Page 184 of The Last One
I quickly backtrack to the porch to reassess.
Jadon’s wielding Chaos, fighting three men at once.
Separi and her wife, Ridget, race to the edges of the fray, wielding their Renrian staffs.
Philia has no weapon.
I call her name and toss her the dead soldier’s broadsword. “If you see no other place,” I call out to her, “and the blade isn’t getting past the armor, aim between the eyebrows.”
She shouts, “Okay,” and glances past me. “They’re getting away.”
Clouds of dust rise behind Gileon’s horses as they race toward the sun.
That’s where we need to go.
A soldier storms toward me, sword out, his armor bright with that unknown spell. Other soldiers join, and together, they charge forward, shouting their battle cry,“For the emperor! For Supreme!”One soldier chooses Philia and catches her broadsword in his unprotected throat. Another soldier swings his sword at me and growls, “I’ll kill you, you mud—”
I draw Fury and swing, knocking him dead.
Another soldier sneaks behind me, and I have no option but to whip my hand at him. Blue waves of energy shoot from my numb fingers, launching him back, back, back, until he slams into the door of the tailor’s shop. That door splinters from the impact and knocks a lit hanging lantern onto bolts of fabric and canvas. All of it catches fire.
I throw more wind at another soldier too close for comfort, launching him high into the air. I then thrust my hands down, slamming him against the cobblestoned street. There’s a sickening crunch as bones smack armor and armor smacks rocks. No rune can protect against that. It sounds so…final.
All of this is worth the sharp tingling in my hands, feet, and even my earlobes.
The pops and crackles of fire intensify into growing booms as the flames consume more fabric at the tailor’s. A towheaded soldier races out of the smoke, heading my way.
Where’s your helmet, White Hair?
I throw Little Lava at the towheaded soldier, and she brings the heat to his throat.
Another soldier scrambles and wraps his arms around me.
Before I can react, his eyes go big and blank.
An arrow to his back.
Shit!
I peer around his big dead body to see that Philia has traded her sword for a golden bow plucked from one of the dead soldiers. She sends another arrow into the jowl of a soldier who has successfully reached me. By my count of arrows in the backs and faces of men, she’s killed…five, six…sevensoldiers.
Above me, a soldier hangs midair wrapped in orange light, and another soldier hangs midair in green light—the power from the staffs of the Renrian women twists and squeezes and implodes their quarry until there’s nothing left but bloody ground meat.
With each kill, I push closer to that three thousand. I yank my dagger from the dead man’s throat and sweep my leg to trip an approaching soldier. He clatters facedown to the ground. I waste no time and drive my dagger into the unprotected backs of his knees.
He shrieks with pain and will never kneel before another emperor again.
I tug Little Lava from the soldier’s flesh and wipe her bloody blade across the fallen man’s shadowy blue cape.
Jadon dispatches a soldier who had jumped on him from behind, easily twisting from the man’s grip and delivering a death blow with Chaos. The wrapping on his hand has unraveled, weighed down by dirt and gore. I wonder at his tattoo—did he hide it because it is a symbol of his royal status? Just one more secret. His nose is bleeding, and his face drips with sweat.
“You okay?” I shout, pointing at my own nose.
“Sucker punch,” Jadon shouts. His gaze roams the destruction and dead bodies.
Smoke and flames curl to the sky, consuming the tailor’s shop. Some soldiers have fallen to the ground chopped down by arrows, multicolored beams of light, or steel blades. Blood dribbles from the dying corners of those soldiers who still have mouths.
I squint through the smoky darkness. I can no longer see the retreating horses of Wake’s guard, nor can I interpret the pulsing in my gut. Are these tugs alerting me to the amulet’s proximity or are these tugs my thundering heart exhausted from fighting?
