Chapter 5
Lenna
Lenna’s shaky hands let go of the metallic ladder when her shoes stepped on the wet sand of the East Petal shore.
It was only a matter of time until the hundreds of sangins attacking the people atop the navia realized they had other targets—way more exposed, unprotected targets—waiting for them on the ground.
Hope had been so right. They had to moure away as soon as bloody possible or they would end up like sangin-beaten pulp. But where the hell were Sasha and Brendon, and why the damned fuck was it taking them so long to disembark the navia?
Without a second thought, Lenna sent a handwritten message with her golden ink, the color of her magic and her panom mark, which would reach the recipients’ forearms in less than a fraction of a second. The recipients being Sasha, Brendon, Jake, Hope, and Ciaran.
Lenna’s brow furrowed deeply as, even after a while, there still wasn’t a single soul disembarking the vehicle. What sort of carnage was happening upstairs that they couldn’t even send her an inked message back as a reply?
After more uneasy silence from the others, and fiercely muttering “For Fifth’s sake,” Lenna was about to climb up and throw Sasha and Brendon down if need be, as long as she could moure them away from the army of flying, hungry beasts.
A warm hand on her shoulder stopped her, and Lenna snapped her head back so sharply her neck cracked.
“Cardinals, Ayla, you scared me.” Lenna covered her forehead with a hand as she briefly closed her eyes, trying to let go of the shitting-herself feeling when she thought the sangins had found her.
When she opened them, the silver metal of Ayla’s eyes stared back at her, her twin’s bottom lip trembling.
Ayla hadn’t yet let go of Lenna’s shoulders. It was not that she needed to orientate herself; that much was obvious. Since she had been forever blinded, Ayla hadn’t lost the confident way of moving in the world, nor the ability to know—or sense—where things were.
If anything, her confidence seemed heightened.
“Are you okay?” Lenna asked in a low voice. The sangins were far away above them, but the last thing she wanted was to make themselves known to them. “Did you moure Nina and Indianna?”
“Yes, they are safe in the safehouse, waiting for the rest.” Ayla inhaled deeply and then swallowed. “Lenn—”
“Which is exactly where Sasha and Brendon should be,” Lenna interrupted, grabbing the ladder again. She scoffed. “Safe. If they only fancied coming down one of these days. Honestly, what th—”
“Lenna…Sasha won’t come.”
“Oh yes, she will. Even if I have to carry her down myself.” Her shoes banged against the metal as she climbed upwards. A mass of deadly aggressive creatures would not stop her from getting her friends to safety.
“Lenna,” Ayla shouted, the volume of her voice making Lenna stop dead, her blood at once frozen as she feared the beasts would have heard the loud sound and would attack them there, on the bloody ladder. Not the best amongst strategic positions.
“What?” she spat, staring at her twin.
“Sasha isn’t coming.” Ayla lifted her palm as Lenna opened her mouth again to argue back. “She isn’t coming, Lenna. I’m sorry.”
“What do you mean, you’re sorry? What on Terrha are you talking about, Ayla?” Lenna’s own voice raised an octave.
“The sangins got to Sasha, Lenna. She’s dead.” Ayla’s words came out in a broken whisper.
The confusion and nonsense were such that Lenna felt as if they could drown her there and then. A part inside her was laughing out loud; another was getting angry for this conversation wasting her time.
Ayla had to be wrong.
Lenna couldn’t take her eyes away from her sister. From the way Ayla’s lips trembled. From the way she flinched, she looked like someone crying, except perhaps Ayla couldn’t produce tears anymore.
“I’m so sorry, Lenna,” Ayla repeated, a moment of hesitation before she added, “It’s not safe for you to go up there. We must moure away from this place.”
Lenna rocked her head, her hands tightening against the chilled metal of the ladder she was gripping as if her own damned life depended on it.
It wasn’t possible. It really wasn’t. Ayla had to be wrong.
Hope, Ciaran, and Jake were still there, fighting the sangins. They would have protected her best friend. They wouldn’t have allowed Sasha to die. They were the best fighters on this Cardinal-cursed island.
And yet, neither of them had replied to Lenna’s ink.
The devastating overwhelm and worry were so painfully heavy in her soul that she couldn’t even fathom that any of the three—or perhaps all three—would be hurt to the point of being incapacitated to send an ink.
Fuck.
Fuck fuck fuck fuck.
Stormy rage made her speed up the ladder, the fire-red waves of her hair shining under the sun, her own heart begging to burn.
She had already burned once before.
A painful memory flashed in her turbulent mind.
After the ordeal where she burned herself almost to death, and Jake with her.
She had claimed she was fire-cursed, yet he had denied her truth.
“You’re my fire-blessed,” he had promised.
This thought alone was strong and devastating enough to rip her heart apart before she even made it atop the navia.
The blood-borne creatures of the Cardinal Queen couldn’t have killed her best friend.
Harmed, perhaps, but killed? Stopped her life forevermore?
So Sasha would never flash her wide smile or make her witty comments again?
Would she never hug her closely again, or tease each other until they were both laughing so hard they cried?
No.
No, no, and no. Not in five fucking million years.
She saw the destruction atop the navia a second before her feet stepped onto the metallic platform where a full-on battle had unfolded. Her golden eyes checked on Ayla behind her.
“Protective shield, Lenna,” her twin ordered before opening her hands and Giving herself one.
Right. Protective shield, so at least they would stand a chance of coming out alive. Lenna Gave herself one before she scanned the scene in front of her, checking for damage.
Hope and Ciaran were back to back against non-stopping sangins who attacked them before ending up in piles of corpses.
Daggers, shadows, and red sparks flew in all directions around them at an unnerving, unnatural speed.
Lenna had seen them fight together before, but Cardinals above, the coordination and speed of this couple were something never seen before.
It was as if their two bodies were governed by one mind, as if the thoughts or intentions of one were instantly complemented by the other.
Hope had minor cuts on her sleeves, revealing broken skin underneath the black leathers. Ciaran bled from an incision from his cheek to his metallic shoulder. The talons of the sangins had to be as sharp as Hope’s own blades.
There was so much movement in front of Lenna that it was difficult to focus, to find what she was looking for. She saw Ciaran’s grandfather, Stevian, using his shadows alongside the other ten courtrades who had traveled in this navia.
Despite his elderly appearance, with pure white hair and wrinkled skin, wisdom and experience shone in his blue eyes.
Usually, there was a humble kindness in those eyes, too.
Now, however, the familiar similarities were more obvious than ever.
Like his grandson, there was only destruction and darkness in him.
The tight knot in her gut released when she spotted Jake fighting by himself at one end of the platform.
His back was protected by the metallic wall of one of the crescent-shaped peaks of the navia.
The extended arms in front of him guided his hands as he Harmed the approaching sangins incessantly, his silver eyes so bright they almost looked like cloudy mist. He was the farthest from her, but Lenna couldn’t see any wounds on him.
Damn, even his hair was in the right place, his shirt as immaculately tucked as always.
A loud screeching noise made Lenna jump as the beak of a sangin slammed against the protective shield mere inches from her face.
Cardinals guide her, if it weren’t for the shield, she wouldn’t have a neck attached to her head right now.
The shield didn’t harm the sangin, though, it only made it fly up again, one of its black wings not fully extending.
On the floor, near where Ciaran and Hope fought, she saw a black, spherical shadow block protecting a small space. Lenna sprinted towards the sphere head first, knowing that it wouldn’t prevent her from entering.
The moment she trespassed the shadows, her breath caught in her throat, not going in or out. Her feet froze on the spot.
She was not ready for what she saw.
Nothing could have prepared her. Not even Ayla’s warnings.
Brendon kneeled on the platform, his body shaking as he held the hand of the woman in front of him tightly enough to cut any circulation.
But there was no possibility of any vessels still carrying blood in the state of such a dismembered being.
His green eyes didn’t look at Lenna or Ayla, who entered this protected space right after.
Lenna tried not to fixate her gaze on the different organs splayed on the ground, on the dark red liquid pooling inside the shadow sphere.
There were blood and flesh everywhere.
The only sign—the only proof—that this woman was Sasha was her black curls and the rings on the hand Brendon was not holding. Lenna’s knees felt weak, and she felt too dizzy to fight the need to sit next to the broken body.
The memory of Sasha’s voice echoed in her mind, louder than the sounds of aggressive fighting, wings ripped and blood dripping as the battle between sangins and panoms and courtrades didn’t cease.
We will do this together. Together, Lenna, okay?
Goosebumps covered Lenna’s skin with a freezing, paralyzing coat of sweat and panic.
You are not alone. I’m here for you. Anytime you need me, I’ll be there for you. I promise.
Her shaky fingers caressed Sasha’s immobile, limp ones, the tips of her fingers stopping over the rings her best friend loved to wear.
Together, Sasha had promised.
She would be there for her, she had also promised.
And there she was, but she was dead.