Chapter 26
Graysen
Petra passed me her shield before heading off to check on the wounded. Jiao jumped down from the rock and inspected the wall, shifting positions so the injured who were part of the shield line were tucked between stronger team members.
Beside me, Mela glanced over her shoulder toward the severely wounded, where too much blood pooled. Their wan faces were slick with clammy sweat, eyes glassy with magic and morphine. Blood-drenched medics worked tirelessly, performing battlefield surgery with the help of a few Crowther soldiers.
I wasn’t sure if those badly hurt would survive, even if we did.
The feeling of grief at those we’d lost almost overwhelmed me, and Mela too.
I saw the deep emotion engulf her as she blinked back tears.
The wounded weren’t blood-related, but they were family to us both.
Her voice was hoarse when she said, “We’ll get them out of here, to our infirmaries,” nodding quickly as if trying to convince herself.
As bleak as this moment was, and perhaps because it represented hope, the tiny bird of flames arrested my thoughts, drawing my mouth into a lopsided smile. “A phynx?”
Mela’s nose wrinkled with a shaky grin. “A gift from the Horned Gods when my family was first welcomed into the Houses.”
I knew Mela’s family had once been warriors under Kandake Amasyra. But it was her daughter, Princess Narethi, who led her own legion north, fought beside the Romans in Dacia, and stayed when the empire fell away. The V?duvas were born from her line.
I blew a soft, impressed whistle.
Mela rubbed soot from her forehead with a bent wrist. Her gaze swept toward the direction the phynx had flown before her bloodshot eyes met mine, and she gave a determined nod. “It should have arrived home by now. They’ll contact your family, I know it.”
My mind raced, trying to calculate how long until my brothers arrived. Hours, at least. A fucking eternity in a siege like this. This was a makeshift stronghold at best.
“We just have to hold on until then. We can do that,” Mela added firmly.
In my periphery, Petra stiffened. Jiao too. Both angled their bodies toward the Children of the Harbinger. Beside me, Mela glanced away. “Oh gods, what are they up to now?” she breathed.
I followed her gaze, scanning the cavern beyond our barrier of dark magic.
The fragile hope I’d been holding drifted apart like cold mist, replaced by a chilling sensation settling into my bones as the Children of the Harbinger moved as one, forming a circle around Silas. The way they moved, perfectly synchronized, never glancing at one another, was fucking eerie.
They closed in on Silas until he vanished within their ranks.
The outer row of warriors sheathed their swords. The inside row raised theirs overhead. Huge gloved hands clasped hilts, blades pointed down.
“What do you think they’re doing?” Mela asked quietly.
My armor creaked as I shifted, craning for a better view.
The shimmering waterfall of magic between us, stretching floor to ceiling, made everything slightly distorted.
Confusion nudged my brows together as I tried to piece together the strange formation.
I shook my head, unable to tear my gaze away, unable to fathom what they were up to…
when the front row began to move clockwise.
I felt it before I saw it. The power gathering, swirling like ocean spindrift around the moving horde.
A skin-crawling sensation scuttled over my flesh like a swarm of tiny, creepy critters as the warriors picked up speed, partially swifting like shooting stars, cranking faster-faster-faster as they rotated like a fucking machine.
Filthy air buffeted outward, crashing against our shield wall in a rattle of turbulent waves.
Magic wheeled around them, sweeping like thin shoals of moonlit fish. It thickened, darkened, into strands of dark power, spiraling upward, forming a blustering vortex that hovered for a heartbeat—
—before plunging downward.
It struck the raised swords like forked lightning, bolts of white-hot energy spitting and fizzing. The swords, alive with dark magic, were thrust downwards.
A mind-shattering crack erupted as sinister magic and adamere met solid rock.
A cataclysmic explosion detonated.
The violent quake discharged through the cavern. We were tossed off our feet, stones bouncing with us as we went airborne—
—and then crashed back down hard.
The deafening rumble almost drowned out Jiao bellowing orders to keep the shields locked, to brace, as the ground shuddered as if an enormous jackhammer pounded the cavern floor.
Dust and rock churned upward in thick streams, spraying outward like oil pumped from underground.
Rockfall crashed everywhere in a clamorous rain.
Then silence—except for our heavy breathing, our panicked whispers, the pained moans of the wounded. Through the clouds of smoke stirred by wind and dark magic, I saw a wide ring of rubble surrounding the enemy.
The swifting stopped. The army split down the middle and stepped aside, revealing a smaller squad of warriors in a long row, two apiece. They carried something between them like pallbearers. Long and heavy and menacing.
“Oh my gods…” Mela breathed. “It’s not…”
My guts pitched in sickly horror as the fucking truth sank in.
I finished her thought. “It’s a battering ram.”
A makeshift battering ram, crudely gouged from the cavern floor, jutted forward. Its pointed end sizzling with powerful magic, ready to tear our stronghold apart.
The Children of the Harbinger charged fast. The heavy ram ripped through the darkness, burning a bright line straight toward us, arrowing not for the shield wall’s center, nor at a random point either.
They were aiming at me.
“brACE! brACE! brACE!” Jiao bellowed.
The battering ram hit—
A thunderous boom exploded in my ears.
The wall jolted inward. Shuddered. Warped.
The warriors pulled back and thrust forward again, their power amplified by the dark magic charging the air and the ram itself.
It slammed in viciously.
Hammering the shield with monstrous force.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
The magical barricade shuddered and creaked.
The attacks came quicker.
The siege engine pistoning faster and faster.
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM
Anyone who could stand rushed in behind Petra, Mela, and me. Wounded soldiers shoved themselves behind us in rows, arms slung around each other, heads tucked down, feet digging in, powering forward like a rugby scrum. Bracing the shield wall. Trying to keep it solid.
“What are we going to do?” Mela cried as we were heaved back.
The wall faltered.
My heart stuttered.
A terrible noise split the air apart. I looked up just as a deep fissure cracked a winding path through the magical barricade.
Horror clenched my gut as the shield ruptured, cracks spiderwebbing outward like a shattered windshield. The battering ram struck once more—
—the shield wall exploded inward.
Its force blasted through our ranks, knocking us off our feet. We scattered like bowling pins. The air-hardened shields unlocked and flung wide.
My skull cracked against rock.
I shook my head, my eyes watering as I staggered upright, swaying dizzily. The world swirled around me, the sounds of war muted and distant. Searing pain burned across my scalp as blood trickled down my forehead to splash along my dirt-streaked cheek.
The battering ram dropped.
And the Children of the Harbinger surged for us.
We were bottlenecked in here, about to be slaughtered like netted fish.
Gods, this is the fucking end.
Suddenly Jiao grabbed hold of my bandoleer and dragged me after him. “I need to get you out of here!”
I swiped at his hand, jerking myself free. “NO!”
Fuck no!
I stumbled over debris, heading for Yezekael. The creature was on his ass, scrabbling backward, wrestling with the handcuffs.
Through the chaos, the bellowing and jostling of soldiers and hunters, the unsheathing of weapons, I grabbed Yezekael by the scruff of the neck and hauled him upright.
With my free hand, I seized Jiao and ordered.
“Get Yezekael to my family!” And to the lesser creature I snarled, “And you tell my family everything you know!”
I shoved Yezekael at Jiao and spun around. More orders to give.
Petra had her sword drawn and was helping Mela to her feet.
“Petra!” I yelled. The older woman twisted toward me. “Get Mela out of here!”
She snapped her chin up in acknowledgment, tightening her protective hold on Mela.
“No way, Gray!” Mela protested, trying to shake free from Petra.
I ignored my friend, speaking to Jiao. “I’m going to draw them away. It’s me they want. You and Petra need to get Mela and Yezekael out. Promise me.”
He hesitated.
“Promise me!”
Jiao swallowed thickly and nodded.
I pointed at Mela. “And watch her back—she’s the V?duva heir!”
Mela wrenched herself out of Petra’s grip and barreled into me, fisting my armored jacket with both hands. “No! I’m not leaving you. We’re going out like we always said we would—on our feet with blades in our hands.”
Grinning, I pulled her into a quick hug. “Fuck that. I’m not dying today!”
Stepping free of Mela, I hollered to Jiao and Petra. “Go now!”
Spinning around, I surged forward. The Crowthers and V?duvas charged ahead, ready to meet death. Their rallying cries thundered through the cavern.
I hurtled through the soldiers, whipping my swords out as I blasted ahead, smoky heat skimming my dusty armor.
The Children of the Harbinger swung toward me, arrowing my way.
Silas stood on the outskirts of the battle, sword drawn.
I was going to meet him head-on and decapitate the fucker.
Silas launched forward—
—and vanished.
Reappearing a short distance away.