Chapter 49
Forty-Nine
Elora
Between the arrows flying and the steel clanging, I can’t keep up with the movement around me. So different from the quiet of the wood. So angry and violent and dreadfully loud.
“Elora, move!” Tallulah calls, unleashing her ivy to stop a guard inches from my face.
I hadn’t even noticed he was there. I back up a step, placing my hands over my ears.
The ivy wraps around the man's throat, and within minutes, he’s given up his fight with death. My eyes go wide as I watch the snake-like plant slither back into Tallulah’s palms, as if it were never there at all.
“Are you all right?” She grasps my hand, dragging me toward the crowd when all I want to do is run away from it. Evren grunts from behind Tallulah; I peer around her just as he pulls his blade from a guard. His own face and arms bloodied but there’s no telling who the blood belongs to.
I push past Tallulah, weaving through men and women fighting, swords clanging, bones breaking. My eyes land on Samaria, her hands raised as a dozen more guards head our way.
“Sam!” She doesn’t move, her body rigid, her bow tossed to the ground. “Sa?—”
Something heavy collides with my back, bringing me to my knees.
A rough hand yanks me up, his breath hot next to my ear. I wriggle my wrists, trying to free myself from his grip, but a sickening crunch has the man dropping his hold on me and toppling to the ground.
Scrambling, I scurry backward, just as the wolf pups begin to attack him.
“Elora!” Jarek calls my name, but I can’t find him. There are so many people, everyone screaming and running.
“Elora!” he says again and this time, his hand wraps around my arm, pulling me up. “Stay with me.”
His hands tremble, his blue eyes lined with uncertainty. I nod, attempting to regain my composure. Jarek pulls me through the crowd until we’re near Samaria again. Her fiery eyes are glossed over and white, her face blanched and her body unmoving.
“What is this?” I ask, the words all running together. “What’s happening to her?”
Tallulah and Evren join us, their chests heaving and faces gaunt. Another line of guards rushes from the castle. Tallulah raises her hands, but they tremble and she winces as she attempts to move her wrists.
“She must have opened herself up,” Tallulah says through a grunt, a long strand of ivy wrapping itself around another guard. “She’s using herself as a portal for the spirits.”
My eyes drift past Sam, into the courtyard where guard after guard drops to the ground. Some slam into it, as if being yanked by some invisible rope. Others cower, hail from a few perfectly placed clouds pelting their faces and hands.
“You’ve exhausted yourself.” Evren clasps Tallulah’s hands in his, shaking his head. I can’t decide if there are more freckles on his face or blood splatters. His sword hangs from his hip, dripping red. “We’ve all exhausted ourselves,” he says, turning to Jarek and I.
“You need to—” I’m cut off by a guard to my right, his blade nicking my shoulder. I dodge just as he swings it again, this time it barely misses the top of my head.
Jarek groans and when I brave a glance, he is going toe-to-toe with another guard. His ax straining, the red in his face spreading to his neck.
“Tallulah!” Evren shouts as he swings his blade, stopping a man just before he reaches her.
The light stone ground is painted red. Another gush of air hits me as the guard tries again with his sword, but he misses and that’s when I call my magick, whispering to the rain falling from the sky, coercing it to turn to flame. As the man before me burns, a satisfied smile spreads across my face.
But all too soon, it slips away when I glance back at Sam and a guard is there, a blade to her skin.
“No!” I lunge myself forward just as he swipes it, a line of red beading across the delicate skin of her throat. She drops to the ground, her eyes rolling in the back of her head. The man raises his blade again, but all in a breaths time, Jarek is there, with his ax embedded in the man's stomach.
“Sam,” Jarek drops his bloodied ax to the ground.
Sam coughs, her eyes resuming their natural color. “I’m okay,” she says, her voice hoarse. “He didn’t cut me deep.” She sits up, her breaths short.
“We can’t continue on like this,” Evren says, holding Tallulah up. Her face has gone pale while her palms are angry and red.
“We’re not alone.” Sam nods to the courtyard where all I see is guard after guard swarming toward us. She holds a hand to her throat, pressing against a wound I fear is much worse than she’s letting on. “Enchantress spirits.” She glances at me and then to Tallulah. “I just need to open myself up again?—”
“No.” Jarek’s voice is firm but Sam brushes him off, holding her hands in the air. “You’ll run your magick dry. Not to mention the risk?—”
“I’m not afraid, Jarek,” she says and then her eyes meet mine and I know what we must do.
Together.
“Neither am I,” I say. Squaring my shoulders, I clench and unclench my fists, looking between Jarek and Evren. “You need to get as many people as you can outside of the gate. Take the pups, Alaric and Ruse will stay with me.”
Ruse barks, her teeth barred.
She’s just as ready as I am.
“I want to fight,” Tallulah says, but as she steps out of Evren’s grip her knees go slack. Her face crumples, something broken and defeated passing over it.
“You’ve done more than enough, Tallulah,” I say. “The others will need you, please. Go with them.”
She glances up at me through her dark lashes and nods.
“It’s too dangerous,” Jarek says, grasping my shoulder. I place my hand on his, but only for a moment, before Sam fires an arrow and Evren is swinging his blade.
“There is no more time, Jarek! Get as many people out as you can.”
His attention directs to Sam, to the red trickling from her neck. He nods and then he’s ushering herds of people outside of the gates, leaving Sam and I to fend off the rest of the guards.
I quickly assess the remaining guards before my eyes drift to the people fleeing to the forest.
For so long, I feared my existence would be nothing more than a hollow shell moving across the shadows of the earth. Death, teetering at the edges of my mind, a sweet promise never quite fulfilled. But now I’ve seen death. Seen all it threatens to take from me. And while I do not fear it, I no longer welcome it.
Sam steps next to me, her final arrow trembling in her fingertips.
My fingertips burn, my palms heating. I glance at Sam again, her bow hanging at her sides, her face bloodied.
“This is it, Sam,” I shout against the rising storm of guards now charging from the castle. Most everyone else has left the courtyard and it’s just me and Sam and our magick.
Her eyes slide to her left, then to her right, as if she’s seeking approval from someone who isn’t there. My stomach drops as I watch her face, speckled with crimson.
“I'm ready.” She closes her eyes briefly before they snap open again, milky and white.
Ruse and Alaric don’t wait for my orders before they’re charging toward the guards. A few turn and run, not realizing just how much the wolves love the chase.
As the last wave of guards approach, I take a steadying breath and raise my hands.
The two guards before me fall to their knees, grasping at their chests as their lungs fill with dirt. Sam brushes my arm, her eyes are glazed, her wrists still raised.
“Sam!” I shake her, but she doesn’t budge.
My heart races as two more guards approach her side, but I don’t have time to stop them before another reaches me on my left. His blade nicks my arm, warmth spreading through my tunic. But my magick and I have grown comfortable these last few weeks and now it’s almost as natural as breathing. I move my wrist, calling to the rain to turn to ice and impale the guard’s neck.
I turn as he drops and my eyes go wide as Sam remains in the same position, unmoving, with a dozen dead guards at her feet.
Guard after guard filters toward us, some dropping before they make it a few steps, others managing to weave through the invisible soldiers Sam somehow has control over and make it close enough for me to steal the air from their lungs or better yet turn it to fire.
The wolves haven’t stopped either, their coats matted and teeth red.
The courtyard soon falls quiet. The wolves have disappeared beyond where I can see but pride and rage and joy all war in my chest and I exhale.
We’ve won .
Sam falls, bumping my side with a yelp. Her cheek hits the ground and her eyes snap open, vibrant as flames.
“Sam.” I drop down and grasp her arm. “You have to get up!”
She cradles her head and moans.
A boot slams into my back, shoving my face into the cobblestone next to Sam. She winces as she attempts to stand and is met with the heel of a boot to the side of her face.
“Filthy,” a man snarls.
I squirm, attempting to get free, but the iron burns as my wrists are locked together once again.