Chapter 37
Simon let Vana’s lifeless body fall to the floor as Izaak’s scream died with her, and immediately raised his sword to block Izaak’s vicious strike. But Izaak didn’t stop. He swung again and again and again in swift succession, beating Simon back away from the tree while the five mounts circling above them finally crashed down in the courtyard. One of the soldiers jumped off his mount and gestured toward the wall, sending a web of fractures through the entire structure to start bringing it down.
Carolina didn’t let him finish. She yelled out a command for action, and even though they all charged at the soldiers and Simon, it didn’t matter if they stopped the Alter in time. The rest of Simon’s troops were outside waiting for it.
A whirlwind of air so tall and powerful that it cleared the height of the wall came blasting toward it, sending dust and debris from the fractures flying at them so they had to stop their charge and guard their faces. Pebbles followed, and then whole chunks of the wall began to break away, the force of the wind sending them shooting at the ground and skittering toward their feet. It only took a few more seconds before the wall was too weak to stay standing. It crumbled into a million pieces, baring the entrance to the ongoing fight outside.
As the dust settled, what remained of Omen and Trayward’s fighters chased Simon’s troops into the courtyard, bringing the chaos to the rest of them.
Carolina dove headfirst into the battle as it surrounded them, doing everything she could to cut a path to Simon and Izaak. She cut through one soldier and then another, and then ducked the swing of a third and shoved her hands against his back, sending him staggering toward Rue, who put her own sword through his torso.
Ophelia wasn’t far behind, but she was cut off from the rest of them by two of the Alters. Carolina turned to go back and help her, but Ophelia shook her head as she sent a chunk of broken wall flying at the air Alter.
“I’ve got this!” she yelled. “Help Izaak!”
“Stay with Ophelia,” Carolina told Berkeley, and then gestured at Rue and Carter. “You two, with me.”
She stomped forward and diverted a sword strike around her, leaving Rue and Carter to clean up that soldier while she ducked under the axe swing of the next. The sharp edge went sailing over her head as she dropped to one knee, and she used her planted foot to rise again, shooting forward to drive the point of her daggers into the soldier’s belly. She immediately withdrew them and swung around his back, dragging a blade across his neck and then moving on.
Izaak was still fighting with Simon somewhere in front of her, and his fury seemed to be the only thing keeping him alive. He didn’t leave a single breath between attacks. He slashed, met steel, and immediately pivoted off that strike to swing at Simon again. And his hatred and adrenaline may have given him speed and energy, but it was also making him stupid. He had both hands on the hilt of his sword, his arms raised high to give power to each drive of it, and it was leaving him exposed. Simon didn’t have any chances yet to take advantage of it, but Izaak’s adrenaline would only take him so far before he slowed down.
That meant Carolina had to hurry.
Determined to reach Izaak before it was too late, she sprinted several feet forward, narrowly dodging an errant swing from another fight and catching the slash of a soldier trying to stop her against her dagger’s crossguard. She flipped her other dagger to a backhand grip and brought it down over his dominant arm before he could withdraw from his strike, and then reversed the back edge of her blade over his forearm, cutting deep through the muscle. It weakened the pressure he was putting against her crossguard, and she brought her arm up to push away his sword and send the side of her elbow into his jaw, knocking him to the ground.
Every time she looked up again, Izaak and Simon moved. Closer to the tree. Farther. Closer to her. Farther. She couldn’t keep getting distracted. She lined up the most direct path to them, dug in her heels, and tensed every muscle in her legs to take off running. But just as that tension reached its peak, someone cut her off.
“Well, well, well,” Penny grinned, whirling a sling-ready rope dart in circles beside his shoulder.
“I don’t have time for you,” she snarled, but that very same moment, it happened.
Over Penny’s shoulder, Izaak finally slowed down enough to give Simon an opening, and she yelled as Simon’s sword drove through the lower right part of Izaak’s shoulder, just below the collarbone.
Ophelia’s head whipped around as she searched for Carolina amidst the crowd, and immediately followed her horrified gaze to find the reason for her shout. Simon’s sword was buried in Izaak’s shoulder, and Vinson Penny was blocking Carolina’s path and none of the rest of them were close enough to do anything about it.
She couldn’t waste any more time on mercy for the last two Alters.
The fire Alter sparked a ball of flame between her two hands, and Ophelia immediately gestured outward, combusting that flame in the Alter’s face. Then she made a short, swift motion of her hands upward, lifting the ground beneath the Alter’s feet and sending her several meters into the air, only to be pommeled back down by the blast of air Ophelia surged above her.
The last Alter was an earth soldier who was still bruised from their last fight, and he watched his fire companion get pounded to the ground and met the challenge on Ophelia’s face with wide, terrified eyes.
“Hide until it’s over,” she ordered, “and I won’t tell anyone.”
As frightened as he looked, he shook his head. “I’ll take a beating from you over Simon any day.”
She sighed, about to pull both hands forward to fling the rock she’d already lifted behind the soldier into the back of his head, but then Wyatt appeared out of nowhere and slammed his fist into the side of his skull, knocking him unconscious .
“You’re late!” Berkeley called as he finished off another soldier of his own.
“Sorry,” Wyatt said. “Simon locked me in the brig, and the hunters couldn’t find the key. Where do you want me?”
Ophelia was already searching for Carolina and Izaak, and though she was grateful that Simon was too focused on getting to the tree to finish his work on Izaak, that didn’t mean the fight was over. Because Izaak was slumped in a corner with Carter pressing his hands to the wound and Rue standing guard over them, and Carolina was fending off Penny and three of his crew, and Simon was already planted at the base of the tree, poising himself to rip it out by the roots.
“Help Carolina,” she told Wyatt, and took off sprinting to reach Simon.
With altered wind at her back, she used the flow to help her duck and dodge through stray swings of weapons as she whipped across the courtyard. Simon had abandoned his sword and had his feet planted firmly on the ground, arms straining against the oak’s old root system. They were spread so wide and deep that they cracked under the stone beneath Ophelia’s feet as she ran, the sinuous snaps echoing in her bones as bricks on the floor popped out of place from the pressure.
She closed the distance in a matter of moments, too quickly for Simon to see her coming, and she slammed into his back and sent him careening forward into the trunk. It didn’t stop her momentum, and she followed, sending her fist flying at the back of his head. He dodged, whirling around as her knuckles met wood and grabbing her by the neck to slam her back against the trunk in his place. He wound up his own fist, but she smacked her forearm against the bend of his elbow to break the lock he had on her neck, and dropped away from his punch before it met her face.
Using a powerful gust, she pushed off the ground and drove her knuckles into his stomach. It knocked him two steps backward, and she kept the gust going to surge forward with her other hand, but he knocked her arm away and leaned into her advance, planting his hands on her back to drive her torso down harder against his rising knee.
Solid muscle and bone thundered against her ribs, and at least one of them cracked as the hit forced all the air from her lungs. Her heart felt like it ruptured, and as soon as the force of his knee withdrew and he let her go, she dropped straight to her stomach .
For the next several, panic-inducing seconds, she couldn’t breathe. Air wouldn’t come, no matter how hard she tried to cough or how deeply she tried to gasp. It was like her throat had closed to keep the exploding of her heart and lungs contained, and she’d never been so terrified of needing something that her own body denied her.
And Simon left her there to choke. He stepped over her to return to the tree, the cracking and pulling of roots vibrating in her ears.
It didn’t matter if she couldn’t breathe. It didn’t matter that one solid hit from Simon was enough to lay her out. It didn’t matter if this killed her. She had to stop him from lifting that tree and Ascending.
So she sucked a single, excruciating gulp of air into her bruised lungs and pushed herself onto her elbows, coughing up the taste of blood through the agony of it and spitting it onto the brick. She sucked in another and climbed to her knees, wiping the blood off her lips as she staggered to her feet.
Before Simon could realize she was back up, she charged at him again. She drove her fist as hard as she possibly could into the kidney on that side of his back and then took him down. The blow was so painful and disorienting that he didn’t retaliate as she landed on top of him, and she ignored the pain behind her own ribs as she slammed her knuckles against his cheek with all her might.
He tried to reach behind him as his back arched to grab at the pain, and she immediately brought her second fist down against his other cheek. It split the flesh below his eye, and still, she didn’t stop. She hit him a third time. And a fourth. And finally a fifth before he could see through the agony.
His hands reached up and grabbed the collar of her shirt, and he pulled her downward at the same time as he thrust his shoulders up, slamming the crown of his head between her eyes. The crack of bone on bone was blinding, and her vision went white as he dumped her sideways off him. She rolled onto her back, choking on the blood that filled her sinuses and throat as she writhed, slamming her fist against the stone floor in hopes that the pain would ease the anguish in her skull. It didn’t, but the terror of being attacked while blind forced her eyes open anyway.
Simon’s blurred figure staggered two steps to the tree, and he fell with his forearm against it, grabbing at his back with his other hand and buckling over as he dry-heaved from the pain in his kidney. He gagged twice more, gasping for air and wiping the back of his hand over the drool on his lips before he managed to regain some composure. Then he hobbled those two steps back to her and wound up his foot, sending his boot crashing straight into her stomach, and he huffed down at her as she curled into herself.
But as he turned to make his way back to the tree, she reached out and wrapped her arms around his leg to try and keep him in place. He tried to shake her off, but she held tight.
It infuriated him. He stopped trying to walk and turned on her again. He reached down and grabbed the collar of her shirt, hauling her off the ground and straight into the air, dangling her just inches away, where he bellowed his raw fury into her face.
She jammed the points of her knuckles into his Adam’s apple.
He dropped her as he staggered backward, coughing and clutching at his throat, and she crumpled to the ground. She searched around for something she could use, and her eyes landed on a loose brick. She threw her hand toward Simon, flinging the brick at him with all the might she could muster, but it wasn’t even close to enough. Even through a cough, he knocked it away, and then he forced himself to composure just to glare at her with an ire so hot and savage that she knew this was it. He wasn’t giving her another chance.
As he grabbed his sword off the ground and began to advance on her, she squirmed backward to try and get away from him, glancing all around to search for help and meeting Carolina’s eyes. She was still fighting Penny, but when she realized the situation Ophelia was in, she tried to come. She tried to abandon the fight to make a dash for them, but Vinson launched his weapon at her, and the blade at the end of his rope pierced her shoulder.
Ophelia didn’t get to see what happened next. Didn’t get to see if Carolina was safe, or if she survived the next few seconds, or if someone went to help her. Simon lifted her off the ground and pulled her toward the point of his blade as he drove it through her torso. He grunted into the force of the blow and then leaned in so close that the flair of his nostrils sent hot breath across her face when he huffed at her, as if daring her to retaliate again. But she wouldn’t. She couldn’t .
All she could do was surrender to the white-hot look in his eyes. A look that reveled in the pain on her face. A look that told her the only thing he cared about aside from that tree was that she hurt before she died. That she suffered. And that she did it without interrupting him .
So he molded stone from the floor upward to meet the blade coming out her back as he set her atop the small mound it created, sealing the rock around the end of it to lock it and her in place. Then he turned away from her again. Left her there while he used what remaining fury he had to break the last of the oak tree’s roots and lift it from the ground. He flung the entire tree aside to reveal the large hole underneath, and he didn’t bother to glance back as he stepped over the edge and disappeared into the earth.
Carolina made a break for it as Simon headbutted Ophelia, trying to dash wide around Penny to finally get past him, but he was ready for it. He flung his blade at her, and it sliced across her thigh and made her fall backward as she bent away to avoid being cut a second time by the return pull. He advanced on her, whirling the blade around so the edge of it grazed the ground near her legs as she scrambled back.
With all her focus on avoiding Penny’s blade, she almost missed his other crew member slashing his sword down at her. She rolled at the last second, avoiding the attack and using the momentum of the roll to fling herself back to her feet. It was just in time to twist away from another pitch of the rope dart, and she was grateful that Wyatt intercepted the other crewmember as he began to charge at her again.
She took the split second she knew she had before Penny hurled the knife again to look toward the tree, only to lock eyes with Ophelia as Simon advanced on her with a sword. Time was up. She had to get there, and she had to do it now , but Penny wouldn’t let her. Not when he could attack her from a distance. Not when he could prevent her from getting past him.
The only way to get past him was to disarm him, and she knew what she had to do. Knew there was only one way to get to Ophelia before Simon killed her.
And all the desperation she had channeled into her next move as she feigned a rush at Penny. He instantly whipped the blade at her, and she adjusted her dash to put herself directly into its trajectory .
The knife burrowed deep into her shoulder, and she reached up to grab at it, holding it in place before he could pull it back to him and bringing her other dagger straight through the rope. She severed his attachment to the weapon and then yanked the blade out of her shoulder, tossing it aside as his eyes widened.
She charged at him as he fumbled to pull the spare sword out of the sheath at his hip, and he raised it to swing at her and brought it crashing down as she neared. She dropped and rolled into his legs, dashing upward at the last second to grab him around the waist and take him down. Before he could retaliate or try to hit her with the sword still in his hand, she drove the point of her dagger into the center of his chest.
There was no relief at the end, and she didn’t wait for the satisfaction of watching him die. She stood and spun around, ready to fly to Ophelia’s side and help her finish the fight against Simon, only to watch her entire world collapse in on itself as Simon drove his sword through Ophelia’s torso.
It didn’t matter that she’d never moved so fast in her life. She couldn’t get there fast enough. Couldn’t get there to undo it and couldn’t reach them in time to keep Simon from sealing a mound of stone around the blade. She didn’t care that Simon disappeared into the ground as she slid to her knees at Ophelia’s side.
“No, no, no, no, no,” she murmured. Her hands hovered aimlessly over the sword, searching for the best way to remove it in spite of the stone.
Ophelia gestured weakly toward the hole. “I couldn’t stop him.”
“I don’t care,” she said as tears flooded her eyes. “Ophelia, tell me what to do .”
“I’m-” Ophelia coughed, and more blood tinted her lips. “I’m stuck. But-”
“Berkeley!” she hollered, and he had already been on his way. “Get something we can use to break this rock!”
Ophelia grasped at her arm, but she ignored the gesture to reach for the axe Berkeley picked up, and she smashed the butt of the axe into the mound of rock holding the sword in place.
Ophelia cried out in pain as the vibrations of the hit traveled through rock and steel and to the wound, and whispered on a trembling breath, “Stop.”
“I know it hurts,” she whimpered through choked back tears, “but we have to get you out. ”
“I’ll die,” Ophelia said, and that got her to pause. “I stopped some of the bleeding,” she said, taking in a shaky breath, “but I don’t have the energy to stop it all. If you pull the sword out, I’ll die.”
Carolina fell to her knees and dropped her forehead against Ophelia’s shoulder as she cried, “I don’t know what to do.”
Ophelia inhaled tiredly like she was gathering the breath to say something else, but before she could get anything out, Simon reappeared.
He rose steadily from the gap in the ground until he’d lifted himself completely out of it and was standing before them. Despite the blood on his clothing, he looked fresh and alert, with no wounds and no pain. He stood there and inhaled deeply, scanning the battlefield before turning his gaze on them.
He watched them for several moments as his eyes went from Carolina to Ophelia and then to the sword. He smiled at it, turned around, and gestured his hands together above the gap in the earth. The ground shook as stone shifted to fill in the hole, until it was sealed shut with a solid layer of rock.
“Be back soon,” he said with a grin, and then shouted, “Battle’s over! Back to the ship!”
And just like that, he trod past them, leading the remaining members of his own crew out of the courtyard as if they hadn’t just lost half their troops and caused unimaginable havoc.
It was still the least of Carolina’s concerns.
She delayed just long enough to look at Carter and say, “Get Izaak to a doctor.” And while he lifted Izaak’s arm over his shoulder to carry him out, she reached for the axe she’d dropped. “We have to get you to that hole,” she told Ophelia, and held the axe out to Berkeley. “Start breaking that seal.”
“Wait,” Ophelia breathed. Her face twisted with agony when she coughed over the words, and she dropped her head back even though it arched her over the pile of stone.
“Ophelia, please ,” she begged, crouching down and cupping her hand under the back of Ophelia’s head to support it. To try and give her some comfort even though she was desperate to get her healed before it was too late.
“I can-” Ophelia shuddered and took in a shallow breath. “I think I can move the stone. Just give me a second to rest. ”
Even though time was limited and Ophelia was still bleeding, and even though every breath she took looked excruciating, Carolina nodded. She wiped the back of her hand across her tear-soaked cheeks as she stood. “Alright, Berkeley, you and I will support her shoulders so she doesn’t drop when the rock is gone. Rue, you pull out the sword.” She looked around to get a nod of understanding from Rue, but she wasn’t there. “Rue?” she called.
She turned in a circle, scanning the faces of the remaining troops for her sister, but she was nowhere to be found.
“Rue! Has anyone seen Rue?”
“Captain Trace,” said one crewmember as he stepped forward, and he pointed toward the entrance. “She was taken with Simon’s soldiers.”
What was left of Carolina’s already battered heart sank. “Shit,” she muttered. She grabbed the axe Berkeley had discarded and carried it to the sealed hole. She smashed the butt of the axe against the stone and dislodged a few pebbles, and wound up again. Smash. Raise. Smash. And the only reward for her increasingly desperate attempts was a hand-sized sheet of slate. “Shit, shit, shit !” She brought the axe down a final time on the stone with all her might, and the head of the weapon ricocheted off the rock and broke from the handle. “FUCK!” she screamed, flinging the useless handle away.
Simon could imprison Rue. Or kill her. And if Carolina didn’t go after her now, before Sky’s Honor left Trayward, then she may never get her sister back. But Ophelia-
“Go,” Ophelia said.
Carolina shook her head, panting for breath as she knelt at Ophelia’s side. “I swore I’d never leave you again.” Her eyes flooded with fresh tears. “I can’t leave you like this.”
“Berkeley’s got me,” Ophelia told her, reaching a trembling hand out for hers. “Rue needs you.”
She took Ophelia’s hand, gently wiping the pained tears from Ophelia’s cheeks with her other even though her own face was soaked. “You promise you’ll make it?” she asked, lifting Ophelia’s blood-stained hand to her lips and kissing the back in plea.
Ophelia coughed again, which only made her whimper as her face twisted with pain. But she nodded, forcing a smile as more tears cascaded from her eyes. “I have to.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, sniffling. “I’m so sorry.”
“I love you,” Ophelia assured her, squeezing her hand. “ Now go . ”
She pressed a much firmer kiss to the back of Ophelia’s hand and didn’t waste another second. She sprinted out of the courtyard, flying as fast as her legs would carry her in the direction of the docks. Sky’s Honor was still there, and every second that passed by, she expected to see it start rising. But it didn’t.
And she reached the docks.
She reached the ramp.
She reached the deck.
“Rue!” she screamed, bursting onto main deck and immediately sending her dagger flying into the chest of the nearest soldier. She found Rue amongst the crowd. “Go! Run!”
“What are you doing!” Rue asked, and as several soldiers darted past her to run at Carolina, she yelled, “No, Carolina! Get out of here!”
“I’m rescuing you!” Carolina said, dodging the first soldier that reached her and engaging with the second one. “ Run! ”
“I want her alive!” Simon bellowed at the soldiers.
“Run!” Carolina hollered again.
That was all Rue had to do. The only thing Carolina needed of her. It didn’t matter if she herself was caught. It didn’t matter if she was captured and thrown in a cell, because she’d lived the last decade without freedom. As long as Rue made it. That was why she’d come. Why she’d left the love of her life behind.
But as several more soldiers joined the fight with their weapons holstered, she noticed that Rue wasn’t running. She wasn’t fighting, or hiding, or making any attempt to get off the ship.
“Rue?” Carolina asked, so quietly that it was barely audible even to herself.
She stopped fighting as her heart fell. As she finally realized that Rue had no desire to leave the ship at all, and that realization kicked up such a severe storm of emotions in her stomach that she could vomit. It was too overwhelming to do anything but surrender as several soldiers tackled her to the ground.
And she didn’t fight them as they dragged her back up and secured her hands behind her back. She didn’t fight them as they hauled her across deck, past Simon’s smiling face and down the stairs away from the freedom of the night sky. And when they threw her into the brig, she immediately crumpled to her knees under the crushing weight of a betrayal worse than any she could’ve imagined.