Page 140 of The Princesses of Ruin
She manifests a third hand that wipes the offending saliva away while the other two hold my arms steady.
“I supposed I couldn’t expect a mortal to understand.”
Blue light pierces the dark wall below me. Ashai’s image opens her mouth to scream and the trumpets blast, rattling me to the bone. I drop to the ground, boneless. It turns into ash around me until I’m freefalling once more.
Chapter forty-nine
Lily
Ared-haired woman covered in inky black drops through the belly of the massive beast. I scream her name as I command the stones to bring Scarlett toward us. The ground shifts like a wave, tumbling her along until she rests at my feet. Zane snatches her up and pulls her close to his chest.
The monstrosity of bodies and castle walls stomps up onto two feet again, trundling deeper into the Upper Kingdom. Spiders scream, trying to evacuate the lingering citizens. We should’ve done this days ago, but there wasn’t time. There wasn’t breath. There wasn’t a spare moment we could give them to force them out of their homes. We warned them all…and now here they are, feeding the monster with their foolishness.
Shitheads, the lot of them.
Reina calls for Alastair and he swoops low, plucking her off the rooftop she’d perched on to attack the beast. Her power is low, like us all, and each shot of hers is precious against this monster.
“You have to be certain it’s really her,” I say to Zane as we run.
“It’s her,”Alyse projects.“Part of Ashai is nestled deep inside, the insidious wretch, but this is Scarlett.”
“Will she be in control when she wakes?” Zane asks.
“I don’t know.”
I glance over my shoulder and judge the distance to the monster. Its hulking frog face is horking down an old merchant’s cart, then it drops another screaming person into its mouth with the other hand. Fear and anger wrap around my heart and squeeze.
We have to end its horrible rampage somehow, even if it’s a temporary fix. Anything will be better than this shitshow.
“Alastair! What are the runes your mother used to trap your demon curse?” I shout, knowing Alyse caught the sound and transferred it to him.
“You want to trap her behind the Wall?”Alyse asks as she also relays Alastair’s thoughts on runes. The multiple threads weaving through my mind are almost too much to follow.
“It’s better than losing everything,” I say, running toward the Underbelly.
Grenades of blue power sail overhead and smash into the beast. Its scream is like the blast of a thousand horns, trembling the earth and shattering my spirit. Reina’s magic is effective in making a vanishing hole in its gut at best, and pissing it off at worst. We’ve already lost too many soldiers, too many citizens.
“It’s worth a try,”Alyse projects Alastair’s voice.
He swoops low, dropping Reina on Jasper’s back before reaching for me. I extend my arms and jump into his grasp. He pulls me up to his chest, securing me against him as he flaps his wings harder to gain altitude. The kingdom is decimated. Fire has burned the city not once, but twice now. Citizens run for their lives, screaming for help. I want to save them all, but stopping for an individual could damn the whole population that evacuated south.
We bank hard along the Wall between the gates, and I let my magic flow, digging a deep furrow into it in the shape that Alyse projectsinto my mind. I am the nib of a quill, Alastair the feather, and Alyse the hand that guides us.
Icy cold batters my outstretched hand as we flow, creating the shapes of the gods above to halt the goddess from below. The monster is so close now its trumpeting bellow drowns out even the wind in my ears.
Droves of people swarm the only two gates out of the Upper Kingdom. The Spiders who can climb, or have utility hooks, take to scaling the Wall like Zane with Scarlett in his grasp. His teal magic tears into the stones as he ascends with maddening speed.
My sister still hasn’t woken up…
I swallow that thought and put my focus on my trembling arms. The strain of magic flowing through me is taking its toll harshly, like one too many drinks on too few hours of sleep. I want to curl up in Alastair’s arms and disappear forever.
“Just a few more moments,”Alyse says.
I open my eyes and flex my fingers out wide, ensuring the best distribution of my magic as possible. The Wall is so deeply lacerated it will never be repaired. Each runic shape glows bright green with sparks of gold.
Please, be enough to hold her back.
The monstrosity closes in on the Wall as it follows the crowd rushing to escape. People peel off from the line and run through the alleys toward the wharf. It’s a long run to the sea, and there are no ships there to carry them. They’ll drown throwing themselves into the ocean to escape her.
