CHAPTER 45
THE COST OF WAR
Together, or not at all.
- The Arcanth
The battle had become a haze of bodies, blood and steel.
Hours, maybe more – Kara couldn’t tell. The sun had dropped low, turning the smoke above deep red, like the sky itself was bleeding.
Kara, to her own amazement, still stood.
Her whole body ached, her arm was bleeding, but she stood.
Around her, the Vallennan line refused to break.
They were holding their line. She’d started to believe they could do this.
Then he appeared.
The monstrous figure, that mountain of a man cloaked in darkness and ebony magic, strode across the field.
Kara knew without explanation, beyond doubt, that he was worse than all that had come before him.
A ripple moved through the Draken ranks at his approach.
The snarls quieted. Their heads bowed for the briefest instant, as if compelled, then rose again.
But now, with renewed fury. Not respect, not loyalty – it was blind submission.
Fear. But the man’s gaze was fixed on her and Sebastian, even as he cut down any that got in his way with terrifying ease.
The shadows twisted tighter around him as he approached, armour pulsing with streaks of black crystal.
He stopped a few feet away from them. Black veins ran across his hands, darker than the others, raised like scars, pulsing with the Dracanth’s power.
When he spoke, his voice carried, deep and resonant, but with an undertone of the same unnatural hiss his soldiers bore.
“I am Prince Silas, heir of Draknor. Remember the name of the one who puts you in the ground.”
Kara’s skin crawled but Sebastian only tilted his head, a smirk twisting his bloodied mouth. “Prince, huh? Must be a small kingdom if you’re bragging about it here.”
Fear radiated through their bond, but she couldn’t see a trace of it on his face; his gaze stayed locked on Silas.
Sebastian glanced around the halted Draken line. “If you wanted to impress me, you should’ve brought an army that could actually win.”
Silas didn’t flinch. His lips curled, not into amusement, but something colder.
“Jests. Smirks. Fear in disguise.” He stared at Kara with his black hollowed eyes and the emptiness in them made her shiver.
Then he inhaled deeply, as if tasting the air.
“Ah... that bond of yours. I can smell it. Two souls tangled together, all that... feeling.” He moved towards her. “How touching.”
Sebastian stepped in front of Kara, blade raised. “Get away from her,” he spat.
Silas eyed him curiously, taking in the crimson cloak on his shoulders, the sigil covered in dark blood on his breastplate. “Ah, that’s Thorne, isn’t it? So brave, so protective. But tell me... how brave will you be when I carve the life out of you?”
She felt Sebastian’s rage surge white-hot at Silas’s words but he only flashed a smirk. “You can try.”
Kara knew he was seconds away from striking.
Silas’s gaze lingered on Kara again, voice dropping to a low hiss. “You’ll watch him bleed. Feel him fall. That is the gift of your bond, isn’t it? To suffer twice.”
The shadows at his feet writhed closer to them as he spoke, growing stronger.
They slithered across the ground and snaked around them, black and choking.
Kara felt them brush against her mind, stealing her strength.
For the second time, her mind was corrupted.
Full of her worst fears, her worst memories.
Sebastian on the pyre, Sebastian bleeding on the ground.
The visions tore through her skull, echoing words she’d heard before.
Not Silas’s voice. Cade’s. Cold and cruel.
You’ll make a pretty fire, Kara Hale.
Cade’s face rose from the dark, the jeering sneer so real she gagged as the nausea rose.
See if we can get you screaming my name instead.
The shadows thickened until all she saw was Cade reaching for her again, dragging her back to that cell. She staggered, feeling the bond tremble with Sebastian’s matching terror as the dark magic clawed at him too. She forced her eyes open and saw Sebastian’s sword dip slightly.
No, not again. Not ever again.
Kara flung her free hand out. Ice-white magic, threaded with gold, erupted from her palm, blindingly bright. It chased away the darkness – it recoiled, hissing like it was alive. The visions fizzled out. The whispers quieted. Sebastian’s steadiness returned in her chest.
Silas only tilted his head, unimpressed. “Not bad,” he drawled. “But you are no Caldris.”
She pushed harder, deeper, past the exhaustion and fear. She shot the same golden-white magic directly into his chest with enough force to make him stagger backwards, just one step.
“I don’t need to be,” she snarled.
Sebastian struck. No hesitation. He was speed and precision and pure rage.
But Silas was strong. Stronger even than Sebastian with his crimson running through his veins.
Kara hurled herself forward, blade raised, ice-white magic giving way to crimson which hummed across her body.
She refused to let him stand alone. The three collided in a storm of steel and shadow, Silas meeting them both blow for blow as if their combined strength were nothing.
Two Thorne soldiers stormed forward to help, but Silas jerked a hand in their direction without breaking his stride.
The soldiers were gone in an instant – viciously hurled metres across the field, wrapped in darkness and shadow.
They didn’t get up. Sebastian flung out his free hand, and tree roots snaked up Silas’s legs, binding him.
Kara seized the opening and pushed out her golden mist, surrounding Silas.
Hope flared – she thought she might put him under – but his shadows reared, swallowing her magic whole as he tore himself free, laughing at their efforts.
It hit her then. Sebastian’s doubt. He was trying to hide it – protecting her even now. But the truth bled into her all the same. He wasn’t sure they could beat him. The thought shook her more than the enemy they were fighting. They’d survived so far; they’d damn well survive this.
Come on, Sebastian. We can do this.
She didn’t know if he heard her – his mind locked on Silas, survival, the next strike.
Sebastian snarled, and flung his free hand towards the sea.
A towering wall of water answered, slamming into Silas with enough force to shatter bones.
The water rushed violently against the dark crystal of his armour, pulling him under.
But he strode out of the flood like it was no more than light rainfall, his shadows burning viciously around him.
Kara seized the chance anyway. She reached for Lyran magic and thrust violet light at his mind, his heart, his will.
She poured despair into him – loss, dread, the fear and hopelessness she’d once drowned in – trying to crush him from within.
Feel it. Feel what you’ve done to us. Break under it.
But when her magic struck, there was nothing. Just an empty, endless void. The Dracanth had hollowed him out. Silas felt nothing. No grief, no fear for her to grip. His laughter sounded across the battlefield, cold and merciless.
“You think me human enough to weep?” Silas hissed, shoving her light away with a pulse of shadow. “I have no heart. No soul. Only the Dracanth remains.”
Silas swung, black steel meeting Sebastian’s blade with a clash that echoed through her. Kara dove in at his flank, her sword slicing for the gap in Silas’s armour. His grin slipped as her blade drew blood.
Sebastian pressed the advantage, crimson roaring over him as he drove Silas back a step, then another. Kara threw a golden-ruby shield over Sebastian, deflecting a blow that would have shattered his ribs, and together they struck again.
The Prince of Draknor stumbled for the first time.
Then everything tilted. Another Draken landed a brutal strike straight into Kara’s side, sending her crashing to the ground.
She hit the earth hard, her breath knocked clean out of her.
When she looked up, a towering Draken stood over her.
Broader than all but Silas himself, face jagged with scars, his blade already rising for the next blow.
His stare cold and full of purpose. She threw up a Fatàn shield, felt a shock jolt through her as his blade hit it.
She rolled away and hauled herself to her feet.
Sebastian’s panic at them being separated jolted through her.
His fear for her. It broke through on his face for the first time.
She sent nothing but reassurance back, he couldn’t be distracted. Not now.
I’m okay. Keep fighting.
The Draken’s shadow loomed closer, pressing her back step by step, blades clashing. Sebastian was still locked in combat with Silas, but maybe twenty paces away now. Every second between them was a second too long. He was faltering without her, Silas’s shadows were weakening him–
No–
But this soldier, this wretched wall of steel and darkness, would not let her pass. He drove her further back with each strike, baring his blackened teeth. “Too slow, Warrior,” he chuckled. “Your Commander dies today.”
“Get out of my way!” she screamed, panic tearing at her.
“Oh, do you love him?” the soldier grinned, enjoying her terror.
She heard Silas snarl, “You fight well. Very well. The best I’ve faced,” as he pushed Sebastian back a step. “But it won’t be enough.”
Kara feinted left, then drove her blade through the gap in his guard and with a ruthless strike she finally dropped the Draken blocking her way.
Tobias was fighting his way towards them too, but he was much further away than she was.
Kara ran. Just ten paces now. Then five.
She threw out her hand in desperation, a shield, mist, anything.
I can get there. I have to get there.