Page 144 of Queen of Legends and Lies
Horror fills my limbs with lead. “Goddess have mercy. Now what?”
Jaw clenched with grim determination, I stride forward, fire sparking at my fingertips. This is it. All I have to do is destroy his body. And then this is all over. Everyone will be safe. The corrupted will be cleansed. All will be?—
The silence shatters like glass as a squelching sound—followed by an ominousthud—vibrates through the soles of my boots.
I hold my breath as I scan everywhere all at once, searching for the source of the noise.
Something is alive and on the move in here.
But where?
And then I see them.
Near the altar that holds Narc’s bones, figures slide through the cracks in the earth. There’s a distinct wrongness to their twitching, lurching movements.
Corrupted humans.
So many of them.
A veritable army is forming as more cracks show in the far wall, disgorging more corrupted. Rents in the ceiling appear,and bodies begin to drop. They land with a series of thuds before they struggle to their feet again. Bodies hit bodies as the flow accelerates.
My tears can cure them…except that I am one and they number in the hundreds. And after the intense magic merging earlier, I’m parched.
I couldn’t cry now if I wanted to.
Shock keeps me frozen in place as I bear witness to this depravity. I recognize a few of the students and staff from Flighthaven.
Another familiar shape wanders into view.
Otis.
My old friend and guard from Castle Axton. I can still remember what he told me the day he dropped me off at the flight academy. That I was strong where it counted. A fighter. That I could handle things.
Narc is trying to protect himself, to keep me from his body. And the bastard is willing to use my feelings against me.
While I wanted to avoid killing as many people as possible, I cannot let them stop me. The rest of the world depends on this. The pile atop Narc’s body is multiplying by the second. I call fire to my hands, ready to unleash the full force of my merged magic, when another familiar face emerges.
I’d know that silver-streaked hair and athletic build anywhere. Eyes black and face blank, Instructor Broderick Kinneck lands on the altar.
I half expect him to blow that shrill whistle of his and call the shambling mass to order.
The assembled, mud-caked army ambles toward me. Their intention to stop me from reaching the corpse is clear.
For one heart-stopping moment, I nearly lose my resolve. These are real people. Even corrupted, they still have souls. Stillhave families. They didn’t choose this. If they had, what I’m about to do would be so much easier.
But I only have one way to get past them.
Working with earth magic doesn’t come as naturally to me as the others, but I still manage to seal some of the openings the corrupted are slipping through. Agnar could probably do it by touch, but I’m not that experienced yet.
Digging inside for my cache of merged elemental power, I mix air with fire magic and light up the cave. The non-native air magic flows easily through my veins, as though it was always a part of me.
A girl could get used to having all four elements on tap.
Within seconds, the dazzling light forces me to squint.
The corrupted are already pouring over the altar, obscuring the corpse. Even if I was heartless enough to try and burn through them to destroy Narc, I’m not sure my fire would actually reach his dry bones. I rush forward, burying as many as possible and pummeling them with powerful gusts of air and water.
Black goo splashes on the floor next to me.
