."

"What about us?" He asked, gesturing almost frantically at Darius, and the others who stood some distance away. He didn't know how else to make her see the fault in her decision. "We're staying, and when we die, it'll be your fault."