Page 97 of Ash and Feather

His blade clipped my arm, cutting through layers of clothing and leaving a shallow scrape across my bicep. Blood seeped out. Smoke joined it as my temper rose and a combination of fury, fear, and impatience ignited the fire that was forever simmering just beneath my skin.

The soldier’s eyes grew large as he watched the smoke rising from my blood. I’d been holding back up to this point, so perhaps the fool didn’t realize he’d risen his weapon against an actualgod.

When the idiot dared to lift his blade once more, I made sure he went to his death without any doubt about the matter.

Curls of smoke turned to ribbons of flame, snaking from my wounded arm and wrapping around the sword I held. In a few blinks, the steel was searing hot. His eyes grew even wider at the sight.

“Wait! Have mer—”

I plunged the sword into his throat.

The scent of the soldier’s blood and burning flesh filled the air. I gripped his arm, yanked my sword free and wiped it on his coat, then threw him to the ground.

Without sparing him another glance, I turned and resumed my search for Karys.

I’d seen her only minutes ago. She couldn’t have gone far. Unless…had she transported herself somehow? It seemed unlikely she would manage to carry herself far enough away that I couldn’t feel her at all. Which only left a few other explanations, and—

No.The word formed on my lips even though I still didn’t understand what had happened.No, no, no.

A cold wind washed over me. Valas appeared at my side a moment later, took one look at my face and immediately reached for his sword. “What’s wrong?” His gaze snapped back and forth, searching. “Where is Karys?”

I didn’t—couldn’t—answer.

Instead, I started to run, racing in the direction where I’d last felt her energy radiating from. Maybe there would be a clue there. Maybe she would still be there, still fighting. We didn’t fully understand the connection we shared; wasn’t it possible that it had snapped for some reason, but that she was otherwise fine?

I reached a more narrow street that appeared to dead-end at an older, broken-down docking yard. This was the direction she’d traveled in, I was certain.

Yet she was nowhere to be found.

I tried listening for her. Picking out her scent. Anything, everything—but there were too many bodies in my way. Too many distractions. The sea roared its restless song and slammed its dark, foamy fists against the shoreline, turning boats on their sides and occasionally popping them up out of the waves altogether.

My gaze lingered briefly on the tossing and tumbling water. I had a horrible vision of Karys plunging over the edge of the rickety docks, sinking out of sight faster than I could call her name, and—

No.

I refused to believe it. Even if she’d fallen in—or worse, beenthrownin—the sea would not have silenced her so quickly. She would have fought back against the waves no matter how high they rose or how viciously they churned. I would have felt her energy dwindling, maybe, but not extinguishing as instantaneously as it had.

So where the hell was she?

I turned around to find Mairu and Valas running toward me, their faces reflecting the same confusion I felt—a confusion that was inching quickly toward despair.

“No sign of her anywhere.” Valas’s usual carefree smile clenched into a tight baring of teeth as he fixed his eyes on me. “Why didn’t you two stay together?”

The challenge stoked the embers of fury smoldering in my gut. He was not the one I was truly mad at, but I briefly considered taking it out on him all the same.

Before I could, Mairu stepped between us. “Many of the elves seem to be retreating,” she said, pointing our attention to a spot far in the distance, where the road gave way to a large expanse of brittle, brown grass. Farther on, grassy hills sloped upward toward a rocky crest, a natural barrier that had been reinforced with spiked iron fencing across its top.

A section of that fencing had been blown away. Dark scraps of it littered the hills, shining faintly in the moonlight. Elven soldiers stood watch by the opening, shouting orders for a faster, more organized retreat.

“Because they’ve realized they’re outnumbered, or because they’ve already succeeded in whatever they came here to do?” Valas wondered.

All the questions seemed irrelevant, now. I no longer cared about what their motives had been or what bombs they’d placed. Or about their successes. Or failures. I no longer cared about our own goal of keeping the war in this realm from escalating, either.

I would have started a thousand wars if that was what it took to find Karys and keep her safe.

I didn’t care if any or all of them were retreating, either—at least not until I spotted one I recognized climbing into the saddle of a ghostly pale horse.

Andrel.

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