Page 104 of An Honored Vow

I took in a shaky breath as my hands grasped Riven’s bleeding arm. My healing gift surged forward the moment my skin met his. It swirled around the length of his arm, as if looking for what had been cut away, and finally healed over the blunt end that would never hold a hand again.

Awaateyshirfired an attack onto the city and people fled back into the field to avoid the blast. Commoners and soldiers alike ran, each desperate to put as much distance between them and theshirakas possible. I looked at the shattered pendant on the ground. There was no hope of controlling the beasts now. And there was no chance we could hold them off until the suns rose.

Dynara reappeared through a portal. “Take Crison and Gwyn—”

“But I want to fight!” Gwyn cut in.

My jaw hardened. “Gwyn, that’s an order.”

Her mouth snapped shut. She didn’t need to be told again.

I turned back to Dynara. “Get Riven back. Gwyn and Crison can help gather Feron and the injured.”

Dynara swallowed. “And what about them?” she pointed at the shadowy beasts.

“The rest of us can handle them.”

Riven reached for me with his unsevered arm. “Diizra, I can—”

I knelt down and stole a quick kiss from his lips. “I cannot get everyone out of here safely if I am worried for you. And even you, Riven, cannot fight one-handed with no training.”

“He didn’t take my sword arm,” Riven grumbled, but conceded, rolling through the portal before Dynara closed it behind them all.

A flash of light and I was a bird again. I studied the battle from the skies. Fyrel defended citizens in bear form, swiping at what was left of Damien’s ranks. Elaran fought beside her, her form wider and more muscled than normal to add extra power behind her strikes. Gerarda and Syrra fought four opponents only a few feet away. Gerarda’s small blades rang like bells while Syrra’s golden blade whistled through the air.

I watched the skies, looking for another opportunity to attack when I saw one of the soldiers below nock an arrow. He aimed it directly at Elaran’s chest. I screamed, calling for my gusts to blow the arrows away, but this form had no magic. My scream echoed as an eagle call, piercing the sky with a desperation that could be heard no matter what form I took. Gerarda turned, seeing the soldier just as I avoided a fiery blast from one of theshirak. I tucked in my wings, diving to the ground. The soldier released his arrows one after another. A flash of light and I tumbled to the ground with my arm extended, casting the strongest gust I could manage at the arrows.

But it was too late. The first had already embedded itself in Gerarda’s back. She had wrapped her body around her love’s, covering as much of the Fae as she could as the second arrow struck her through the shoulder. Gerarda groaned as a third one hit.

Then the air began to whistle. Gerarda’s short hair was sucked backward, and she looked up at the open beak of the thirdwaateyshirwith the second just behind it. I ran, heart pounding as I grabbed my dagger. Syrra rode on Fyrel, beast and warrior desperate to reach Gerarda too.

But none of us did.

The inky blast pummeled down on top of them. Gerarda gripped Elaran and screamed. Not in agony. Not in fear of her own death, but the death of her love. My heart tore, knowing the pain of such a cry.

I collapsed onto the ground in grief. Fyrel roared and reared back on her hind legs as a beam of pure white light shot upward, burrowing a hole in the pulsing red chest of the creature. It let out one final scream and its body exploded into tiny fragments of shadow.

I froze. Tendrils of light pooled from Gerarda, mixing with her shadows as her amber eyes glowed brighter than I had ever seen them. She stood, blood dripping down her nose and ear. She lifted her arms and released a battle cry. A second beam shot upward and its aim was just as true.

The shadowy beast let out one final, ragged cry as its shadows leaked from its body. Within seconds the beast was gone, ash blown away to nothing on the wind.

The few remaining soldiers all snapped straight at the same time, their united voices capturing Damien’s cadence perfectly as he spoke through each of them. “You steal my Dagger, coerce her into abandoning her post, and then you taint her with powers to threaten the Crown? That will be the last threat that traitorous bitch ever makes.”

“I doubt it,” I said proudly before the soldiers fell limp without Damien to fill them. Gerarda stood and snapped the ends from the arrows in her back and shoulder.

Elaran stood, uninjured and brushing the dirt from her knees. “You stupid, asinine …”

“Hero?” Gerarda quipped with a grin.

Thick tears fell from Elaran’s eyes as Gerarda wiped them from her cheek. “We told each other not to make foolish decisions.”

“Saving you could never be a foolish decision, Ran,” Gerarda said, pressing a kiss to Elaran’s hand.

I raised a brow. “I didn’t realize you were so … romantic.”

“Fuck off and heal me.” Gerarda dug her fingers into her own shoulder and pulled the broken end of the arrow through it. I washed it out with water and checked the wound before healing it. Only when Gerarda showed me she had full function of her shoulder and arm did I fix the one on her back.

“How did you know how to attack the beast?” I asked as I wiped the blood from her skin.

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