Page 26 of A Legacy of Wrath and Reckoning

Fast steps through snow, the pant of breaths. “Luc, with Zylah,” the scout snapped.

Something caught Zylah’s cloak and she turned just in time to swipe at it with her sword. The air shifted as Luc moved to fight near her, not too close, or it could cost him his life, but the four of them stood a much better chance together.

Rin whined, a creature shrieking as the wildcat fought back, but Zylah couldn’t let that distract her, not when she was already such a liability to them all. “Is she alright?” she dared to call out between strikes, her hand slick with what she could only assume was grimm blood. Her next move had her stumbling, staggering into the snow, using her sword to push herself upright as another grimm swooped for her, her blade already moving to strike it from the air.

Something within her seemed to shift, and Zylah almost lost her footing a second time. Despite the bandage over her eyes, images came to her. Not quite the shadows she’d been able to see before, but just as hazy.

Rin’s low rumble came in reply to her question, and as Zylah swung her head in the wildcat’s direction, she could have sworn she could make out the stain of blood against snow. Impossible. But when she focused on her senses, her smell, her hearing, she knew. The copper tang, the laboured breaths.

“Rin!” Arlan’s voice. “Isaias, now,” he commanded. The ripple of magic Zylah now knew was evanescing washed over her, her focus on the remaining hearts beating around her.

“They’ve taken Rin and Enalla,” Daizin said from somewhere to her right, and this time she saw his shadows swirling in the space he occupied. “Down!”

Zylah ducked, canting her head just in time to see one of those shadows lash out at a grimm. No, notsee, because that was impossible. But some trace of something had danced across her bandaged eyes. Chest heaving, Zylah pushed to her feet, sword swiping and striking at every grimm that came for her.

“Kej, time to go,” Daizin called out. Kej’s answering roar marked him as close by, but not quite close enough. And there were so many of the creatures. A hand touched her elbow as shadows approached: Luc and a grimm. Zylah tore away from Luc’s grip, her breath hitching as something fell with a heavy thud.

Not the grimm.

“Luc?” she breathed, fighting off more of the creatures, waiting for a reply she knew wasn’t coming.

“He’s gone, Zylah. This way,” Daizin rasped, tugging at her cloak, urging her to follow.

From the corner of her strange new vision, more crimson seeped into the snow.

Chapter Fifteen

Zylahran,Daizin’sshadowsher guide despite the fact she still wore the cloth over her eyes. It didn’t make any sense, but she was too busy swinging at the last few remaining grimms to stop and wonder at it.

“Down!” Daizin called out again, one of his shadows lashing out at something just over her shoulder. Zylah pivoted, smacking her spear into the side of a creature and slamming it into snow, bones crunching until it stilled. She allowed herself a moment to catch her breath, chest heaving, limbs trembling, focusing on the sounds around her. No more beating wings, at least. Then a hand wrapped around her elbow, and Zylah let Daizin tug her away.

Kej remained in his wildcat form, his snarls and growls and huffing breaths leading the way as they moved. They barely stopped to catch their breath, not even when snow began to fall. Zylah tugged her hood tighter over her head, grateful for the warmer clothes Nye and Rin had given her, all the while trying to call on that place inside herself that had once allowed her to evanesce, smothering her disappointment when nothing answered.

A few times, that voice from an old version of herself tried to rise up and whisper that Luc’s death had been her fault, that if they all hadn’t been there to find her, he’d have lived. But Zylah didn’t try to shove the thoughts aside. She acknowledged them, let them wash over her, recognised that Luc was following orders. Instead of feeling guilty, she felt only sadness that his life had been cut short.

“Nye won’t risk sending more scouts.” Daizin pressed a canister into her hands when they stopped to rest. “We were prepared for this outcome. There’s a meeting point three days from here.”

A warm flank pressed against her side, followed by a low rumble. Kej.

Zylah flexed her fingers, summoned a bowl to her palm from the Aquaris Court and tipped some water in it for the wildcat. “Your three days or my three days?” When Daizin and Kej had gone on ahead to find her, they’d both been on four feet rather than two.

Another rumble from Kej.

“I thought so,” Zylah murmured, Kopi’s little reassuring hoot sounding from somewhere nearby.

“How much can you see?” Daizin asked, a wary tone to his voice. She wondered how she looked to them, eyes bound and her movements something akin to a baby deer.

Her fingers tightened around her spear despite Kej’s weight at her side. “Hazy images. Your shadows. Luc’s blood staining the snow. I’m still relying heavily on my other senses, but… I don’t understand it.” She pressed a hand to her chest. “I can’t evanesce; I can’t do most of the things I could before. It’s like there’s just… nothing here.” The hand moved to the cloth over her eyes. “But I can see your shadows reaching out around you. I can make out a hazy presence at my side. I can’t decide if my brain is just filling in the blanks from the sound of Kej licking his paws or if I can truly see him. Even though that’s impossible.”

“Maybe it’s a little of both,” Daizin said after a moment. “You fought well, but we’ll need to improve your footwork.”

Logical, practical steps. This, Zylah could do. And she needed to be able to move without the support of the spear, without stumbling or relying on an elbow to nudge her in the right direction.

“Kej can help with that, can’t you, Prince?”

The licking stopped. A low hiss Zylah presumed was in Daizin’s direction for the monicker, and then a wet nose nudged her fingers.

Daizin chuckled. “Let’s keep moving. Heavy snow is coming.”

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