Chapter 106 Torin
Chapter One Hundred Six
Torin
“Where. The. Fuck. Is she?” I roared, swinging wildly at a soldier’s head. An ill-timed block left her throat exposed. My blade met harsh resistance for a moment before it cleaved her head completely from her neck.
Blood spurted in macabre jets from the open wound, splattering those nearest as her head hit the wet ground with a splash. Blood and mud mired my once-clean clothes and boots, the fabrics nearly undeterminable beneath the grime.
Finally, the rest of her corpse realized its head was no longer attached, and it fell in a heap to the ground, coming to final rest atop another soldier I’d felled minutes earlier.
“Where is who?” Lex called as he and Ilyas battled in a similar way to Rohak and me.
Though while Rohak and I moved with a synchrony that was impressive given our lack of practice, Lex and Ilyas moved as if in a dance only they knew the steps to.
One would block while the other reached with deadly precision before they’d twirl around together, facing opposite opponents.
Nearly every time their swords lashed out, they met skin and bone, felling more enemy soldiers than I thought possible in such a short time.
It was beautiful to watch, really, though I had little time to observe.
“Solace,” I shouted, engaging with yet another enemy soldier.
They came like this for hours, the fire in the night sky waxing and waning as the sun rose to bathe the battlefield in a golden glow. The heat was nearly unbearable, the day uncharacteristically warm for the season, and already, flies and other animals were flocking to the densest areas of death.
Solace was here—I could feel her—but was hiding somewhere, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. The lack of my powers was beyond annoying—it was a harsh detriment. Without them, I severely doubted our ability to overpower the goddess.
Yet I fought anyway, holding onto whatever minuscule scrap of hope remained in my worn-out and sluggish body.
“Fuck,” I hissed as metal scratched across my skin, tearing at the fabric of my tunic and slicing deep into my ribcage.
Hot blood poured down my chest and onto the top of my pants, and I faltered away, free hand clutching the wound.
“I thought maybe you meant Ellowyn,” Lex said calmly, approaching the soldier who had just struck me from the rear. In a flurry of short moves and swings, Lex had the man disarmed before he rammed his sword deep into the enemy soldier’s chest.
The man sank to his knees as Lex pulled the sword free, blood coating the blade and running down onto Lex’s hands. Unbothered, he cleaned the blade on the fallen man’s tunic before wiping his hands down his pants.
Blood coated almost every inch of his skin and matted his brown hair to his skull. It was hard at this point to discern what was his blood and what was that of his victims.
Lex’s eyes flashed with something I couldn’t name as I nodded my thanks.
“Her, too,” I grumbled, pulling my hand away to inspect the damage beneath. It was deep, but not fatal, thank the gods.
If my magic was locked and inaccessible, would hers be as well?
I didn’t want to think of that possibility—if neither of us had access to our magic, there was little chance for victory here.
“I’m sure she’s fine, brother,” Lex said, his words and voice oddly calming as he spun back into Ilya’s orbit, attacking with renewed fervor.
I grunted, though it wasn’t Ellowyn’s absence that worried me.
Solace’s lack of appearance? Now that was cause for alarm.