Page 37 of Kingdom of Ashes & Bone
“You should have seen her twenty years ago, Mari. I fell in love the moment I saw her break another Fireguard’s jaw for trying to put his hand under her skirt.”
What?
I laughed, the sound bursting from me without warning at such an unimaginable scene. Ell chuckled and soon my arms were wrapped around him. He squeezed me so tightly to him that all the air escaped my lungs. I liked how it was too tight. It felt real.
Zariah breathed out through his nose behind me, and the moment was over. Ell’s grip on me loosened, one hand softly patting the top of my head.
“Ok. Maybe we are alike,” I admitted, wanting to believe it more than anything else in the world.
Ell sighed wistfully. “The mud quarter breaks people stronger than both of us. I knew you wouldn’t let it break you. Never let anything break you.”
I bit my lip and nodded. That I could promise.
Zariah growled from behind me, but I realized a second later that it wasn’t because of Ell. Something was up. The hairs on my neck and arms stood on end, that uneasy feeling I’d felt in the cave sweeping over me.
“Is that … “ I began, only to break off as an odd noise stretched across the desert between our little camp and the kingdom.
What is that?I asked both him and Zion mentally. Zariah’s dragon head tilted to the side as he listened hard.
It sounds like … banging.I fell back as Zariah growled and roared, jumping straight into the air and flapping his wings like mad.
I will investigate,he swore.Get back to the others.
My feet scraped harshly against the rough, blackened earth as I moved too quickly, nearly tripping and falling. My arms pumped as I ran back to the camp, dozens of different scenarios popping up in my head, and none of them good. Zion met me at the edge, lips set in a firm line.
They’re … banging at the wall, I think,came Zariah’s voice.The Fireguards have taken giant hammers and pickaxes, and they’re striking it over and over again. I don’t know—oh shit.
A loud crack split the air, all activity in the camp stopping as everyone turned to look in the direction of the kingdom.
GATHER THE REFUGEES! RUN! THE QUEEN IS COMING WITH THE FIREGUARDS!
Oh no.
“RUN! GRAB WHAT YOU CAN AND RUN!” I screamed as loud as I could, racing past confused refugees. Where was Zephyr?! Where was Shava?
“THE QUEEN IS COMING WITH THE FIREGUARDS!” I tried again, being as clear and direct as possible. The noise in the distance grew louder as I recognized the sound of hundreds of pounding feet.
Zion raced toward me, then his brow set in a determined furrow. With a deep breath, he jumped and shifted mid-air, taking to the sky and circling around the refugees—hopefully buying them time.
“How did—” I cut myself off. There were better ways to communicate now other than shouting.How did you do that? I thought she forbade you from shifting together.
Zion’s voice in my head was triumphant.She only ever forbade us from patrolling the skies together. We always took it to mean we weren’t to shift. Loopholes, darling.
I grinned, but it was short lived as refugees streamed past me, tears in their eyes.
“How many Fireguards?” asked a woman no older than me, but with two terrified little boys clinging to her skirts.
I blurted out before thinking, the fear in her eyes an ember that sparked and burned chaos and fear through the camp faster than the space of a few heartbeats.
Zion must have been listening in, because his mental voice thundered through all of us all at once.
All of them.
ChapterEleven
Where the fuck was Zephyr? Or Shava, for that matter?
“Quick! Spread the word! Start running east!
