Page 54 of Bane of the Wild Hunt

Thousands of Fuath were stirring awake after napping through the daylight. They wiggled free of the ashes and crawled out of holes they had dug in the charred earth, blinking their enormous, grey eyes. I saw many of them wearing beaded jewelry and beautifully stitched shawls. They clutched all manner of utensils, decorative pottery, and even children’s toys without knowing the significance of such things.

“Get her up!” Ciaran hissed when the Fuath began to make high squeals of excitement. They seemed a bit slow to rally, perhaps it was still too early in the evening for them after such a long night of pillaging. But soon they were all moving our way, heaps of them galloping quickly on all fours. They still couldn’t see us, but they would smell us easily enough, and I imagined they must know the riders could hide in the shadows.

Besides, they did not need to see us to trample us.

“You need to summon your armour. Now,” said Sage, and I nodded in agreement as he crouched in front of me.

“How?” I rasped.

“Reach for it like you would your magic,” he urged.

Closing my eyes, I did as he said. I felt the ragged shape of my power like bruised leaves and broken stems after how I’d abused it but could not perceive anything more than that. Perhaps the Wild Hunt armour was deeper under the very roots of my magic?

“Sage—” I attempted to seek more guidance, because I could feel the tremors of the Fuath bearing down on us, but then I felt a faint pressure all over my body.

I snapped my eyes open in amazement that I might have done it, but I quickly realized it was not my armour that was materializing on my limbs.

“Sage,no—” I attempted to protest when his armour was transferred to me, still warm from his body heat as it moulded to my form perfectly. The world ignited in vivid colour that brought everything into sharp focus.

Sage seized my waist and hoisted me over his shoulder to carry me to Serafin and lifted me up into the saddle. Even from atop the vargr, I could feel the earth begin to shake under us as thousands of Fuath stampeded.

“We need to go over the cliff. They will shoot us out of the sky this low!” Sage was yelling to Ciaran as he pulled himself into the saddle behind me.

“Take your armour back!” I shouted at him. I was still too lightheaded from overusing my magic to even muster the strength to yank the helmet off.

“You are completely depleted of magic, Summer! I can still shield myself,” Sage insisted as he banded his arm around me to prevent me from removing his armour.

He held me upright while Serafin bounded toward the edge of the cliff that seemed too far away as the Fuath continued to gain on us. Ciaran dived out of sight just as arrows began to fly, and I felt heat flaring behind us when Sage deflected the missiles with his fire magic.

But there were too many for him to catch all of them.

I felt his shoulder reverberate from the impact of an arrow as it launched into him, and he hissed in pain. During his distraction, another got through his defenses and struck Serafin’s hindquarters, and the vargr yelped.

I automatically tried to funnel my healing magic into both of them, but it felt like trying to pour from a dry cup. Or perhaps more like I was trying to scrape moisture from the bottom with raw and bleeding fingers.

“Please! Take your armour back!” I cried.

“Stop!” Sage gasped, breathless as he squeezed both my hands hard enough to jolt me from my concentration. “Don’t use any more magic!”

Serafin was still limping determinedly forward in spite of the pain from his wound. We were just strides from the cliff when spiked chains were suddenly looped around the vargr’s wings and jerked him to a halt. It was so sudden that it sent me and Sage toppling from his back.

I rolled across the ground, jarring my body that was achingly barren of magic, and finally came to a stop just shy of the cliff. I spun over quickly to see that there were Fuath climbing all over Serafin, biting and scratching him as he snarled at them and tried to free his wings.

The shadows Sage cloaked us in were no use once the Fuath were close enough to smell and hear us. They were like blind ants swarming their prey, and the only reason we were not wholly overwhelmed was thanks to the river. Fuath did notswim, so they were drowning each other in order to get across and attack.

Sage got to his knees quickly just in front of me, and I could see from his profile there was a fearsome rage in his purple eyes when he saw Serafin attacked. I could see several bloody spots on his back, he’d been shot more than once, but the shafts had snapped short when he fell. His lips lifted in a snarl, and his whole body braced as he channelled what felt like a volcano rumbling inside him. He began pooling his fire magic into a large orb between his hands with an impressive speed before he unleashed it, heaving the ball of flame forward with all his might.

A scream erupted into the back of my throat as Serafin was consumed by the flames, but it was quickly clear the vargr was in no pain. Only the Fuath that were clawing and gnawing at him caught fire and began screeching as their smoking bodies fell. Serafin’s gorgeous black fur and feathers were perfectly safe from the flames. It would have required a combination of immense power and great restraint on Sage’s part unless vargr were immune to the magic of their rider.

Sage was moving, unleashing another blast of fire that pushed the next wave of Fuath back long enough for him to reach his vargr. Chains melted and snapped apart in his hands as he worked quickly to free Serafin.

I heard a growl and realized Pyrope was standing over me and was bristling with her head turned to the trees on my left. I looked and saw several Fuath with their noses in the air as they attempted to track me by scent, but Pyrope gave a vicious bark, and they scattered.

The ground trembled, and I glanced up to see Ciaran was flying high enough over us to stay out of range of arrows, but his magic had no problem hitting the ground. He was uncloaked, presumably to draw attention from us, and a maelstrom of flame and shadow rolled through the Fuath in his wake as he flew over.Cutting down many of the enemies that were trying to rush at Sage.

My body felt stiff and achy, as if I were to move too quickly, my limbs might snap apart. But I put my shaking hands on the ground and gritted my teeth through the pain as I pushed myself upright. I was dizzy and nauseous as I got to my feet and staggered against Pyrope.

It had been so long since I was utterly depleted that I’d forgotten the limit of my magic. But I’d certainly found it after hours of fighting, bolstering others, healing so many, and then absorbing so much of Rian’s fiery pain and rage. I’d had all night and day to revive myself, albeit rushing around helping the aes sídhe had depleted me physically. And now, with just one enormous expenditure in order to prevent us from becoming pincushions for Fuath arrows, it was all gone again.

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