Chapter 51 Darian
Darian
Kaelen is screaming.
Screaming as if his heart is ripping out through his chest, as Maelira’s body hits the ground with a thud we can’t possibly hear, but that I feel as if the ground has shifted.
He lunges against my grip, my arms banded tight around him, as if he’s forgotten he has power that could throw me the length of the battlefield.
Grief constricts my chest, but she’s only the first. The first, and the rest of us will follow. “Kae. Kaelen!”
“The shield.” His body sags. “The shield wasn’t high enough. I should have made it higher.”
There’s no time. Behind us, the remaining Lightbringers—still thousands, still far too many, are rallying.
A thousand or more pour down the field toward us, racing through the mist that still hovers in the air, coating them in a sheen of scarlet that threatens to turn my stomach as I spin Kaelen around. “They’re coming, Kae.”
Breathing heavily, he looks behind him once more. “I know.”
Eres and Lyra watch us silently. Everyone watches us—watches him, and I wait as he pushes his grief down, locks it away as his shoulders straighten.
This time, the shield is tall enough that I can’t see the top. My lungs constrict as Kae’s face twists. It’s too late—there’s nobody to benefit from it now. But I don’t say anything as we brace for the influx.
There will be no other blasts. Only us, fighting with everything we have before we fall.
And the longer that Kaelen can hold his shield in place, sheltering us from the worst of the influx while we pick off who we can, the longer we give Neela and those racing across the Barren Lands to try and find safety.
The first wave smashes into his shield with a crash that rings in my ears.
He's skilled enough that only those with a significant amount of power could break through it. Most will need to carve their way through individually, Kaelen patching it as best he can until his strength fails him and he falls back on the Voids.
It won’t hold forever. The first handful break through at the same time.
Others follow, crawling through the torn holes.
Lyra’s hand brushes against mine. Kaelen takes a single step, pushing the Lightbringers back, crushing them beneath the weight of the power he wields as he leans forward, his palms outstretched.
Another step.
And then we leap forward.