CHAPTER 49
Rafe
No!”
Rafe lunged against the guards holding him. He was helpless with his hands tied, but he couldn’t just stand and watch while the guard struck Helena down. He’d given up too much to keep her safe.
But she just smiled as she shot one more fruitless arrow…
…far to the side of General Valentin.
Rafe had been too busy worrying about her, the poor maid, and the rest of his friends to notice, but Helena had been testing General Valentin’s wind. She had the feel of it.
And it vanished as the General screamed and the wind gryphon fell from his pierced hand.
With one more violent twist, Rafe threw himself to the ground, ripping one of his arms from the startled guard. The hair on his forearms tingled as the ropes slid off his wrists. He didn’t waste time wondering as he reached forward, already picturing the shape he needed.
The remaining guard jerked him back, and he caught a glimpse of the others jumping toward his friends. But Rafe caught one of the wind gryphon’s wings with his fingertips, and that was enough.
“BOUCLIER!”
The magic blasted out from his family’s priceless heirloom, hardening the air in the areas he’d envisioned. He felt the shock in his mind as swords crashed against it, but it held firm, protecting his people with the invisible shield that had given his family its name.
His eyes shot to the gallows platform where Helena still stood.
The guard that had pursued her was staggering back, thrown by the shock of colliding with the wall of hardened air.
If not for his attempt to harm the princess, Rafe might have pitied him; he knew from training with his father and brother how badly that hurt.
“You shouldn’t have done that, Raphael,” General Valentin sighed, cradling his wounded hand to his chest. “It’s only delaying the inevitable. And each setback increases the suffering that your followers will have to endure. It would have been so much simpler if you had just let me hang them.”
As if anything until Rafe grabbed the wind gryphon had been his doing. Not that it mattered.
Shaking his head, General Valentin reached for the enchanted sapphire, but Rafe didn’t bother to dodge.
“You—!” A hint of anger finally showed on the General’s face. “How far does the shield extend?”
“You think I would tell you?” Rafe laughed. “Why would I give up my only advantage?”
Turning, the General growled, “There must be someone you haven’t covered. You care too much to let me harm any of them.”
“Good luck searching,” Rafe calmly replied. “But perhaps I trapped you inside a shield.”
General Valentin’s face twisted with rage. “You can’t have excluded yourself and included all my men. The guard holding you must be on the same side of the shield.”
He nodded at the man, but Rafe kept his eyes fixed on the General. “Don’t make me escalate,” he said quietly. The faces around him, even those with drawn swords ready to hurt his people, stood out in his mind. “Tell your men to give up. Please don’t make me take this further.”
“You’re already holding a shield,” the General sneered. “You would have to drop it to attack, and my men will strike as soon as you do.”
“Throw down your weapons!” Rafe yelled. “If you surrender, no harm will come to you.”
A few swords clattered to the ground, but General Valentin raised his voice as well. “Don’t listen to him! He cannot hold the shield forever.” Lowering his voice, he muttered, “Such pitiful lies. Even if you could do more, you wouldn’t.”
Rafe dropped his head. He didn’t want to continue, but General Valentin was right. He couldn’t hold the shield forever. If he wanted to protect his people and his kingdom, there was no other way.
Looking up, he whispered, “Your research wasn’t thorough enough. évacuer lentement.”
He loved the old languages for their own sake, but his own had an added benefit. Commanding the wind gryphon in Old Amitian was more potent. It gave him more control, and after ten years of training with it, he already had far more than the General.
Rafe saw the moment his enemy realized the truth. The General opened his mouth to argue, then froze, his eyes widening. All around them, men grasped their throats as they fought for breath in the thinning air.
“Drop your weapons,” Rafe commanded again. He could feel the strain of holding two enchantments, but he could hold out longer than they could. He prayed desperately that it wouldn’t be necessary.
As more swords clattered to the ground, a different magic prickled at his senses. His head whipped around, seeking the magic-user. But then the fallen blades began scraping their way across the stones. A few daggers slid jerkily from sheaths before dropping to the ground and skittering away.
The heavens bless Rouge for solving that problem. He just hoped she was still conscious when she finished.
As soon as the weapons were clear, Rafe puffed out a relieved breath. “Relachez.”
While the guards were busy gasping in air, Rafe snatched the rope that had previously bound his wrists and grabbed the General’s arms. Before he could fasten it, it wrapped itself tightly around the General’s wrists and tied itself into a complex knot.
As the brush of magic disappeared, Rafe swung toward the place where he’d last seen Jean-haut. “Show off,” he called out in amusement.
He couldn’t see his friend, but he could hear the forester’s deep voice. “I couldn’t let you have all the fun. Besides, my magic needed to stretch after so long in chains.”
General Valentin’s eyes narrowed as the short man pushed his way between two people. “You shouldn’t be able to access your magic. I cuffed you myself!”
The forester swaggered up to them with his sister leaning on his shoulder. “People are always underestimating me because of my height. It’s a critical failing on their part.”
Once the guards were all secured, Rafe turned to the woman he’d almost lost that morning. “Helena,” he began, straightening his shoulders and debating how to finish. He was free now, but she was still bound by her council. “Are you—”
She’d been hanging back, but now she took two swift steps forward and slapped him across the shaven side of his face. The conversations near them dropped off, but Rafe simply raised his eyebrows.
“I have never seen anything so foolish!” she fumed. “Would you stop trying to rescue me?”
“You mean when I shielded you from that guard?” he returned lightly. “If you wish to discuss foolish behavior...”
Her cheeks reddened, but it might have been irritation.
“I stopped the General, didn’t I? You tossed me through a locked door so you could face a madman with a powerful enchanted object all by yourself.
And by the time we found you, you were being led to the gallows so that you could take the blame for General Valentin’s crimes? What were you thinking?”
Instead of meeting her anger in kind, he stepped forward, lowering his voice so that only she could hear. “That the woman I love was going to die because of me. And there is no world in which I would stand by and let that happen, no matter how she feels about being rescued.”
Her green eyes softened. “You love me?” she asked shyly, setting a careful hand on his chest and not quite looking at him, nothing like her usual brash, confident self.
He loved her just as well for letting him see her vulnerability as he did when she was fiery or playful or responding in anger to hide her pain.
Which only made it harder to say the words that had to come next. “I do.” He swallowed and covered her hand with his. “Which is why I’m sending you home as soon as I finish here.”