Page 10 of An Honored Vow

The beast tracked my movement. Its long beak snapped at me, but my wings were more agile than the giant’s. It let out a terrifying caw, and for the moment, it seemed to have forgotten its second meal below.

I flew with all the strength I had left. My magic was mostly depleted, but I needed to lure the beast away. I soared higher and higher, and thewaateyshirfollowed. I counted another ten beats of my wings and hoped it was enough.

They had better run.

I tucked my wings in tight and let myself drop into a free fall, lunging between the beast’s shadowy wing and long neck. Thewaateyshir’s head snapped in my direction, but it took time for a beast so large to change direction mid-flight. It spread its wings, covering the city in their shadow as it cut a curve across the sky.

The beast’s shriek was even more piercing in my eagle form. My vision blurred with the need to concentrate. I opened my wings and felt the air move as thewaateyshirflapped its own behind me. Gerarda and Elaran ran down the hillside path, only steps from the other Halflings.

But Victoria was not with them.

My stomach plummeted as I opened my wings. She stood on the rubble, holding a little boy and a lit torch. I recognized him as the toddler who had been on her hip the last day I saw her. The Halfling with the stitched ears.

Julian.

She looked up, gave me one decisive nod, and threw the boy over the cliff’s edge. All I saw next was her waving arms, catching the attention of the beast as she ran in the direction of the soldiers with a fiery torch flaming above her head.

I dove and snatched the boy from the air. With a flash of light, I was cradling him in one arm as I wrapped a stream of water around our legs, catching us as gently as I could manage.

I grabbed for the cliff edge and the sickening shriek of thewaateyshirechoed above us. A bone-shattering pain tore through my body as I touched the earth. Not from my magic, but from the connection.I felt the pulsing life of Victoria and each soldier fade away in an instant. The pain was sharp and hollowing, like someone had carved out my innards.

I stilled, waiting for thewaateyshirto move toward the Halflings, but it flew toward the barracks in the other direction. The boy giggled and tugged at my braid. I gave him a hollow laugh but did not let go of the cliff.

I hadn’t been able to feel the edge of Victoria in the chaos, but now her absence was a hard form I could trace the edges of like a shape cut from a tapestry. Her death was unmistakable. I didn’t know if it was my magic or my soul feeling the loss of my dear friend. But it didn’t matter because I hadn’t felt anything like it before.

The pain of it consumed me. But only Victoria’s death, not the soldiers being turned to ash all over Silstra. Only the person I knew. My breath hitched. The feeling was so overwhelming that, had anyone else died since my powers had reached their full strength, I would have felt it.

Which meant Nikolai was alive.

CHAPTERFOUR

“OW!”

The toddler tugged on my braid hard enough that there were more than a few loose strands between his grubby fingers. He giggled at my grimace and waited for a smile, but I couldn’t give him one. My body ached with exhaustion and grief. It took what was left of my energy to pull a thick spout from the thrashing water below and use it to carry us to the edge of the river.

Elaran waited for me at the bottom. “Gerarda already sent word to Feron. He will be ready when we return to discuss …” She raised her hand to the sky that was beginning to clear over the wood. The thick bands of stars glimmered through wisps of shadow while the remaining soldiers’ shrieks echoed in the distance.

Thewaateyshirwould be occupied long enough for us to get tothe portal. My back relaxed, and my magic settled to a low simmer under my skin.

Julian giggled in my arms. I wrapped the boy around my shoulders hoping he would leave my braid alone, but his fingers dug in to hold himself steady.

“You’re not very motherly,” she said, her voice completely deadpan as she wriggled her fingers up at the boy.

“My mother stuffed me in a tree for seven hundred years.” I winced as Julian tugged again. “And the only parents I ever saw at the Order were the ones who dropped their daughters off in the middle of the night. None of them were particularly motherly either.”

Elaran’s teasing smirk faltered. I’d hit a nerve.

Whatever it was, she steeled herself just as quickly. “Why don’t we let the grumpy, sullen Fae protect us with her special magic powers while you come with me,” she said in an exaggerated high-pitched voice that made my ears hurt. She reached up for the boy, and he opened his arms for her.

“I could have walked him to the portal,” I grumbled.

Elaran raised a brow at me. “You have blood all over your face. I’m saving the poor thing from a childhood of nightmares.” She tucked him onto her hip, and he immediately rested his head on her shoulder.

“I think maybe the humongous bird of death might have already done that.”

Elaran looked at my boots. It took her eyes a long time to make it to my face again. “I refuse to believe that Hildegard taught you to fight with so little grace.”

I looked down. My tunic and leathers were covered in thick smears of red. The parts that weren’t sticky with blood were stained dark from ash.

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