Page 59 of Ash and Feather

Valas’s words rang through my head.

Running would be wiser.

“That powdery shit is making magic even more difficult to draw upon,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter,” I replied, rage tightening my voice as I wiped the blood from my hands. “They can die by the sword just as easily as by fire or ice.”

It was more satisfying than magic, too—the feel of my blade sinking in, the crunch of bone as I slammed its hilt into skulls, the spurts of blood as I struck precisely the right places.

Line after line of soldiers advanced upon us. We cut them down, over and over again. They didn’t seem to care how fast they were falling; more simply appeared to take the fallen’s place. The air grew thick with the scent of blood and sweat and other bodily fluids, and somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew this would do nothing to diffuse the wars that were building, threatening the stability of our realms.

The ones littering the ground would serve as proof that the gods were merciless beasts. Maybe they had even been sent as intentional sacrifices to further enrage and rally others to their cause.

Several minutes and too many bodies later, the dryness in my throat and the dizziness from the powder was starting to truly get to me. I felt the first tinge of exhaustion creeping in. A moment later, I stumbled, righting myself just in time to see a soldier racing toward me with his sword at the ready.

I staggered back and tried to rebalance my own weapon in time to block.

I was too slow.

A flash of steel flew in from my left, impaling the soldier in the stomach and driving him back just before his blade met my chest.

Karys.

I hadn’t even sensed her moving. She’d taken a sword from one of the fallen elves, and now she clutched it in her hands as though it was her last tether to reality.

Stepping into the tainted air had made most of her fiery shield disintegrate, save for a few stray embers that reflected hauntingly in her eyes. The green of those eyes seemed darker, almost black, clearly mirroring the fire swirling in and around her.

Did she even realize there was fresh blood covering her skin? The one she just killed…was it someone she’d known before today?

Protecting her suddenly seemed more important than avenging her.

“Come on,” I said, wiping the blood from my sword as quickly as I could before sheathing it. “Let’s get to clearer air so we can leave this realm.”

She snapped out of the trance that had overtaken her and nodded, still holding tightly to her stolen sword as she hurried off in the direction of the barrier we needed to cross through.

We were close, as Valas had assessed. But as we started to brace ourselves for passing through that barrier, a familiar voice reached us, imploring us towait.

“Let’s keep going,” Valas urged.

I looked to Karys. She’d slowed down, though her eyes were still on our escape route. Her face barely hinted at the war raging inside of her, but I could feel it as clearly as I’d felt her pain slicing through my hand.

I glanced back.

Some of the soldiers we hadn’t killed had caught up to us. There were new reinforcements, as well, and each one of them carried what looked to be bombs similar to the first one thrown at us.

All of these things were concerning, but I didn’t give a shit about any of them.

Because my vision had tunneled toward the one standing in the center of them all—Andrel.

I turned to face him more fully, all thoughts of running away momentarily forgotten.

He wasn’t looking at me; he only seemed to be aware of Karys. He was studying her, his stare far too intimate for my liking.

My fingers twitched as I thought of how satisfying it would feel to carve his eyes out with the knife I had strapped to my ankle.

“So it’s as I suspected,” he called, stepping forward while motioning for his soldiers to remain at ease. “Youreallythought you could trick us with some ridiculous magical disguise?”

I started forward too, but Karys stopped me, placing a hand on my chest. She took a deep breath, concentrating. Heat bledinto the space around us. I met it with my own, pouring as much into her as I could manage after breathing in so much toxic, anti-divine powder.

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