Chapter 68
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Thick branches twist around her wrists and ankles, hurtling upwards until she’s suspended in the air. I lunge, sword aimed at the roots, but a large mound of packed earth erupts from the ground and slams into my chest, sending me staggering backward.
And then I sense him.
Fucking Faramir. His infuriating electric currents mock me as he draws closer within the range of my powers.
“Easy now, brother. Don’t piss me off.” A brittle chuckle slices through the night. “I’ll cut her clean in two. Then we can both have a piece.”
Burning rage, incessant and violent, crackles through my veins. He’s a dead man.
“Let. Her. Go.”
Faramir pretends to consider it. “No.”
The sky rumbles with my storm.
He grins at the evidence of my anger, slowly circling me, eyes manic in the moonlight.
“Father would’ve done anything to save you, brother.
He thought the Tundrayni pigs captured you.
It would’ve crushed him to learn his favorite son was actually a traitor.
” He stills, a gruesome slash of a smile splitting his face. “Luckily, he’ll never know.”
My blood freezes.
“What do you mean?” My knuckles blanch around the pommel of my sword.
“I killed him, of course. You should’ve believed me that night, brother. Did you know he was planning to crown you? He wanted you and your bitch to rule.”
Truth.
I can’t begin to parse the storm of emotions crackling through me. My father is dead. For years, it’s all I wanted.
And yet…
I lunge toward him, teeth bared in a snarl, sword aimed for his heart. He doesn’t move. Just stands there, smirking, like this is another fucking joke.
Mayah’s pained gasp halts me in my tracks. I whirl—her face is twisted in pain, the roots stretching her in opposite directions. Fury licks at my ribs, the air crackling around me.
“Want to know how I did it?” Faramir gloats. “You two made it so easy. Mayah. A wolf in sheep’s clothing. Thank you for all the toxinnia. And brother, you left with your bitch so quickly. Didn’t even make sure it was all disposed properly.”
I summon a bolt of lightning, but he expects it. Mounds of dirt erupt from the earth and form an arch over his head. His smirking face morphs into a vicious snarl. Behind me, the roots groan, and another muffled gasp escapes Mayah.
Another crack of lightning.
The packed earth warps through the air, absorbing the electricity.
Faramir’s hate-filled gaze is fixed over my head. “You’ve been such a wonderful addition to our family, Mayah,” he croons. “Finally. My brother has a weakness.”
The thunder rumbles louder. I take a half step forward. Then, another. I need to end this. End him.
“I am not a weakness,” Mayah grits out from behind me, voice dripping with pain. “Or a bitch. I am a fucking force of nature.”
Water rises from the earth, glittering drops glowing in the moonlight.
Faramir’s mouth gapes, and I’d find it comical if Mayah’s life weren’t in danger. “Wh—that’s not possible!”
Another half step.
“You wanted a waterwielder. Here I am.”
The water sloshes into a sphere, settling over his head and swallowing his panicked screams.
I don’t waste a breath. Sword poised, feet sure, I lunge forward.
The glint of metal.
A whisper of resistance.
The dark gleam of blood.
My brother’s head drops one way. His body tilts the other.
My feet are already propelling me toward Mayah before his corpse hits the ground. It’s an effort to master the trembling of my hands as I slice through the roots at her ankles, then her wrists.
She tumbles down into my arms, and we sink to the ground. Mayah winces as I peel the thorny roots from her skin.
Unbidden, my eyes fall to Faramir’s headless corpse. Something tight and sharp and brutal spears my chest.
“Are you all right?” I ask Mayah, unable to tear my gaze away.
“Yeah,” she rasps, turning to follow my gaze. “Are you?”
I manage a stiff nod. “Come on. The kitchens.”
They’re dead. Both of them are dead. I can’t escape the image of Faramir’s head rolling one way, his body crumbling in on itself.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Mayah murmurs. We’ve walked nearly half the perimeter of camp. Another few minutes, and we’ll be ready to head into the smoking chaos. We could’ve ventured back into the fray sooner, but I wanted to give Mayah more time to replenish her reserves.
“He … he was still your brother.”
Thorned vines twist around my heart and squeeze, as though even in death, Faramir is tormenting me. “I had no love for him.”
“That’s not a yes.”
“It’s all I can give right now.”
“You—”
Every muscle in my body stretches tight, feet halting mid-step, head snapping toward the thick tangle of trees to our right. Four energy signatures, heading our way. Large. Male. Angry.
Fuck.
“What?” Mayah asks, but I barely hear her. Her reserves must still be too low. Mine are near drained as well, but I don’t need to summon a storm to kill them.
I unsheathe my sword.
“Let me handle this.” A whispered plea.
“What—”
“They’re coming closer,” I grit out, angling my body in front of her.
A low rustling behind the trees.
The scrape of steel as Mayah unsheathes her sword.
And then four Tundrayni warriors emerge from the clearing.
I bolt toward them, sword flashing in the night.
Steel arcs through the air and finds flesh. Knees buckle, eyes lose their light. Blood seeps from gaping wounds, soaking the rain-damp earth.
Two men, dead.
Two more to follow. They gain their bearings, schooling their surprised expressions. An ice spear hurtles toward me. I duck out of the way, but it grazes my arm, leaving a bloom of pain.
In my periphery, the other warrior turns towards Mayah, attacking her with a water whip. I grit my teeth, focusing on my opponent. The quicker I kill him, the quicker I can help Mayah.
Sword slashing the air, closer and closer. Every time he raises his hands, I lunge. I maybe have one more good lightning strike left in me, but I want to keep that power tucked away.
I manage to slash his arm, but he darts out of my reach again. Wily fucker. Well-trained, though, I have to admit.
Mayah’s energy signature thrums wildly, drawing closer to me. Fuck—she needs help.
One last push, and my sword sinks into the waterwielder’s stomach with a wet squelch. I whirl, ready to strike down the assailant that dared attack my Mayah.
Except I’ve barely turned when Mayah throws herself in front of me. A dozen ice shards catapult toward her. Terror robs me of breath. Some of the shards melt to the ground, but one pierces Mayah’s shoulder, another embedding in her thigh. A pained cry escapes her, and she falls backward.
I catch her in my arms.
I summon the lightning strike of nightmares. It crashes into the warrior with a roar, but I can’t hear it past the blaring in my ears.
His corpse falls to the ground, smoking and unrecognizable.
My hands shake as I spin her around and examine her wounds. “Fucking Skies, Mayah. I told you to let me handle it.” My breath escapes in shaky exhales.
“You were about to be impaled,” she breathes, brows pulled tight. “I couldn’t just watch.”
Panic and anger and remorse and guilt take turns battering my senses until I can scarcely draw half a breath. She’d nearly died protecting me. “If something happened to you, then—”
“Then what?” she whispers, a sliver of hope illuminating her eyes brighter than the dappled moonlight. “If something happened to me, then what?”
I couldn’t bear it.
I cradle her face, pressing my forehead to hers. “I—”
My body freezes, the words dying on my tongue. Another fucking energy signature approaches us.
Without looking, I know who the unfamiliar currents belong to. Who the four warriors were protecting.
“You’ve always been a disappointment, Daughter.” The torment on Mayah’s face nearly undoes me. “But I never expected this from you.”