Page 391 of Born of Blood and Ash

“The ceeren have slowed,” Ashnoted.

Every muscle in my body tensed. Time seemed to slow to aninfinite crawl, and then I heard Nektas’s voice oncemore. Phanos’s ships are nearing the bay.There was a pause. Ehthawn can seesoldiers on the gangways. Some are beginning to lower boats.

My hands fisted as I repeated the update to Ash.

“I know we want Kolis out in the open before striking, butwe can’t let those ships get close,” Ash reminded me. “They get on shore, we’llbe swamped.”

Holding his gaze, I nodded. Concentrating on Nektas’s imprint, I exhaled slowly. Burn the shipscoming toward the bay. All of them.

There was silence once more as I turned my gaze back to thesky. Theon had been right. From where we stood, we couldn’t see the bay orwhere Ehthawn and Croleewere hidden in the eastern mountain coastline. I didn’t even see or hear themtake flight, but I didn’t take my eyes off the sky over the bay. The cloudswere scattered and wispy but still provided some level of coverage. I held mybreath and counted to five.

Suddenly, the two dark shapes belonging to Ehthawn and his cousin appeared above the clouds. In thenext heartbeat, they broke free, diving toward the bay. Twin streams of flameserupted from them. I sucked in a short breath as the entire landscape suddenlylit up with the silvery glow of draken fire.

We couldn’t see the ships, but we heard the exact moment thefire struck them. It was a boom of splintering wood and a rage of cracklingembers that muffled shouts of pain. The feeling of death followed and keptcoming, pressing down on my chest as Crolee and Ehthawn flew over each other, raining down fierydestruction as they continued farther out.

A piercing whistle came from the sea by the bluffs, jerkingour attention from the silvery glow. The ceeren weremoving once more, racing toward the shore.

“Fire!” Theon called from below.

The sharp whistle of arrows taking to the air quicklyanswered. I wanted to look away but forced myself to watch as the projectilesplummeted at neck-breaking speed. Lean bodies suddenly jerked while others swampast. Fins disappeared under water rapidly turning a reddish hue.

Another volley of arrows was released as the sea churnedwith raw, primal ferocity when the ceeren breachedthe surf. They didn’t even miss a step. Saltwater coursed off their litheforms, and they shed their iridescent scales in a shimmery wave of eather as they withdrew their swords. Within a fewheartbeats, the shore was filled with ceeren. Oursoldiers rushed from the caves. Swords met as arrows ripped through the skyabove them, aiming for those in the water.

My nails dug into my palms when I saw one of ours fall.Eather pressed against my skin as I caught sight of Theon driving his bladethrough a ceeren’s chest. I stepped toward thebluff’s edge—

Clashing of swords from the eastern forests rang out,whipping our heads around. Branches rattled and snapped as bursts of eather lit up the shadows.

The echo of death was continuous now.

Our first line in the forest fell with shocking swiftness,causing my heart to stutter. Essence poured into my veins.

“Breathe.” Ash captured my hand. The feeling of hisflesh against mine was grounding. “You need to conserve your energy for whenKolis gets here.”

It took everything in me to hold back as Kolis’s soldiersburst from the shadows of the forest hugging the field’s edges, a sea ofcrimson sweeping across the land.

A crackling bolt of eather echoedfrom below, slamming into the center of the soldiers as Attesled the second line out onto the field in a clash of shadowstoneand eather. It was hard to make sense of what I wasseeing for a moment. The fighting was chaotic and brutal, drenching the tallgrass in shimmering red.

A shout from behind us caused my heart to drop. I turned tothe trees, fingers splaying wide as blades streaked against blades and armorechoed.

“They got behind us somehow.” Ash cursed. “That divisionmust’ve split off at some point, skirting the area to come up the bluffs.”

I reached behind me and unsheathed my sword, catching quick,darting glimpses of crimson among the trees.

“Here they come,” Ash said, unhooking the short swords fromhis chest.

The air thrummed with tension as the ground beneath usvibrated with pounding footfalls. I couldn’t think of Bele, Rhain, or anyoneflanking us. I had to focus.

Without warning, a figure leapt from one of the jaggedcliffs above, his silhouette outlined against the sky for half a second. Therewas a glint of something dull and white.

He landed before me with a thud and rose as several morefigures came over the cliff. My gaze locked with the one before me. His eyeswere a pale, milky blue, framed by wings painted in crimson.

Revenants.

I had to give it to Kolis. Sending the ones who couldn’teasily be killed to the Temple was clever.

Darting to the left, I dipped under the Revenant’s swing andpopped up. My sword cut through the air, cleaving the Revenant’s neck. Bloodspewed as he fell forward.

“Not the head.” Ash kicked a Revenant back into the rockywall. “We need their mouths or, at the very least, their throats intact.”

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