Rhys Borderlands Novels & Stories

“We’ve also stationed some soldiers at the border in case we need reinforcements.” I feel more reassured with the new information and flash an optimistic smile at Alexander. Hours later, we reach the border of the two realms, and I can see the difference between them. On one side, the lush green and order of Veridiana. On the other, Syltirion, a land steeped in decay. The houses near the border look like ghosts of themselves, their walls cracked and windows broken. The air is heavy, as if something invisible and malevolent hovers there. “I didn’t think the kingdom was this decrepit,” Caelum comments, and for the first time, I hear a note of genuine concern in his voice. He parks the car insi

Tonight it did not. Rain erased scent trails and softened the sound of approaching feet. If rogues were ever going to test his borders, they would choose a night like this. Most of the pack would now be tucked into their dens, warm and unaware. His warriors, however, were out patrolling, soaked through, because that was what he demanded. He reached for his Beta through the mindlink. Rhys, how are things looking along the north ridge? Wet and miserable, Rhys Calder replied, dry humor cutting through the storm. Nothing is moving that shouldn’t be. You are welcome to join us if the office walls start closing in.

I nodded, forcing my feet to move through the wet grass. After a few steps, it felt as though I had slammed into an invisible wall. Sam tugged me through, and for a moment, I struggled to breathe. “What’s happening?” I gasped, clutching my chest. “It’s the border,” Rhazien explained, his sharp eyes assessing me. “It can be quite intense for... ordinary creatures.” I scowled, shaking off the sick feeling. Suddenly, the scenery around us shifted. I glanced down at the valley below.

The stars are coming out now, the same clear, cold spread of them I remember from the night everything between us first cracked open, and I find something fitting in that, this evening bookending that one, an ending that's really just the shape of a new beginning wearing familiar clothes. "The border land," I say eventually. "Corwin still says it's only partially healed." "I know." Rhydian's arm settles around my shoulders, steady and warm. "We'll keep watching it. Together, this time, not as a burden either of us carries alone." I lean into the warmth of him, letting the weight of the evening finally settle into something like peace, however temporary I know that peace might prove to be. "S

Aria, whose fear had hit him through the bond like an arrow to the heart. Aria, who Lucien wanted more than territory, more than power—more than reason itself. “Alpha,” Commander Rhyden said as he approached, breathless, armor half-buckled. “The scouts confirm it. Three villages near the border were hit simultaneously. Rogues marked with Lucien’s crest.” Kaelen didn’t look away from the burning horizon. “Survivors?” Rhyden hesitated. “We don’t know yet. But if we don’t move now—”

She answered me that made my eyes produce more tears. "I told you to wait for me..." I said once again. All I could see was blood. Even I was covered by it, too, I didn't mind. I carried her and didn't know what would I do. What would an 11 year old do with her 6 year old dying sister? It's like everyone vanished and it was just me and Zyra in the whole world because I kept on calling out for someone but no one helped us. No one. * * *

Six weeks into the campaign and my body had learned to read the boundary between worlds the way other wolves read scent. We were in the borderlands, three days' march from the rogue encampment the scouts had marked. The ground beneath us was wrong. Too soft. The grass grew in patches like something underneath was dying. Because something was. The Veil was dying. And I could feel every second of it. "How many?" I asked. "Seventeen tears in this sector alone," I said. "The largest one is opening from the northeast ridge. If it ruptures completely, the things coming through will not stop at the borders. They will spread inland."

She had not stopped trembling since she felt the child was listening to something inside the seals. And Dax believed her when she told him. He had long learned never to doubt her instincts. He couldn’t afford to doubt her. Not when the world always kept proving her right. Ahead of them, the borderlands sat like a scar across the surface of the earth. Sharp-edged hills rose ahead, divided by glowing fractures where reality couldn’t heal properly. The air grew thin and heavy with magic that could cut the skin. Wolves slowed as they got closer to the outer edge.

Chapter 51: Wandering Luna POV: Ariana The borderlands were no place for the faint of heart. They stretched beyond the safety of pack borders, beyond the watchful eyes of humans who traded loyalty for gold. Dust rose like smoke from the dry earth, tangled with the scent of rain-soaked soil, carrion, and wild musk. Wolves moved in the shadows, cautious, wary of humans and rogue packs that stalked them. I walked among them unseen, a ghost in the wind, a whisper in the night.

“She is banished to the borderlands. Let the rogues claim what this pack has no use for.” I cannot move. Cannot speak. The crowd begins to chant. “Outcast. Outcast. Outcast.” Hands shove me from behind. I stumble forward. Someone spits at my feet. I keep walking because if I stop, I will collapse, and I refuse to give them that satisfaction. I lift my chin and walk out of the square, out of the village, past the last torch and into the darkness beyond. The borderlands stretch before me, a no-man’s-land of twisted trees and treacherous cliffs. Rogues prowl these woods, wolves without packs who answer to no law. They will tear me apart before dawn.