Chapter 82
Allie
The power blazed out of my veins as the flecks of poison raced toward us.
They bounced off the blue wall I erected in one breath, the wind twisting in front of me. It spanned the entire width of the main hall, keeping the breathing humans safe and the stone ones free to wreak havoc.
The crater didn’t once try to break my tendrils. Solkar’s Reach had truly decided to aid us.
Dozens of poisoned arrows hit the light, each sending shock waves down my arms.
“Amazing,” Ryker whispered in my mind. “You’re amazing.”
Mireya wasted no time rushing out the door and cleaving through the first attackers who dared cross her path. They instantly turned to ash, their masks thudding down into the mist.
More arrows hissed into the crypt.
My power blocked them–but they couldn’t fight the attack and the mist creeping in at the same time.
The statues marched forward, spilling out of their resting place to defend their descendants.
The long-bearded fellow swept his staff through three masked attackers, vanishing them in one go. The mother who held her statue newborn to her chest dislodged the spiked wreath from her head and threw it against the masked troops, leaving only murky clouds of ash behind.
Vylkor and Geryll fought together in death like they had when they were alive. Vylkor used his one hand to defend the left, while Geryll blocked the attacks on the right.
But the mist and arrows kept coming. Slower, but still dangerous.
I stepped back as the fog invaded closer.
Instead of stepping away, Ryker came to my side, setting a steadying hand at the small of my back.
His power slid into my veins, cooling them down as the heat entered his own body.
“You need your strength,” I said.
“So do you,” he said, unflinching. “We’ll get through this together.”
The masked attackers tried to rush the entrance of the crypt.
The statues blocked their entry, turning them into nothing but soot. Three more arrows breached the dark cloud they left behind, piercing holes of pure air.
The mist drew closer.
Ryker gently pulled me back away from it, apprehension blazing through his veins.
One more arrow, shot right at me, just like at the wedding.
It halted in mid-air, the blue light fizzing against it.
Through the mayhem, I saw the lone masked figure still standing with a bow. He cocked another dripping arrow.
Mireya cut him down before he could send it flying.
The time had come.
“Wind above, wind below, hear my call,” I chanted. “Lift and twist, scatter far this poisoned mist.”
The blue light shimmered as the wall dissolved, turning into shiny shards against the mist and ash. Like stars in the night sky.
Then they bolted out the mangled door so fast, they dragged me along with them.
Ryker circled his arms around me, not letting go for anything.
The wind twisted through the sculptures and attackers alike, driving the poison away. Masks and weapons littered the ground, the grass now scorched beyond recognition.
The wind drew me toward the exit.
“It’s working,” I said, closing my eyes as the power enveloped me.
I stepped forward, Ryker a steady presence right behind me.
The mist retreated in my wake.
And I felt powerful.
Despite the wind draining me.
Regardless of the exhaustion scratching at my lungs.
I had called upon the winds and they had answered, harder than I could have imagined, just like my own ancestors from generations past.
As soon as I stepped outside, boots crunching the burnt grass, the wind picked up.
It batted my hair around my face and billowed my coat. Ryker kept a firm grip, balancing me against the gale that pushed the mist further and further away, dissipating it.
“Get ready,” I murmured. “Let’s show them what becomes of our enemies.”
Ryker fought against the wind enveloping me to place a chaste kiss on my forehead. It only made my power surge higher.
I opened my arms, letting it carry me further.
Ryker readied his weapons and turned to his soldiers. “On my command, we charge forward!”
I flung my power harder, tendrils twisting the wind as if they were my own hands.
Farther away.
This poison which had already taken so much from me wouldn’t claim anymore lives. I walked in front of the crypt, a blazing blue spear.
The few masked attackers who even dared look my way were quickly disintegrated by the statues.
“Now!” Ryker yelled as the mist finally retreated beyond the tree line, no longer an immediate danger.
The warriors charged, running around me, Ryker leading them.
The current drew me higher, until only the tips of my boots touched the ground.
Between the statues and the warrior’s weapons, the remaining attackers turned into a pile of ash. I watched the small clouds form and fall to the ground, finally extinguished forever.
Perhaps it was a more merciful end than whatever state they were being kept and controlled in.
When the mist had cleared and only dozens of attackers remained, more shadows appeared from the forest.
But these were living, breathing soldiers, forced back onto the battlefield in one last attempt to throttle us.
Up above, Sylvester flew circles in warning.
“The Clans are attacking again,” I said to Ryker, my own voice eerie. Like crystal gnashing against crystal, my power now imbuing everything.
“Let them come, we’ll–” Ryker turned to me. Then he looked up, eyes wide.
“What is it?” I asked.
“You’re floating,” Ryker said in awe. “And your eyes…they’re silver again.”
I looked down, only to see the wind had carried me a few feet away from the ground. I hadn’t even noticed, caught in my own incantation.
My overheated skin felt tight, like it was too mortal to contain me fully.
Through the trees, I saw Beren, Lioran, and Edrin charging forward. Not in the first lines. Never ones to risk their own lives. Not fully.
They were guarded on all sides by lines upon lines of soldiers, shields propped up high.
“Their leaders are coming,” I said.
Ryker’s head whipped back at the wall of shields. “Cowards, as always.”
But if they were here, it meant the mist would not come again.
I sucked in a breath, commanding my powers back into me. But the wind had become greedy, pulling at them.
The same way the purple light had tried to sap me.
Worst of all, some reckless part of me wanted to feel more power.
I wanted to be endless, floating in the sky for all eternity.
Perhaps this was why people did heinous acts.
Power could become intoxicating.
But it took one look at Ryker fighting the soldiers off to regain my senses.
True power was not selfish.
Gnashing my teeth, I tugged on my tendrils once more.
They didn’t control me. I commanded them.
I looked up at the stars. How many mortals had they watched fight against each other throughout the eons? How many had they ignored?
Despite what some humans thought, we would never be as limitless as them.
Slowly, I began to descend, the screams and chaos blaring around me once more.
As I hovered in the air, I saw some of the Northern soldiers in the back rush into the forest, away from the battlefield.
“They’re running away,” I said.
Ryker cursed, flinging three soldiers off his back. “Beren and Nadya can’t leave.”
“I don’t see her.”
I stepped back onto solid ground, in the sea of chainmail, statues, and swords. The peace I felt dissipated, replaced with the roar of violence.
I barely had time to suck in a breath before a soldier charged at me. I gripped my bow and flung an arrow toward him right as my knees gave out from the strain. Even then, I knew Ryker was inhaling some of my exhaustion, slowed down, but still fierce.
I didn’t need to be standing to fight.
Whatever soldiers managed to pass the statues and warriors was met by my arrows. Through the chaos, my eyes tracked Dax as he sprinted through the invaders, daggers gleaming in the moonlight.
The trolls shook the ground as they rushed forward, roars eager for more vengeance. They fought side by side with the warriors, everyone protecting this land which had protected us tonight.
“Beren, Edrin, and Lioran have scattered,” Ryker hissed. “We managed to break their shield barrier, but now they’re gone.”
I shot three more arrows, eyes narrowed on the fight.
Right between two statues, I saw Dax and Lioran grappling.
Before I could fire an arrow their way, Dax lifted his dagger and hit Lioran in the neck, who crumpled in his arms.
“Dax got Lioran,” I said.
Two more soldiers rushed my way. My arrows stopped them a few feet away.
“Edrin’s dead,” Ryker said after a few moments, without any emotion. “Fool got himself impaled on a weapon. He probably tripped.”
Shame.
He could have given us answers.
“Beren’s the one we’re after,” Ryker said. “He couldn’t have just vanished.”
“Nadya did,” I said.
The chaos drew our attention away from each other.
The clash of steel against steel and stone didn’t end. More bodies slumped to the ground. The smell of blood turned my stomach, and my quiver felt lighter with each minute.
We were fierce, but, at the end of the day, we fought against a three-Clan army. They indeed had numbers on their side.
My knees turned numb against the stones as I kept firing arrow after arrow, ignoring the way my sodden clothes hung to my back. The calluses on my fingers bled from pulling the bow string back so many times.
Fatigue was setting in over the entire battlefield.
But we wouldn’t give up.
We had a chance to win.
As the first rays of sunlight peaked from beyond the crater’s shards, illuminating the true gore of the field, distant drums resounded from the rim.
My gaze slashed toward it, but I couldn’t see anything beyond a few glimmers.
But Ryker saw–and whatever waited at the rim made him smile. “The Blood Brotherhood army is here!”