Page 198 of Ash and Feather

Open your eyes,I silently begged,open your eyes and say something stupid. Make me smile, make me believe something foolish.

The silent pleas made no difference.

I shrugged out of my coat and draped it over his lifeless body. A useless gesture, maybe, but I didn’t know what else to do.

He looked oddly small underneath the pile of canvas cloth. Oddly fragile for a god. It made everything else feel unbearably breakable and painfully impossible.

The sound of distant footsteps scrambling over the rocks grabbed our attention.

Dravyn darted toward the sound, bracing a hand against the nearest boulder tall enough to hide his massive frame. As he peered around it, I moved to his side as well, and we both searched the sloping cliffs for signs of an ambush, but…

Nothing there.

Tensely, we held our position and continued our watch.

After a minute, I couldn’t help glancing back at Valas and whispering, “What happened to him?”

“The Velkyn’s numbers were much higher than we anticipated.”

“I know—I mean, I spoke with Andrel, and he said something along those lines.” My breath stuttered in my chest. “I should have tried to warn you all. I’m sorry, I…”

“It would have made little difference,” he replied, quietly, eyes still trained in the direction we’d heard footsteps echoing from. “We’re here, and we were going to have to face things regardless of the numbers. Did you accomplish what you needed to in the meantime?”

Another crushing feeling of failure squeezed my heart.

He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. His gaze caught on Antaeum; without my coat covering it, the sheath at my back was perfectly visible.

Before either of us could mention the weapon, a surge of new energy struck me—the divine marker Mairu had placed on my sister’s skin was still intact, and it was drawing nearer.

Creeping closer to the cliff’s edge, I scanned the battle far below.

I felt Savna well before I saw her. She was leading a small group of warriors into the fray, making as if to help another group that was trying to extinguish a wall of divine fire.

I looked at Valas, hesitating.

“I’ll stay with him,” Dravyn said. “Whatever you’re planning to do, do itquickly.”

I met his gaze one last time. Nodded. Straightened to my full height despite the heaviness in my limbs, my heart, my lungs.

Then I was off again before I could dwell any longer on my failures, launching myself from the cliff and careening downward.

I landed silently and moved as stealthily as I could, keeping away from the largest crowds, making my way from smoke cloud to smoke cloud—and using magic to create more of that concealing smoke when necessary.

As soon as I was within easy sprinting distance of my sister, I forgot about all else. I leapt over a few dead bodies—two that were burned husks, three that were ice-glazed statues—and nearly collided with my sister as she spun toward the sound of my approach.

She heaved a sigh of relief at the sight of me.

I gave her a quick embrace. “You managed to gather as many as I did, I hope?”

She nodded, her confident smirk the exact remedy my doubts needed just then. “Did you think I’d let you outdo me?” Her bright eyes swept over the battlefield. “They’re moving into position now, drawing near to the ones Andrel considers his leaders. We should have enough to disarm those leaders.”

“Good.”

“I’ll just need a way to communicate the signal when we’re ready for it.” She lost herself in thought for an instant, still surveying the chaotic field around us, until her eyes widened and darted back to me. “But you’re here. Why are you here? The heart you were searching for—”

“Wasn’t where we thought it would be.”

She frowned.

---