Page 121 of An Honored Vow

It roared as it exploded into nothing.

“Set those things on fire!” Gerarda shouted as I broke her landing on a soft gust.

I raised my hand, but Gwyn’s voice echoed in my ear. “Let me try something first.”

She stood at the bottom of the catapult. Her fingers glowed amber as she wrote a rune along the wooden shaft. The spell took hold and the catapult transformed. The wood groaned, growing taller than the palace to form a monstrous tree. The violet flames from the neighboring catapults set the leaves aflame as it grew so the entire canopy was a raging ball of magical flame.

Gwyn was a genius. In one spell she had created a weapon worth more than ten of my attacks. I kneeled, using my earth gift to keepthe tree’s roots from taking hold. “Gwyn, run!” I shouted and then I cast one immense gust at the trunk.

The tree teetered back then forward—unsure of which direction it wanted to fall. I gritted my teeth and kept a heavy wind against its trunk until my brow was covered in sweat. Finally, the tree fell, creaking like a funeral hymn as it landed through the wall.

It took most of the lookout with it, though the Bow had evaded death by an inch. His chest swelled as he looked down at the rubble and flattened bodies. Then he turned to me and his black eyes flashed with amber.

Damien snarled down at me. I stretched my arms wide, tempting him to jump from the wall like he had in our shared dream. It would save me killing Hildegard’s successor.

Gerarda came to my side as the soldiers circled around us, trying to pin our fighters in. The Arrow appeared from the dust cloud at the base of the tree. Somehow unharmed.

His pendant glowed. He wanted us to be an easy target for theshirakand we had walked right into his trap. Exhaustion trampled through my body. If my own powers were weakening, then Gerarda and Gwyn were almost spent.

“How many more can you kill?”

Gerarda blocked a sword aimed for her neck. “Don’t worry about me.”

“How many?” I echoed as I gutted a soldier’s belly.

Gerarda huffed a breath. “One. Maybe two.”

I could almost hear Damien’s laugh. This is what he had wanted—that we would expend our energy fighting theshirakand be left defenseless when his men came for our heads. Fyrel ran toward us in her brumal bear form. She swatted the soldiers out of the way, roaring in their faces until they fell back in fear and she stomped them into dust. Then she shifted back into her Fae form.

“I don’t think I can hold that much longer,” she wheezed, bent at the waist.

My heart throbbed against my chest, drowning out my thoughts. There were no other options. We had done everything we could, and we were failing.

Dynara opened a portal in front of six soldiers charging at her in a line. All six ran through it, plummeting from its opening in the sky before they realized what she’d done. She wiped her hands and closed the portal as theshiraksnatched the men mid-fall. Blood splattered on my face as two beasts ripped one of the men in half.

Gwyn tackled two more soldiers, skewering them both through the middle. Fyrel swung at the second and missed as he fell to the ground with Gwyn’s sword in his belly. “I’ve got you this time,” Gwyn mused, pressing a soft kiss to Fyrel’s lips. The girl’s face broke into a wide smile despite her exhaustion. Even standing in a field full of dead Elverin and Mortals, Fyrel couldn’t contain her excited giggle, but it turned into panic as two shadowy beasts plummeted toward us.

“Brace!” I shouted to Gerarda. She lifted her arms above her head without hesitation. I jumped, changing forms mid-leap, and wrapped my talons around her arm. I beat my wings as fast and hard as I could—trying to get Gerarda high enough to land one more attack before the beasts had a chance to use their fiery blast.

Theshirakbarely noticed us, cloaked in Gerarda’s shadows, as I flew between them. The biggest opened its beak and started to whistle. One of Damien’s soldiers used the chance to fling another round of flaming rock onto the field, pummeling his soldiers along with ours. I let Gerarda go and transformed midair, pulling a wall of rock from the ground.

An explosion of light burst behind me, illuminating just how many flaming rocks had made it past my shield and Feron’s. My stomachclenched as the screams of heartbreak sounded from our ranks, drowning out the dying shrieks of theshirakGerarda had vanquished.

I transformed back into my eagle form to land and found Gerarda collapsed and trying to stand on shaking legs.

Gwyn spelled two soldiers to attack their own men, taunting them with her laughter as Fyrel swung between them. I turned to help Gerarda but saw what Gwyn had not.

Dynara stood behind her, fighting a soldier who had followed her through a portal that was still open. A second man stepped through, and his spelled comrade swung for his head.

“No!” I shouted as Fyrel swiped the man’s legs with her own. She smiled at me, proud and self-assured, as the spelled soldier’s axe struck her head. I dove for the girl, trying to touch her skin before her body hit the ground.

But I was too late. Fyrel stared back at me, a ghost of a smile still on her face as her amber eyes faded and she rolled onto her back wearing an axe for a crown.

Gwyn let out a bloodcurdling scream. Her hands glowed as she pulled at her hair and spells drifted into the air like snow. One turned dark, growing and growing, until a swirling storm cracked with thunder. It tore down Damien’s ranks, flinging the remaining catapults and the soldiers manning them against the city wall. Red splotches covered the white stone like raindrops on a cobble street.

Thewaateyshirakunder Damien’s control lined the wall like horses tied down to posts. They fought against the magic binding them, snapping and hungry as they watched the chaos down below.

But Gwyn didn’t care. She didn’t even notice. She ran for the soldier who had swung the axe and stabbed him in his black eye. She plucked it from his skull and crushed it with her boot. But that wasn’t good enough. Her lips curled over her fangs as the rampagebegan. She slew soldier after soldier, claiming each of their eyes and turning them to dust.

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