55. Chapter Fifty-Four
Chapter Fifty-Four
Archer
“Help!” Lily’s ragged scream was like a blade to my heart. I scanned the shadows for my friend, slicing at them as I ran. “Someone, help us!”
Where is Owen? Cliff?
Were they all right?
A revenant lurched for a soldier as I ran past, and I leapt between them to intervene, slicing at the creature’s leg and downing it. Before it could rise again or retaliate now that I’d drawn its attention, I arced my blade downward, removing its head from its neck.
The male I’d helped didn’t have a chance to thank me before I was gone, charging toward the sound of Lily’s cries.
At last, I drew near enough to find her in the shadows. She knelt, cradling General Starblood in her lap. Tears tracked down her cheeks as she lifted her eyes to mine. “We need a healer.”
One look told me it was too late for Lily’s father. The gash in his side was too deep, and the growing pool of blood beneath him was too large. His complexion was already a deathly sheen of grey, his glazed eyes turning distant even as he tried to speak to Lily. “I love you. Be strong, Lily.”
“Stop talking like that!” Lily’s voice cracked. There was blood coating her hands and a frantic look the likes of which I’d never seen in her eyes.
“Lily.” I tried to inject enough somber warning into my tone to snap her out of her grief, to remind her that she was in imminent danger.
The general took a final, strangled breath, and I didn’t see his chest rise again.
“Father, please.” Lily’s shoulders shook as she sobbed, but General Starblood was still. Silent. His eyes stared at nothing.
I stepped closer, prepared to wrench my friend away from the body. “Lily, you need to get up.”
“No!” Lily shrieked. “Where are the healers?”
“Lily,” I repeated, lunging toward her.
I wasn’t fast enough. General Starblood stirred, and my friend, still overwhelmed and confused in her shock and grief, brightened like she thought he was still alive after all.
The soulless look in his gaze sent a bolt of ice through my chest as I lifted my sword, but the general was faster, his shadows consuming Lily like a physical force. She screamed in agony, their tendrils binding her as the creature that had once been her father snarled and turned.
Another revenant slammed into my side, blindsiding me and tackling me to the earth.
Stars sparked before my eyes as we crashed in a tangle and it sank its teeth into my shoulder.
Pain shot through my arm, hot blood slick against my skin.
Grunting, I shoved against the creature, fighting to reach my sword from where it had landed on the ground, beyond my reach.
Another shock of pain tore through my shoulder, and I cursed, slamming my free first against the revenant’s face before twisting my body. At last, I reached the dagger I kept tucked in my boot, sliding it out and burying it in my attacker’s eye.
I couldn’t hurt or kill what was already dead, but the distraction was enough to give me the opportunity to shove it away.
Right shoulder burning, I groped with my left hand for my sword.
My movements were less graceful with my non-dominant hand as I swung, but my blade was sharp, cutting through the revenant’s neck easily enough.
All of this had happened in mere moments, but it had been enough for General Starblood to rise and turn on his daughter, thrusting his sword into her side. She screamed in pain as his shadows tightened around her, until they swirled over her mouth and stifled her cries.
A roar and a breath of cool air—not icy cold like the writhing shadows—was my only warning before a wall of water crashed over us.
I ducked, but it coursed around me, avoiding me as it pressed for its target: the undead general.
It swept him backward, snapping his hold on his foul magic and freeing Lily.
She fell forward, gasping for breath, her hand pressed to her bleeding side.
And then Owen was there, dropping to his knees and catching Lily before she fell.
“Owen. You came,” Lily gasped. “I thought you were lost too.”
“I’m here,” he said, his voice uncharacteristically gentle.
“I’ve got you.” He pulled back enough to scan her body and take in her injury.
“Archer, where’s Cliff? Can he send his jaguars to fetch a healer?
” he asked, glancing over his shoulder as I staggered to them.
His eyes snapped briefly to my ruined shoulder, but he didn’t ask.
There was a feverish light in his gaze I’d never seen before, a possessive, frantic nature to his hold on Lily.
I cast a glance back toward the shadows into which Owen’s wave had shoved Lily’s father. “General Starblood is still—”
“I’ll take care of him,” Owen interrupted. “Find a healer.”
Isoria
My heart refused to accept what my mind knew instantly: Mama was gone, an undead creature whose soul was trapped in her own body. There was no recognition lighting her eyes as they met mine. No glow of warmth to her cheeks. No sunshine smile.
Though there was no outward sign of injury, it was obvious there was no life in her, that the curse of her lost magic that had made her ill had finally claimed her completely.
Instead of opening her arms, she bared her teeth and summoned shadowy wings that sprouted from her back in a mockery of the magic she’d once wielded in life.
I bargained with you, Vithenna. You said you’d save them.
A memory snapped into place. The cost of my bargain. Something horrible and ice-cold filled my bones. You’ll never again return home.
Hatred like I’d never felt before, not even for King Wystan and all his phoenix hunters, seized me in a searing grip, igniting every vein, every tendon, until it felt like my entire body was ablaze.
I was no killer, but suddenly, in that moment, I wished that deities could be slain.
Curse you, Vithenna. The cost was meant to be paid by me.
Not by Mama. Mama doesn’t deserve this. She was only peaceful and loving, the gentlest person I’ve ever known.
With an ear-splitting cry, the creature that had once been my mother leapt into the air, her wings pumping her toward me.
In her hand sprouted something like fire, but each dancing, smoking flame was as black as a void with no flicker of light.
She hurled a ball of it toward me. Unprepared for an attack from a creature bearing Mama’s face, I failed to dodge in time and it slammed into my chest.
Rather than heat, searing cold flooded me, so deep it seemed to burn. When I glanced down, there were no noticeable injuries, but when I tried to call on my own magic, it was…gone.
Dread flooded my bones. I had no fire to fend off her attacks, no wings to keep up with her. But I’d have to reach Mama somehow and use Mortius’ power to send her to the afterlife.
Tears burned my eyes as I walked closer, holding up my hands as if in surrender. Could I still reach her, with her soul trapped in her body?
“Mama?” I asked tentatively, my voice breaking so I wasn’t sure if she could hear me over the muffled cries of battle, the beating of her own wings, and the thundering of my aching heart.
“It’s me, Izzy. Please.” My vision swam, and I had to pause to blink.
She floated overhead, her complexion pale and grey and lifeless, those dark wings so unnatural they hurt to look at.
There was no recognition in her gaze—no feeling at all. Whatever controlled her actions now, there was no spark of her left. I choked on a sob, the effort to try to hold it back racking my body.
I failed you. I failed you. I’m so sorry that I failed you.
The thought kept repeating relentlessly in my mind, taunting me.
I could still see Vithenna’s smug expression as she’d proclaimed that I could save my people if I paid the price.
She’d known I’d already lost the battle for one of the most important people in my world.
How had I not known Mama was that close to death’s door when I’d seen her last?
I should have held her closer. Repeated how I loved her a few more times.
I should have fought harder, stayed longer, researched more, bargained with every god under the sun until I’d found a cure sooner, done something, anything more—
But there wasn’t time to grieve properly, not when another ball of that black fire whirled toward me. I dropped to the cobblestones and rolled out of its path.
I had to get closer. Mama—or what had once been my mother—dropped back to the street, her wings fluttering behind her and folding inward. My heart gave a tremor, half-hope and half-pain, as she approached.
Lifting my chin, I stared at her from my position kneeling on the ground. Shadows and black fire enveloped her, the antithesis of all she’d been to me my whole life.
Mortius, help me.
His shadows coalesced around my fingertips when I lifted them. I could scarcely breathe as I reached out with death’s power, ignoring the bone-chilling pain that gripped me as soon as I stretched my arm out, pushing through the deathly shadows, and touched Mama’s hand.
Her body froze, twitching as her corrupted magic vanished before it crumpled to the ground. My stomach lurched as her spirit formed in front of me, her familiar gaze alight with the warmth and love I’d been aching to see again.
“Mama,” I whispered hoarsely.
“My sweet Izzy, you saved me.”
Tears fell freely down my cheeks. “No, I didn’t. I’m too late. I bargained with Vithenna to return your magic, but you were already dead. You—you—”
“It was my time, deemed by the gods.”
Again I thought of Vithenna and her cruel expression, the mental image punctuated by another stab of anger. You’ll never go home again. “They’re wrong.” My voice broke. “You can’t go.”
“Look at how brave you are. You’ve freed my soul so I can rest. I’ll find your father in the afterlife and tell him about the incredible fae you and Brenton have become.”