Page 124 of An Honored Vow

“Citizens of Koratha,” he shouted to the crowd that spilled out of the city and stood along the wall to watch my death. “May this day be known forevermore as the day your king vanquished the traitorous Fae of the west. Know that this death”—Damien raised a small dagger and pointed it down at me—“will only be the first. My might can no longer be questioned, and rest of the Fae will succumb to my army and Arsenal by the morrow.” Damien’s chest glowed; he was wearing one of the remaining pendants. His arm shook as he spoke, his temples damp. The pendant drained his energy.

“Keera has shown the vile nature of the Fae. They cannot help it, as my father knew. She convinced her people to go to war for herpride, knowing there was no chance she would prevail. Her hubris has cost her people their freedom, their dignity, and their lives.” Damien’s lip curled as he spoke, the calm mask he usually wore completely removed.

“But such selfishness is a mark of the Fae. Their lack of pedigree.” Damien turned to face the crowd behind him. “Their selfishness and deceit have no place in a civilized society. It is why my father banished them from the kingdom. But I will not make my father’s mistake. I will not rest until there are no Fae left to speak of.” Thependant glowed brighter and one of theshirakcircling above let out a bloodcurdling shriek.

Damien turned back, pointing the dagger at me once more. “Bring the gallows out to her.”

Wooden wheels creaked against the pebbled ground as a dozen men pushed out a broken catapult. A thick beam was nailed horizontally across the center. It was hardly a gallows, but the noose would pull just as tight.

“I get no final words then?” I shouted up to Damien.

The crowd murmured uneasily.

“You have destroyed their city and killed their kin.” Damien extended his arms out on either side of him. “No one cares what your final words are, Keera, protector of none.”

I smiled. They didn’t need to hear them.

“Miithi’wiinar,” I whispered.

Again.

And again.

And again.

At first I didn’t feel anything except a tingle along my skin. But the tingle worsened until it felt like each scar was being recut by an icy blade.

“What is she doing?” Damien balked, walking backward toward the stairs. The Arsenal tightened around him, but everyone else went silent. My whispers grew to chants until I was groaning through the pain, but I didn’t stop.

“Enough,” Damien shouted, and his pendant pulsed. One of theshirakdove from its towering height. But then a beam of pure light burst from the ground behind me. The beast was obliterated into strands of shadow. I turned and saw Gerarda fall to her knees, reaching out for something on the ground to hold her steady. I needed to act now.

My flesh still burned as I lifted my arms and let the ground beneath my feet launch into the sky. I moved so swiftly the nextwaateyshirdidn’t notice until I used my gust to clear a hole through the smoke and thick rays of sunlight poured down on them. The shadowy beasts shrieked in terror, flapping their wings to move away from the light. Pieces of earth fell from the pillar as I pushed it to the point of breaking, trying to reach as high as it would take me. I soared past the smoke until cold mist pelted my face. Pain flooded my body. I had pushed myself to the brink of burnout. My skin sizzled against the cold air as the pillar beneath lurched and began to fall away.

I leaped off the rock, bloodstone dagger in hand. My arms flung backward as I traveled in the direction of the two suns and aimed my blade for the shadow seal that Faelin had made.

My breath hitched. Had I missed? Had I misunderstood? But then the tip of my blade scratched something hard, and I heard a rip. A wave crashed through me, a hundred times more powerful than anything I’d felt breaking the seals. My heart tore inside my chest, and I could feel my healing gift struggling to stitch it back together with every beat. I screamed as my magic was pushed past burnout and I lost control. My gusts swelled around me as lightning cracked through the sky. My breath hitched, and I knew it would be the last one I ever took.

It was a breath of victory.

The names on my arms began to burn. Each one turned hot and then cooled, somehow stoking my magic so it never completely failed. Name after name, scar after scar, new magic bore itself into me, tethering me to life by the thinnest thread. The shadow sun rained down molten sunlight. It poured like the fiery brimstone of Volcar, but it was not crimson fire, but white sunlight. Pure light magic that sizzled through the smoke, carving huge holes in Damien’s shield of darkness.

I started to fall with it. A large piece caught the wing of one of thewaateyshirakand it screeched in agony before it was consumed in pure light too. My eyes shut, unable to behold the sight. I kept them closed as I fell, seeing the flashes of light through my eyelids and feeling the shrieks of dyingwaateyshirakrumble my bones.

The cold air welcomed me as I passed through the smoke. Even though my magic was almost depleted, I transformed into my other form and let my wings catch my fall. The tower I had built crumbled to the ground leaving only a small portion of it standing.

I perched there, transforming back into my Fae self. Liquid sunlight continued to fall, mixing with the rain from the storm my outburst had created. Most of thewaateyshirakwere gone. A few had become nothing but specks in the smoking fumes of the Dead Wood. But they were a manageable number for the Elverin to hunt after I ran Damien through with my dagger.

The rain washed the rest of the paste from my skin and the soldiers gasped as they noticed my scars. I looked down. Each one had turned gold, their names etched into my flesh like a tapestry stitched with auric thread. Every name had blessed me with a tiny gift, just like the one I had blessed on Gerarda’s shoulders. None were enough to break Faelin’s magic on their own, but together they had saved my life. Or given me another.

I conjured some water to project my voice. Damien and his soldiers didn’t need to know how close my magic had come to drying out.

“Thewaateyshirakare vanquished.” I looked down at the soldiers. “Drop your swords now and no other need die.”

There was a short pause and then a chorus of metal striking the ground. Damien scoffed in disbelief as half his army ran for the shore, leaving him behind to face his death.

I couldn’t help the smirk crawling up my lips. “Damien has told you nothing but lies. The Elverin do not wish to harm you. Everyoneshall be housed, fed, and cared for. Mortal and Halfling alike. If the king accepts his death, then no one else need die with him.”

Damien lifted a frantic arm. “Seize her!”

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