21. Lora
Lora
Iheld off several shredders at once, avoiding their slashing hooks as I fought to reach Erion. His terrified eyes darted around. The protective circle of guards crumbled around him as monsters closed in.
Sergeant Rika battled two monsters beside him. Her helmet was gone, her copper hair matted with black blood.
My boot came down on something soft. Serelis’ wiry frame lay twisted in an unnatural position. Her sharp eyes that had so meticulously scanned the shoreline during our journey now stared at nothing.
I jerked aside, bile rising in my throat.
“Kalith!” Torvin’s deep voice boomed through the battle.
My gaze snapped up as the large man lunged toward his thinner brother. But Kalith hung suspended on a shredder’s barbed hook that had punched straight through his chest. Blood ran down his clothes in dark rivulets.
Something moved to my left. I twisted just in time to avoid a hook aimed at my head. I sent a frozen spike into the creature’s chest. It crumpled with a snarl.
Just a few more paces and I’d reach Erion’s side.
“Lora!” His voice cracked with panic.
A shredder launched its hook at him. He ducked, but not fast enough. The barbed bone tore through his shoulder, ripping fabric and flesh. He gasped and stumbled, then jerked upright when the shredder retracted its hook.
He raised his hands and fire erupted from his palms in wild bursts. Shadows coiled around his boots like living smoke. Every shard of ice scattered across the ground lifted into the air. More than I’d ever wielded at once. More than I thought possible.
Erion’s gaze locked on the shredder and the creature froze mid-strike. Ice crept along its hide. Then it detonated from the inside out. Half-frozen goo and black ichor sprayed across the mud.
My eyes widened at the raw display of power. The death and destruction around us must’ve triggered Erion to remember how to wield. A spark of triumph flickered through me. Finally!
“Lora.” His voice came out strangled, barely audible.
My excitement evaporated. Something was wrong.
Another monster advanced, and I threw up an ice shield to stop it from reaching him.
He stared at the flames licking his fingers, crawling toward his wrists. Coiling shadows writhed around his legs. Ice shards floated through the air, slowly circling him.
His gaze snapped to mine, and I gasped. His eyes swirled with blue and red light, bleeding into an eerie purple glow.
Panic etched into his features. “What’s happening to me?”
He wasn’t in control at all. If anything, his powers were controlling him. I parried a hook and hurled an ice spear through the attacking shredder’s throat.
“Just breathe, Erion,” I called, forcing my voice steady. “You need to relax. Take a deep breath.”
Another hook punched through my shield, shattering it into glittering shards.
Erion flung both hands forward. Fire wrapped in shadows detonated from his palms, surging into the beast. The shredder exploded in a spray of gore and bone.
Purple light blazed from Erion’s eyes. Uncontrolled magic lashed out in every direction. A nearby shredder froze solid and shattered. I ducked as ice splinters whistled past my head. Another beast ignited, burning so hot its bones turned to ash within heartbeats.
“Lora!” Erion’s voice was a desperate croak. “Help me!”
More monsters were ripped apart in a raging storm of fire and ice.
“Fall back!” someone roared.
Pirates and guards scattered, voices overlapping in panic. “Retreat! Move!”
Behind Erion, Torvin’s broad frame towered over Kalith’s body, fighting to protect his brother’s corpse.
A blast of searing flames tore from Erion’s back, engulfing both Torvin and the monsters he fought. The guard’s scream tore through the air as he collapsed, his flesh blackening and crumpling in an instant.
Horror squeezed my chest, sharp and suffocating. Erion had just burned our friend alive.
“Erion!” I screamed. “Look at me!”
But his gaze turned skyward as his magic spiraled wider. Chunks of ice spun through the air, alongside molten streams of fire.
If this continued, he’d kill us all. Worse, he’d get himself killed. I had to stop him.
I forced myself through the storm, pouring cold magic through my veins to stave off the flames scorching my back. Ice sliced across my arms as I grabbed his shoulders.
“Erion!”
His skin burned hot, and I threaded my cold into him. I wrapped one arm around his waist and pressed my palm to his cheek, leaning close to his ear.
“Erion, it’s me. Lora. I’m here. I’ve got you. Just breathe. Relax.”
The storm faded. Fire died mid-air and ice shattered against the ground. Erion’s body went limp, crumpling into me. His weight dragged us down until I knelt with him in my lap.
A dozen pirates circled the clearing’s edge, some finishing off the last straggling beasts. Only three guards remained standing. Rika fought a monster alone, while Ravena struggled to keep Mekor upright, his battered body sagging against her shoulder.
The prince stood to one side, his assessing eyes fixed on me.
I made a split decision.
Cradling Erion in one arm, I reached for the river with the other, straining as I heaved it toward me.
A massive wave rose over us both. As the water curled around us, I flung my arm up, encasing us in a sphere of ice. The flood swallowed us, dragging us back into the river. I let it carry us downstream, sealed inside our ice bubble. Away from the pirates. The bodies. The massacre.
Away from the surviving moon guards.
But I couldn’t think about them. Not now.
Already drained from the fight, I struggled to keep the sphere intact, my body trembling. I let Erion slump onto the icy layer at my feet and forced my arms to keep moving.
The roar of the river against the ice wrenched a memory loose. Another ice sphere. Another river. My mother’s face through the frozen wall, her hands waving, whisking me away—even as that vicious sun guard set her on fire.
Anguish slammed into me, thick and suffocating.
By the deep, how many sleepless nights had I spent replaying that moment? Dissecting every choice I’d made, every choice she’d made.
She could have encased us both and taken us away together, like I was doing with Erion. Why had she stayed behind?
My only conclusion always crushed me—she’d panicked and fixed her entire focus on getting me to safety.
My last remaining strength crumbled, and the ice dissolved beneath my feet. I gripped Erion tight as we dropped below the surface. The cool current shocked my exhausted muscles. My lungs squeezed painfully tight.
Moon’s mercy, I had to get him out of the river, but my legs refused to move. The world spun in murky green and fading light.
I curled my fingers in a desperate push, willing the water to obey. My magic sputtered like a dying candle.
Just one last shove. I could do this. For Erion.
For Mother.
I thrust my arm out, and the current surged beneath us, propelling us upward. We broke the surface and the river flung us toward the muddy bank.
Gasping, I dragged Erion onto the shore, hauling him into my lap. His chest rose and fell, and a wet sob escaped me. Still breathing. Still alive.
I traced shaking fingers across his chest in search of wounds. His shoulder bore a ragged puncture where the shredder’s hook had punched through. Torn fabric stained with crimson streaks clung to the wound.
Pressing my palm over the raw flesh, I reached deep inside for the dregs of magic still lingering in my veins. Blue healing light flickered beneath my fingertips, weak and unsteady. Nothing like the confident flow my father or sister wielded. They could knit skin together without leaving a scar.
By the deep, how I wished they were here.
The wound closed with agonizing slowness, the edges of it pulling together like reluctant threads.
A numb throbbing in my own shoulder drifted into my consciousness. Right—the sun prince had pierced me through with his glowing spear. But that would have to wait.
When no more blood seeped through Erion’s sealed injury, I brushed his damp hair from his closed eyes.
“You’re safe now. Everything’s going to be all right.” The lies spilled out in a soft whisper. Nothing was all right. Far from it.
Completely drained, I slumped back against a tree.
We were alone in Blightlands. No boats. No supplies. And those bleeding pirates were still out there. I tilted my head back, almost expecting to see an airship descending upon us. But only dark clouds stretched overhead.
We had to hide. I scanned our surroundings for something resembling shelter. A few stone’s throws away, the carcass of a long-dead monster sprawled across the ground, large as a house. The inside had rotted out, leaving a hollow shell of bones and thick hide stretched over its ribcage.
Maybe not ideal, but it would do.
Erion lay heavy in my lap, face pale, eyes shut. Somehow, I’d have to carry him.
Groaning, I strained to move, to get to my feet, but my muscles refused to cooperate. I slumped back against the trunk, its rough bark digging into my spine.
Just a moment. I needed just a moment to catch my breath.
Everything we’d been through washed over me. Erion losing control and wielding power beyond imagining. A new rift opening and releasing a horde of rift-hounds. The pirates descending upon us.
And the prince.
The annoying, stuck-up, self-righteous prince.
The one who’d struck my shoulder—but aimed for my chest.
The one who’d pulled me against him when a beast lunged for my back.
He tried to kill me. Then he’d saved me.
Sure, I’d saved him first. But he could’ve just shoved me aside. Why wrap his arm around my waist like that?
My mind latched onto the memory of his warm hand holding my wrist. His chest pressed to my back. His breath stirring my hair.
Heat flooded my veins, pooling low in my belly.
Drowning stars, I was going insane.
Of course I was—I’d just witnessed a massacre.
Horrible images clawed at the inside of my skull. Torsos pierced through, guts torn open, limbs ripped apart. The sickening squish of Serelis’ body beneath my boot. Torvin’s anguished scream as he burst into flames.
My stomach roiled, bile burning the back of my throat. None of them deserved such fates.
Well, maybe one did.
Hadrien’s high-pitched yelp as he sprinted away surfaced in my mind. When we needed him most, he’d fled. But the image of those rows of teeth sinking into his face fractured my resentment. Shame twisted through me for even thinking he’d deserved it.
Prickling guilt followed as another memory stirred—Rika, Ravena, and Mekor remaining behind as I swept Erion away. I’d abandoned them to the pirates.
But Zaivareth wanted the Dual Wielder, not the guards. The pirates would probably just leave, allowing the guards to travel back to Six River City. Whisking Erion away had been my only chance to save him—and by doing so, I might have saved the surviving moon guards too.
I clung to the desperate hope, willing it to be true.
But I couldn’t waste time worrying about them now. I had to focus on Erion. We’d have to push on toward Brookfalls and find the sun wielder so he could learn to master his powers. And maybe this was better, just the two of us. We could stay hidden, avoiding unpleasant surprises.
Groaning, I straightened my aching back, gathering the strength to carry Erion to our makeshift shelter.
He jerked in my arms, breath hitching. I smoothed my hand over his hair, whispering reassurances.
His eyes snapped open, wide with terror. “Lora!”
“I’m here.” I pulled him closer.
“Lora…” Water still slicked his forehead, his tawny skin clammy and pale in the moonlight. “Lora, I remember.”
My mouth fell open. “You… you remember who you are?”
He clawed at me, fingers digging into my arm. “I remember… everything.”