Page 209 of A Dawn of Gods & Fury

I grit my teeth in anger at myself. I should have seen it for what it was—a trap. They used whatever that thing was to distract us, so they could get close.

A soldier stands on the other side of Annika’s horse, holding a blade to Annika’s throat. An empty threat. She’s the most valuable being in all of Udrel, but only if she’s alive.

They must have hauled Destry from her horse in the seconds we were distracted, because now they hold her at knifepoint, her arms secured behind her back.

“That was an Udrelian, punished by the curse.” The willowy Azyr with russet skin gestures toward the beast.

I startle at the sight. The creature I just killed has vanished. In its place, a young woman with tawny flesh lies in the bramble. A silver band adorns her ring finger. She was someone’s mate. Now she’s dead on a forest floor, her body to be picked apart by the vultures.

“These are the people who suffer for your selfishness, kal’ana.” The conjurer’s black eyes settle on Annika.

“I did not agree to be anyone’s sacrifice,” Annika spits out, her voice trembling.

“Not all have the luxury of making that choice. But your sacrifice will change the lives of an entire realm. It will give your life meaning.” She shifts her focus to Destry. “We have been looking for you, Destrelia the deserter, who continues to betray her kind.” Her bony hand yanks the pendant from around Destry’s neck and stuffs it into her pocket. “We have wasted enough time. King Hadkiel awaits. Take the kal’ana. The other two are of no use to us.”

Even a fool can read the meaning behind those words.

A thorny branch whips across the Azyr’s eyes, drawing her cry as she shields her injury with her palm.

Annika lifts her chin with defiance.

“Good girl,” I murmur. I hope you can handle heights without me. Coaxing the dripping branches of the willow trees around us down with my affinity, I rope them around both Annika’s and Destry’s waists, and haul them up into the thick branches. “Hold on tight!”

With them out of the way, I swing my blades.

59

Annika

I hug the tree trunk as if my life depends on it—because it does—and watch with equal parts admiration and terror as Tyree cuts through these woodland soldiers, spinning and diving, his movements like a choreographed dance.

But there are too many for him to keep track of them all.

“Behind you!” I shriek.

He bends and swings, blocking the coming blade while he attacks with his other. The soldier collapses to the ground with a lethal wound across his torso.

“I feel so helpless up here,” I moan in despair.

“Use the branches!” Destry pushes, followed by a shout of, “On your right!”

Tyree leaps out of the way from fighting one soldier, and the two cut each other down with their momentum.

I wish my affinity were stronger, but it’s enough to injure that evil Azyr at least. She still holds a palm over her eye, but the other two are doing something, their hands folded over their pendants.

Something that will no doubt harm Tyree.

Straining, I focus on a tree branch above one of them, splintering its fibers at the joint. It snaps and tumbles down, clobbering her over the head. She crumples into a heap, her hand empty of her pendant, and a whirl of satisfaction grips me.

I squash it quickly because there is still one more.

Concentrating on the bramble around her legs, I use the thin, thorny branches as switches, whipping her thighs and calves over and over.

She releases her pendant with her yelps, running from her spot.

A well-placed dagger from Tyree into the back of her neck ends her flight.

He follows it with a blade swing for the Azyr I whipped in the eye, cutting her down. He kills the last three soldiers before his ragged breaths carry to our perch. “See any hiding?”

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