Chapter 40 #2
I pull him to a stop.
“What if we hide?” I whisper.
“They’ll find us,” Sebastian whispers back. “We have to escape this court. It’s our only chance.”
“How?” My voice is a little choked because I feel like we’re running out of options…running out of time.
He cups my jaw, and for just a moment, I want to lean into him and feel his arms around me, but I resist the urge.
“Let’s go, then,” I tell him instead.
He nods.
We run faster as the stream opens out into a wider clearing; beyond it, the forest thins. And through the gaps in the canopy is the edge of the court and the deadlands beyond.
We halt at the edge of the forest. It’s all open ground from here into the deadlands and beyond.
“We’ll never make it.”
“We will find a way,” he tells me. “I’ll use my magic; it might give us the edge we need. I think they mean to take us alive, which gives us further advantage.”
“Will it be enough?”
“It has to be.” He swallows hard. “Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
And then we’re running as fast as our legs will take us.
They come from every direction, and all at once. Some are on foot with swords drawn. Others ride horses that stamp and snort and toss their great heads. The sound of hooves, armor, and shouted commands is deafening.
We are quickly surrounded.
Sebastian shifts closer to me. I feel the warmth of him.
We can do this.
Shadow explodes from his palm in a massive wave that rips across the clearing.
It slams into the advancing line of guards with devastating force.
A whole host of them are hurled from their feet.
Several don’t get up. A horse screams and bolts, its rider tumbling into the mud.
The rest of the formation staggers back, and for a breathtaking moment, there is genuine fear on their faces.
Good!
But then he reaches for it again, and nothing comes. His hand extends, and his fingers splay, but there is nothing.
“Come on,” he snarls under his breath.
Guards, seeing weakness, come for us, and I go in behind Sebastian. I have to trust that he will do what it takes.
There is a slap of flesh followed by a crunch of bone behind me. Guards scream.
Fire spills from my palms in a sweeping arc that drives back the guards trying to close in on his blind side. I weave shadow into a shield and slam it into several riders who were bearing down on us, knocking the horses sideways. The animals rear and stumble, and the riders are thrown.
Sebastian grabs my shoulder and pulls me behind him as a volley of shadow bolts tears through the space I was standing in a heartbeat ago. His sword flashes, and he cuts down the nearest guard, then fells another with a single vicious strike to the temple.
Three more come at him in a tight formation, shadow magic twisting around their blades. Sebastian meets them with both swords swinging.
I turn just in time to throw up a shield as more shadows are thrown at us like spears. I retaliate with shadow magic of my own, and more guards go down.
Sebastian growls in frustration, and I know his magic has failed him again, so I extend the shield to include him. Shadows fly in all directions.
“Don’t kill them!” my mother yells.
“It keeps cutting in and out,” Sebastian calls to me, already moving to intercept a guard charging at my flank. He catches the male’s sword, twists, and opens a gash along the guard’s forearm. The male drops his weapon and staggers away. Many more guards take his place.
“I’ve got you,” I tell him. And I do. I throw fire and shadow at everything that comes close while he waits for his well to open again.
We turn and move together, reading each other without words.
When his magic is flowing, his power is breathtaking, and the guards give ground.
When it vanishes, he fills the gap with steel and bone-breaking force, and I cover whatever his blades can’t reach.
But my well is draining by the second. Every bolt of fire costs me more than the last. My shadows are thinning, taking longer to gather and holding less force when they strike. The flame that leaves my hands sputters where it used to roar.
“I don’t have much more,” I whisper as his back touches mine.
I feel utterly despondent as more guards arrive. Then more. They pour from the forest on horseback and on foot, filling every gap that we punch through the line.
Sebastian’s magic erupts again in a huge pulse of shadow that sends a whole group of guards sprawling. In the next moment, it’s gone, and he curses.
A guard comes at him from the left, and he puts the male down with a savage combination that ends with a blade through the guard’s thigh. Another charges from the right, and Sebastian drops him with an elbow to the throat.
I throw one last burst of fire, and it fizzles out halfway to its target, dissolving into smoke and sparks.
“No!” I say.
The shadows I call respond in a thin, sluggish trickle that a single guard’s magic bats aside with ease.
I have nothing left.
Sebastian steps back until his shoulder touches mine. His chest heaves. There is blood on his hands, on his face, on both his blades. Shadows move around us. They’re his, but they’re too thin; they, too, dissipate into the air like smoke.
We are done.
The guards sense it. They push in closer, tightening the ring. More riders fill the gaps.
I meet his eyes. Sebastian shakes his head.
I raise my hands. A moment later, so does he, dropping the bloodied blades to the ground.
The guards don’t stop advancing. They push closer still, weapons raised, shadows writhing, until a voice breaks over the tumult.
“Stand down, Shadowfae Guard!” My mother’s voice, sharp and commanding, carries across the open ground. “Stand down! All of you! They have surrendered.”
Some lower their weapons. Others take a step toward us, their eyes narrowed.
My heart is sinking. I can’t believe that after all that, it ends like this.
It’s all my fault. I should never have come here.
No, that isn’t true. He should never have come.
Why did you come?
Why?
My mother rides through the ranks. The guards split apart to let her pass. Her horse is tall and black, its coat gleaming. She sits straight in the saddle, her jaw set.
She pulls the beast to a stop a few paces from us and looks down. Her eyes sweep over Sebastian, over me. Her face is impossible to read.
“Seize the once-king. You are free to go, performer.”
A few of the guards mutter. Others frown. The confusion is clear.
I don’t move.
“Go,” she repeats. Her voice is tight. She points to several riderless horses at the edge of the formation. “Now!” she adds when I stay where I am, my mouth open. “Take a steed and leave.”
I stare at her.
“Ruler General,” a male voice cuts through the quiet.
A rider pushes forward on a dark stallion.
His armor is polished to a mirror sheen, and the shadows that move around him are different from the others.
They coil around his body like slippery eels.
I know him and his shadows. It’s Captain Corvius.
His dark eyes land on me, and a chill runs through my body.
He turns those eyes on my mother. “With respect, I must question this decision.”
“I know what I am doing, Captain.” My mother meets his stare and does not waver. “Do not question me or there will be consequences.”
“Yes, Ruler General.” He dips his head, but the set of his mouth makes it clear he is anything but satisfied.
“Leave! Now!” my mother commands me.
I ignore how the guards turn their swords in my direction, and I step forward anyway, lifting my chin. “Either we leave together,” I tell my mother, “Or not at all.”
My mother’s expression cracks, just for an instant. I see something raw beneath the facade, something wounded. I see my mother.
“Go, Isla!” she shouts. “Go for goddess’ sake!” Her voice hitches.
I shake my head.
A long silence stretches between us. The guards watch. The horses shift and stamp.
“Fine,” the word leaves her in a whisper. “Let them both leave,” she booms. “Stand down.”
Something deep inside me loosens.
“I can’t allow that,” Corvius snarls, kicking his horse forward. The shadows around him thicken into long, snaking tendrils, and his hand rests on the hilt of his sword.
“The Ruler General has given a command.” I recognize this voice as well, only it’s warm and kind instead of cold and hard.
Belen rides forward, and I have to hold back a smile…
or a sob. Perhaps both. “Strange as it may seem,” he says, his dark eyes sweeping the assembled guards, “we need to trust that our Ruler knows what she is doing. She takes her orders directly from our Queen, after all.”
“It’s madness.” Corvius struggles to contain his fury. “There is a bounty on both their heads.” He waves his spear in the air. “Our queen has made it very clear that she wants Sebastian alive.”
“Obey me or face the consequences!” My mother’s voice booms across the clearing. There is iron in it.
“You heard Ruler General Elistral,” Belen says; his voice carries an edge of finality. “Let them go.” He glares at the captain. “I’m sure that there will be an excellent reason for the Ruler General’s order. One we need to respect and obey.”
“Thank you, General Belen. Stand down, Captain Corvius,” my mother says.
The clearing holds its breath.
Corvius looks from my mother to Belen and back. His shadows writhe. For a terrible moment, I think he will defy them both. Then he pulls his horse back a single step and says nothing, although it is clear that he is not happy about it.
Sebastian’s hand finds mine; his grip is warm and sure.
We walk at first, then faster, weaving between guards, who part with reluctant, bewildered faces. The riderless horses stand at the far edge of the formation. We carefully approach them. I take the nearest one and swing up into the saddle. My legs shake a little as I quickly find the stirrups.
I turn the horse toward the deadlands and kick it into a gallop.
Sebastian is right behind me.
I lean low over my horse’s neck; my fingers tangle in its mane. The ground blurs, and the wind stings my eyes. Sebastian’s horse matches mine stride for stride. I don’t dare turn to look but keep my eyes up ahead.
We pass through the dome, and the deadlands stretch out ahead.
“Hurry,” he shouts. “They will come for us soon enough,” he yells.
I think he is right. Snow will not like that my mother let us go. I’m sure that she will be in a world of trouble.
Sure enough, it isn’t long before the trumpets sound again.
I growl in frustration because we are not that far ahead.
I twist in my saddle and see riders forming up and giving chase. They’re not gaining. But they’re not falling behind, either.
“Ride, Isla!” Sebastian shouts, kicking his heels into the flanks of his steed. “Ride as fast as you can!”
I press myself flatter against my horse’s neck. It responds, finding another gear. Its hooves churn through the mud, eating up the ground. Sebastian rides hard beside me, his body low.
The deadlands swallow us; the army behind us is relentless, too. I doubt that we will outrun them.