Page 109 of Blood of Ancients

Blotchy, muddy footsteps followed from every direction. Dokkalfar jolted to their feet and ran off, scampering into the mists to fight another day.

My shallow breath came out weak. I turned to the final fight, the last blades clashing—

Just as the man-bun Dokkalfar kicked Corym in the stomach—sending him stumbling back—and whirred away like a smoke-bomb, vanishing into the fog.

Quietness fell over the muddy, bloody stage.

My shoulders slumped, dizziness taking its toll. My mates closed in around me. I walked toward Arne, on his back, closer to Lady Elayina than any of us. He was still flabbergasted and looked lost, the poor boy.

When my eyes lifted from him, I found the ancient half-elven seer staring at us with a frown on her wrinkled, weathered face.

The vines, fungi, and tendrils of green wrapped around her body slowly slithered off, revealing her skinny, gaunt form underneath.

She seemed to shimmer with great and terrible power as she stood straight. Her treacherous strength scared me with its arcane notes, its vigor, so primeval and raw—an elder force from an archaic time.

Our eyes met. Hers widened in recognition.

And then she collapsed in the mud.

Chapter 30

Ravinica

“Anvari!” Corym yelled, rushing to Lady Elayina’s aid.

The fight was forgotten. The Dokkalfar had escaped into the mists like wraiths, while a handful of dead dark elves littered the swampy grounds in front of Elayina’s cave.

I was still, awestruck as I took in Elayina’s power. The ancient elf hadflownthrough the air out of her cave like a catapult. She’d been wreathed in energy and roots, almost as if she was part of the great tree left behind in her sanctuary.

My mates moved toward Corym. Kneeling at the unconscious seer, he held her head in his lap. She looked frail now, her power sapped out just as quickly as it had come.

The rustling of footsteps and creaking of gear snapped me out of my daze, and I hurried over. “W-What’s wrong with her?”

Corym’s head whipped up with a pale expression. “She’s dying here. Her attack disconnected her from her roots.”

I bit my lip nervously. Grim, Sven, and Kelvar looked outward, in case the elves decided to attack again in our moment of recovery.

“Can we . . . reconnect her to the tree?” I asked, glancing up to the dark mouth of her cave. The sides of it were crumbling where she’d tossed that dark elf into the stones like a ragdoll, forming a crater in the shape of a body.

Corym shook his head, running a tender hand over Elayina’s wrinkled face. Her eyes darted under her lids. “No,” he said at last. “We must take her back to Alfheim. It’s her only chance of survival.”

“How do you know?” I asked, immediately feeling dumb for posing the question.

“Remember what I told you about our blood being one with the land? If we bring her into Kiir’luri, perhaps the organic energy in the forest will revitalize her.”

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