Chapter 56 #2
That is not something he does lightly, and I hear his whispered, Please forgive me, as he rips out another throat.
There is no jesting about tracheas now.
I stand, ready to strike again, only for a hammering noise to steal my attention. The ice wall. The Morathkians on the other side of the blockade are trying to bring it down. And if it falls like this – as a giant block of ice – it will crush every one of us.
‘Move back!’ I scream, sending spears of ice flying out into several Morathkians. ‘They’re going to bring the wall down!’
‘Can you take its magic?’ Kyor calls back to me between bolts of lightning that fork into a dozen men’s chests simultaneously as he works in formation with Uzra and his soldiers.
‘What would I do with it?’ I cry back as I hurl up an ice shield of my own and then twist more roots to the surface.
‘Give it to me.’
He says the words with only a hint of uncertainty, but his confidence has no bearing on my response. ‘Kyor, I don’t know if I can. Not after Ruben. I… We need to find another way.’
His eyes meet mine over the fray and there’s no pressure in them. He understands. He also understands that there are only two people in the ‘we’. This is our fight alone now.
‘People of Isthyr!’ I bellow with all the strength I have. ‘Get down the mountainside! Retreat! Now!’
‘Princess—’ Uzra calls out.
‘Kyor and I have this!’ I yell.
‘We won’t leave you!’
‘That’s a direct order from your princess. Now move!’ Kyor’s voice booms out.
There is no further debate. One after another, Issen men and women scurry down the ravine as the creaking of the wall amplifies around us, arrows flying through the air from behind us to protect those who are retreating.
‘Aulia!’
‘I will not leave you, Skakka, so save your breath,’ she replies.
‘Fine,’ I huff. I don’t have the time or will to argue with her. Besides, I’m aware that despite wanting the dagger, few Morathkians have got anywhere near me, and I suspect she might be the reason.
My heart is thundering in my chest as the giant wall bows directly towards us. Any second now, it’s going to topple straight onto the ledge. Unless…
I fucking own it.
When push comes to shove, you do everything in your power to protect the people you love.
Kyor is here. Isthyr is below me.
When push comes to shove, I get it done. With a long breath in, I draw the power all the way into my hands, my belly, my lungs, and my heart. I fill every part of my body with that white-hot energy.
You can do this, I tell myself. I’ve only ever used my Issen magic simultaneously with my Morathkian magic once in my life, when I ripped a crack in my bedroom wall then grew flowers out of it.
But if I can do this – extend the canopy of the trees and use them to stop and trap the Morathkians as they come through the pyrrhic, while simultaneously pushing a snowstorm outward to stop the ice wall from falling on our forces, or at least slow down its descent to give us time to escape – it will give us a chance.
Of course it won’t stop the Morathkians on the other side from charging in, but if they’re clustered close together, then hopefully Kyor should be able to—
‘Skakka!’
My focus is so locked on what I’m about to do that I don’t even notice the Morathkian sneaking up to the left of me until she suddenly lunges for the dagger. Her hand grips it for less than a millisecond before she screams out in pain as its heat sears her hands.
Before she can even look at the wound, I instinctively send a shard of ice straight through her heart.
We can’t lose the blade.
We can’t.
‘That was too fucking close,’ I pant.
‘Okay,’ Kyor says. ‘We’re just going to need to hit this with everything we’ve got. You’ve got a plan?’
‘Yeah, just do what you do best, my love,’ I tell him.
He nods, no need for any further explanation. He’ll do his thing, I’ll do mine, and fingers crossed we’ll survive this.
‘Thorn, just so you know—’
‘No fucking way,’ I cut him off before he can offer any love-drenched goodbyes. ‘Remember the kraken. Remember what you told me then.’
His eyes flick to mine, a smirk lifting his lips.
‘I was just going to say, I’ll see you on the other side.’
I grin back, hoping he can’t see the fear that fills me. ‘Here it comes!’ I yell.
The creak is deafening, a thunderous roar that’s bolstered by the cheers of the Morathkians on the other side of the wall as they bring it down.
But I’m ready.
Drawing every ounce of magic I can, I pull power from the ice and from every fibre of this Gods-given earth.
Branches shudder, then snap skyward as though yanked by unseen hands.
Roots rip through the earth with violent force, tearing free of the soil in thick, writhing coils that twist and knot together.
They lunge for the Morathkians as they push forward, tangling around limbs, dragging them down, forcing snarls and curses from their throats. One stumbles. Then another.
One part of my body is completely infused with Etta’s magic, but I’m not done. The other part of me is filled to bursting with my Issen powers.
Ice forms in jagged bursts, slicing through the air as I thrust my hands forward, dragging wind and frost together into a desperate, howling force. It slams into the descending wall, slowing its fall only by a fraction. But that’s something. If I can just give a little more…
The thought has barely formed when my arms begin to shake. A second later, my lungs begin burning. The sensation is a world away from the one Ranveeg tried to make me suffer, yet no less painful. And the outcome could be just as horrific.
There is too much power coursing through me.
It claws at my insides, tearing, stretching, demanding more space than I have to give. My veins feel too small, my skin too tight, like I’m going to split open and spill magic instead of blood.
‘Stop, Thorn! You’re going to burn yourself out!’ Kyor screams at me.
‘Just end this!’ I roar back. ‘Give it everything!’
My muscles are trembling, my lungs struggling to draw a single ounce of air as I watch Kyor lift his hands into the air, the sky darkening so completely that, if it were not for the green hue that crosses his face, I would think it was Magnus’s power.
But it’s not.
It’s Kyor, giving everything he’s got, just like I asked him to.
As I tilt my face to look at him, a single image fills my mind. An image of flame-filled eyes.
I try to scream, try to tell him to hold back, but I’m waning. Draining. I can feel it.
Before a single sound leaves my throat, a blast of lightning so bright it nearly blinds me sears across the sky before branching out into a thousand prongs that strike the intended targets with perfect precision.
The force of the blast is enough to knock my flailing frame to the ground, and my head slams against the stone-cold ground. Stars dance in my eyes as I struggle to see, to find Kyor, to breathe, and pain sears through the back of my skull.
Whether they won, or we did, I don’t know, but we did as we promised.
We gave it everything we had.
Everything.
My breath hovers in the air, an empty exhale with no response before the darkness consumes me entirely.