Page 76 of Bound By Darkness

My eyes widened as I gripped the curve of metal. Was I swift enough to outrun a blast? Could I duck in time? What if I moved first, striking him where he stood? Would that?—

The weapon sparked and a flash of blue starlight caught my eye before the stream of black erupted from it. I was going to die. The spark of the weapon too fast to maneuver from as I waited for the buzzing sensation to overtake my body.

I’m sorry Thalia. I’m breaking our promise.

But there was no impact. No gruesome scream as my eyes widened.

I had not taken the hit.

Her body froze, her mouth opening in a silent screech as she looked at me, blood oozing from the wells of her eyes before she vanished in a flash of sparkling night.

Where she had once stood, only a pile of charred ash remained.

I dropped to my knees as my hands shook above ash.

Ellia—she was gone. A pile the wind slowly stole with each breath.

My hands gathered ash and soot, as if it would bring her back. Bring back what she’d done for me.

Wails erupted from my chest as tears plopped onto the ashen pile. She’d given her life for a coward’s.

A scream tore through my chest, hollow and raw as something glittered in that pile of soot. My fingers reached into it as I pulled the necklace I’d gifted her.

How it’d survived, I had no idea, but I wrapped it around my hand as I stood, raw streaks of red stinging my cheeks. Her death would not go in vain. Rage replaced sadness, a darker vice than any Draven had gifted me.

The sentinel grinned. “What a pity. I thought?—”

The sword flung from my hand,striking him through the chest as it pinned him to the rock behind. The blade was imbedded into stone, burning wood curling around my nostrils.

Casting—hot and potent flowed from my hands as that power fueled my heartbeats.

The sentinel coughed, blood splattering against iron. His hands shook as he raised the weapon despite the blood pooling from the wound. “You… will die,” he rasped, eyes drooping as the blood loss devoured his life.

Blinding hot rage seared my eyes and skin as something festered below the casting,hungryand deep. I tapped into that power as sparks of blue kissed my fingertips, years of torment clinging to them.

This was for the years I’d let men defile me. The years I’d let Gayle abuse me for scraps of food and tonics. Years of hands caressing my skin under the blanket of night so that I might not die. This was for the dead souls in the cave.

This was for Ellia—for her sacrifice. For believing in a coward who’d lost her way.

I held nothing back as I grabbed his neck, driving every ounce of casting ability into his fragile neck until I ripped it clean from his body.

I tossed it like a sack of potatoes as his body slumped against rock, the sword pinning his twitching legs to stone.

My lungs screamed with excess air as I stared at my fingertips bleeding blue. It was aiding my casting as I turned to the rest of them.

“Move!” I screamed, pain lacing each syllable. “Go!”

The rest of the prisoners scrambled to their feet as they hauled themselves down the mountainside, leaving me alone with a song of grief.

My hands gripped my hair as tears filled the pools of my eyes at that ashen pile.

I wept as the necklace burned my hand.

Between rasping sobs, a lament wailed from my lips as I blessed her, wherever she was. I prayed to the gods to hold her tight in my stead.

Shewould not be forgotten.

I would leave Galar and tell her story—tell the story of what happened beneath these cliffs as I walked down the hillside.

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