Chapter 28 #2
“Not a chance, northern scum,” the woman spoke, and Lory recognized the melodious alto of Nyla Ashen, a red she’d seen staring at Aiden several times, but never thought anything of it.
“Ricca let you get away once. But I won’t.
This time, you’ll die, and so will anyone standing in my way, including her. ”
The woman shifted, revealing her face in the half-light, and Lory’s chest filled with terror as she spotted Tabi a step behind, her form bound in something long and wiry, curling from the ground.
Roots—that had to be roots. She’d never seen Nyla perform magic, let alone did she know what sort of powers the ashling commanded, but as the roots climbed higher, winding around Tabi’s motionless body like they were ready to devour her, Lory was certain it was at Nyla’s command.
Aiden was standing closer to Lory, his shoulder toward her, and his pale, short-cropped hair reflecting in the moonlight.
Tabi was here. And Aiden. Who else had come to the Amrin Mountains?
Had they all come to hunt her and kill her?
Or were Aiden and Tabi here to stand by her?
Or were they here for an entirely different reason—perhaps they were part of the prey themselves for merely being friendly with her.
Lory wouldn’t put it past Lenya to send her friends into the same fate he’d sent her to.
The brooch weighed heavily in her hand as she considered the distance between her and Nyla.
One good throw, and she could hit the woman in the head—maybe not enough to kill her, but enough to distract her, perhaps knock her out for a few seconds.
It would buy Aiden some time to freeze the woman over before she could squeeze the life out of Tabi, who hadn’t as much as moaned since that initial scream Lory was now sure had come from Tabitha Ngala’s throat.
Don’t believe everything you see.
What if this was as much an illusion as the shadow she’d seen? What if this was a trap the mountain had set for her?
Lory heaved a breath, then another, eyes shuttering as she forced herself to focus on details—anything that would give away whether she was imagining things.
A low growl sounded behind her, making her shrink into the bush, and her foot got caught on the branches as she struggled to keep her balance.
Lory held her breath, begging the Guardians she was indeed imagining things, or that small misstep would alert the others to her presence and give away her location.
“Who’s there?” Nyla called into the night, her tone half obnoxious, half filled with dread.
Leaning on her free leg, Lory raised her brooch-clutching hand to send the beautiful item flying through the darkness.
“Show yourself.”
This was real. Everything about it. Even Aiden’s magic, slithering along the ground, casting the grass hoarfrost while he kept ice crystals dancing in one palm.
Now, she wanted to shout at him. Take Nyla out now. But Aiden was already one step ahead as Nyla called into the night for a third time, voice shaking, “Fucking show your face, coward.”
It was that moment Aiden’s power lashed out at the roots Nyla had woven around Tabi’s body, the bindings shattering in a glacial kiss, and the woman slumped to the ground while Nyla scrambled out of the needle-sharp particles’ path.
Aiden turned to dart for Tabi, but Lory was already sprinting, her legs surprisingly stable as she ambled to drag Tabi out of Nyla’s way before she could realize what was going on.
“Tabi!” Lory grabbed the unconscious woman under the arms and pulled her aside, hoping that Aiden wouldn’t attack her. “Wake up.”
If the woman helped a little, they might actually make it.
Or not—
With a groan, Tabi opened her eyes, but the expression of horror on her face wasn’t meant for Lory.
It was for Nyla, whose power was summoning fresh roots from the ground, their ends feeling for Lory’s ankles, winding around them tight enough to make her stumble.
Catching herself with a brooch-clutching fist on the boulder at her side, Lory cursed, hoisting Tabi higher with her other arm.
“You need to run, Tabi.” A girl could hope… But Tabi was in no shape to even walk, let alone stand on her own feet, her uniform torn in places, and blood leaking from long, slender wounds on her thighs, calves, arms, and sides.
Again, Nyla’s magic lashed out, a thin, long root curling around Lory’s leg, tugging so hard she lost her footing and dropped Tabi.
If only she could use her fire—she could burn through the subterranean greenery and be done with it, but alerting the entire mountain to her location by far didn’t outweigh the advantage it would give her.
“Lory, duck!”
Like the crack of a whip, Aiden’s warning made Lory crouch over Tabi’s chest, and not one moment too soon. A streak of silvery blue flew past her, hitting the woman commanding the root holding Lory in place, and Lory’s heart threatened to break free from her chest.
“What are you waiting for?” Aiden panted, doubling over a few feet away. “Get out of here, Lory. I’ve got Tabi.”
The Guardians knew, Lory considered it. Considered running, the way Khayrivven had suggested—the way Aiden wanted her to run, but with a glance at Tabi, Lory knew she couldn’t leave the injured woman behind.
A glance at Aiden and the gash in his side, which she noticed only now that he was close enough to make out his pain-torn features, and she knew she couldn’t leave them.
Behind her, Nyla moaned, and Lory turned in a knee-jerk reaction, putting herself between the root wielder and her friends, hand with the brooch raised and wondering how she’d access the blade supposedly hidden within it.
“I’ve got it, Lory,” Aiden insisted, magic already swirling in his palm. “Go.”
Whether Khayrivven had sent out a memo that was what he wanted Lory to do or Aiden got the idea all on his own no longer mattered when Nyla’s hand twitched and the root that had loosened when she’d been hit by Aiden’s power wound around Lory’s ankles once more, climbing higher and higher until it reached her waist, then her chest. Breathing became harder with every second as the roots squeezed her like a lemon.
No question Nyla was here for the hunt; she didn’t care which of the criminals most of Ashthorn despised she killed.
Just like when she’d found them, Aiden stood paralyzed as Nyla threatened to squish Lory with a flick of her fingers, his ice useless.
But Lory wasn’t done. She hadn’t survived this long to die on this mountain.
Hadn’t fought for her life in the streets only so she could become a trophy kill for a student who believed they were superior because of their upbringing or their magic or the easy life that had been handed to them.
“Get Tabi!” she shouted instead of releasing the scream of panic lodged in her throat. “I’ve got this.”
Because she did. As she slid her fingers over the brooch, a small, curved hook caught on her index finger, and with a pull, a tiny blade hatched from the side of the item, mechanism clicking as it locked, blocking the blade from retreating into its gilded shell.
Thank you, Khayrivven, she thought at the man whose secrets might one day destroy her, and with one long swipe, she cut into the root at her thigh, piercing flexible wood.
Like a stabbed snake, the root recoiled, snapping loose from Lory’s limb and slithering across the ground until it vanished, everything past the stab-wound dragging limply across earth and leaves, and the air quivered when Nyla released a scream of pain as if Lory had rammed the two-inch blade into her very flesh.
Lory had never seen anyone’s magic as connected to their physical sensations, but the way Nyla’s eyes were burning with revenge as she rolled to her knees and staggered to her feet told her pondering its meaning would need to wait.
Behind her, Aiden was kneeling over Tabi, gathering the ashling up in his arms, an endeavor that wouldn’t turn out successful, considering the injury dripping thick blood.
The dim light concealed a lot, but it couldn’t hide the glistening wet spreading on his tunic. He needed help, perhaps more than Tabi did.
Lory didn’t waste any time asking questions about why Nyla hated her, why she’d chosen to hunt Aiden first—all she did was stab the next root attempting to sling around her, and the next, and the next, until Nyla kneeled, panting and whimpering amidst a scramble of dead wood, hands trembling at her sides, magic drained.
“You need to end it,” Aiden grunted, finally managing to lift Tabi. He was already staggering a few steps toward the direction Lory had come from.
She didn’t need to ask for clarification—Aiden meant she should kill Nyla. But even now, that was a line Lory wasn’t ready to cross. Even in the face of an attack like that, she couldn’t bring herself to kill the woman who hadn’t batted an eye when sending her full powers toward her.
“She’s obviously defeated,” Lory uttered, hoping Aiden wouldn’t hear her or wouldn’t argue, as she took two cautious paces toward her, examining Nyla from close enough to end up run through with the sword hanging at her hip.
Nyla averted her eyes—a color Lory had never paid attention to—under the short, dark waves sticking out in all directions around her head, while Lory kept her blade raised, ready to lunge should the ashling as much as lift a finger against her.
In her chest, her heart was thumping wildly, ribs still sore from the hard grip of the roots.
“I’ve never done as much as speak a bad word about you,” she said, voice surprisingly steady for the way her hand was trembling.
“I don’t think I’ve spoken to you at all.
Never harmed you or any of your friends.
As far as I’m concerned, all we’ve done so far is share the same educational quarters.
” Lory didn’t leave Nyla out of her sight for even a second, her ears following Aiden’s slow movements toward the tree line in the west. “I won’t kill you. ”
A shaky breath rattled out of Nyla, her eyes finally snapping to Lory’s, disgust warring with fear.
“Not if you do the smart thing and return to the outpost to get yourself checked out in the infirmary and never cross me or my friends again.”
The Guardians knew Khayrivven would have found a way to reprimand her for not ending her enemy then and there, but if she was a monster by the magic she carried in her blood—if that was what people believed, mercy might be the only way to prove them wrong.
She wouldn’t kill Nyla for poor judgement—and as she reached to the woman’s hip, retrieving her sword and sheathing it at her own belt, Lory knew she’d regret that decision sooner or later.
But not tonight.
Tonight, she’d survived one more attack and saved her friends without spilling blood. That had to suffice.
When Lory turned and jogged away, Nyla didn’t make a sound, and Lory wondered if this was the calm before a storm.