Page 145 of Queen of Legends and Lies
I jump back at the sudden movement and glance up. The noxious, cloying eyril roots overhead twist and drip around me. I can’t let any of the sludge touch me.
A corrupted phoenix-blessed queen in the hands of a rogue god.
That would be…unimaginable.
I’m only feet away from the altar, swatting away corrupted like they’re mayflies, when a small shape staggers into view.
The breath seizes in my lungs. My feet falter, and I nearly stumble. For a moment, I lose control of the merged magic, and the light I created sputters out.
Rose.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Sweet, innocent Rose, reduced to a shambling husk. Her rosy cheeks are ashen, covered in eyril-soaked mud. Her once cherubic face is twisted into a rictus snarl. And the vacant black of night has replaced those sweet blue eyes.
Despair carves a hole in my heart.
“No,” I choke.
The horde of corrupted pours in just as quickly as before.
They fill nearly half the cavern. I have to end this before they overwhelm me. Before Narc rises and dooms us all.
But Rose…
I can’t abandon her to this fate. Can’t consign an innocent child to oblivion, no matter the cost. Agnar and Quinn would never forgive me. I’d never forgive myself.
Pulse thundering, I create a spinning shield of blazing earth, wind, water, and fire. It scorches the air, driving back the corrupted. Buying me precious seconds to think.
How can I stop them, save Rose, and still destroy Narc?
I can no longer pretend that the corrupted are only obstacles.
They’re people. People trapped in their own bodies while the drachen use them as pawns.
Swallowing my heart, I sprint to meet the corrupted hurtling toward me.
Explosive mist lashes from my palms, scouring the earth and making the footing soft and slippery. Their black bodies sprout shiny tendrils that act as extra appendages to keep them upright and agile.
What fresh horror is this?
Still, I carve a path through the writhing bodies, fighting my way to Rose. No matter what, I have to reach her. Have to save her.
“I’m coming, sweetheart. Hold on!”
Fear skewering my gut, I launch myself at the girl, magic surging through my veins. She braces herself, moving into a defensive position as if she were a trained fighter.
But then, somehow, a drachen is in front of her, protecting Rose from me. From healing her.
If the situation wasn’t so fucked up, I’d laugh at the irony.
The drachen rears up, a nightmare given form. Oily shadows swirl and congeal, resolving into razorlike talons and gnashing fangs. Like the corrupted people who sprouted extra limbs to keep moving, this drachen’s using itself to buff Rose’s small frame in a physical fight.
I lash out with searing ribbons of flame. “Get away from her!”
But the creature shrugs off my fire like drops of rain.
Gods, it’s so much stronger than the others I’ve faced.
