Page 36 of Wings of Cruelty and Flame

“You scared the shit out of me,” Fahad, the oldest member of the legion, blurted when we landed, Varidian sliding down Makrukh’s back to the ground. I didn’t remember how I got down, my legs like jelly, my whole body shaking, but Varidiancaught me and steadied me on the rocky plateau where we’d evacuated the villagers to. Rain was forming slow spots on the grey stone, too late to help put out the fires. If the rain began hours ago, would more people have survived?

Fahad grabbed Varidian’s arm in a tight grip, his lined, rugged face tense. “When you fell off Mak, I thought you were done for.”

“Not the first time I’ve cheated death,” Varidian said dismissively.

Fahad scoffed, then gave me a conspiratorial glance, his eyes twinkling. “Can you believe he’s taking credit for your spectacular rescue?” His smile deepened, warmed. “That was some bravery you showed, a-lalla.”

I swallowed, the compliment abrasive on my skin. I felt like a coward, helpless and useless when so many had died. I hadn’t helped. That wasn’t bravery. “I couldn’t let him die when I still need to yell at him,” I replied, my humour falling flat.

Varidian laid his arm across my shoulders, pulling me into his side, and I hated how badly I needed the touch. I was shaken down to my soul, and I needed this.

“It’s a dangerous journey from here to the safe house,” Aliah said, the expression on her beautiful face drawn and sad as she regarded the group of smoke-shrouded villagers staring in the same kind of shock as I felt. We were all covered in soot, and now thanks to the rain, boots sloshed through mud. “We can’t expect them to go alone.”

“I’ll take them,” Fahad offered, clapping Varidian’s shoulder before moving away, mud splashing up the ankles of his leathers as he strode for his battle-scarred crimson.

“It’d be safer with two riders, with tigers prowling the wall,” Aliah pointed out, her eyes narrowing behind us like she could see the tigers there.

In the Last Guard, the smoke and fire had blotted out any sight of the wall, but now it loomed over us, endless and so tall I couldn’t imagine any living being had ever scaled it. It was taller than the highest minaret in Strava and built of a grey stone so thick and smooth it was like looking at the end of the world.

“She’s right,” Varidian said with a sigh, not hiding his tiredness from his legion which was a surprise. His hand stroked up and down my back, the movement absent, familiar. “And some of them are too injured to walk that distance, so we’ll need more than one wyvern to fly them.”

I turned my face up into the rain as it got heavier, letting drops of it wash the ash from my skin, soothing the fire-whipped skin of my cheeks. I couldn’t stop shaking, couldn’t bring myself to move away from my husband even if I wanted to kill him a little.

“Mak’s the biggest,” he said, dragging a hand over his mouth and down his stubbled jaw. “It makes sense for me to go.”

“And me,” Shula input, glaring across the mountains at the wall like she’d scale it and fight every last person in Kalder. “Saif is the second biggest.”

Varidian glanced down at me. At the look in his eye, my stomach jolted, ripples of unease moving through me like a stone dropped in a pool. “No. I need you to carry Ameirah.”

“What?” I demanded softly, my heart clanging with warning. It sped, panic hitting, all my fear from the fire and murder and tigers amplified. “I’m flying on Makrukh. I’ll come with you.”

“It’s not safe,” he argued, too softly. He traced my cheek, tucking a strand of sooty violet hair behind my ear. I wanted to kick him.

“Likethatwas safe?” I demanded, pulling away and mourning the loss of contact. I was shaky and unsettled and I couldn’t stop seeing that boy get shredded beneath the tiger’sclaws. I didn’twantto want Varidian close, but he was my safety blanket out here. “None of this is safe, Varidian.”

His face hardened. “And bringing you here was a mistake.”

I blinked. Those words shouldn’t have affected me, shouldn’t havehurt.“You’d be dead if I wasn’t here.”

“I’d have survived,” he disagreed, too gently, too patiently.

I wanted to argue, wanted to snap and shout. My hands shook. A roaring began inside my head.

“Why can’t we all go? More wyverns, more space to carry the villagers.”

“More risk of being detected,” Nabil cut in, his nasally voice like a whetstone to my temper. His eye roll was a spark to tinder. “Kalder knows we have a safe house nearby and they’re constantly trying to find it. A whole legion would lead them right to the doors. Is that what you want?”

My heartbeat deepened, thumping harder, slower. I met his narrowed gaze. Held eye contact. Said nothing.

Nabil looked away first. Shula chuckled under her breath. I glared at every member of my husband’s legion, meeting each of their stares with defiance and anger that barely masked my fear.

“Anyone else have a foolish question to ask?”

Hostility loomed in the air, denser with every second we glared at each other. It was so sharp it could cut me.

“No doubt Nabil has several more,” Fahad put in with a laugh, breaking the tension. I felt like an enemy in their midst. Like I’d turn my back and find a dagger buried in it. Is that how they cut Naila? With daggers? “But he’s right; we can’t risk the fortress being detected, and it’s easier to conceal a small number of wyvern.”

“That doesn’t explain why I can’t fly with them,” I muttered, crossing my arms over my chest and trying not to frown at the ashes and soot covering me. It could be worse; it could be blood.

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