Page 120 of A Storm of Fire and Ash
The crowd stirred, a murmur swelling like a tide.
And for the first time, the people began to choose.
Those who sided with Aymon moved quickly, clustering behind him in a tight, bristling line. I felt the ground beneath their boots shiver at my command. Thorned vines, thick as my arm, erupted from the stone and coiled upward, forming a jagged wall between them and the king. The thorns glistened with fresh poison, and every time one of his loyalists tried to push forward, the vines snapped like striking serpents, forcing them back.
The majority of the guards fell in behind him, along with a large portion of the crowd. My jaw tightened. Numbers were on his side.
One guard stepped out from Aymon’s ranks. He was young, his armor dented, eyes locked on me instead of the king. He crossed the space slowly, warily, but he crossed. Another followed. Then two more. A woman in the crowd—her hands inked with the sigils of a healer—shoved past the men beside her and moved behind Fintan. Then a merchant. Then a boy no older than fifteen. One by one, they broke away from the king’s shadow, each defection tearing a hole in his ranks.
Aymon’s face purpled with rage, his voice cracking as he bellowed, “Traitors! You’ll hang for this!”
But his words didn’t land the way they once would have. The tide was shifting. And he knew it.
Zayn, Eryn, Gavrin, and Makar were now all at my side. Makar helped Fintan up, and I could sense he was using his Magic to help stabilize Fintan from blowing everything up.
The queen’s body still lay crumpled on the stone, her crown glinting dully beside her. Mage Hand hovered near me, still pulsing faintly with the whispers of forbidden magic, a reminder to all of what had just happened—and what could happen again.
The tension snapped like a bowstring. Both sides began to draw weapons, voices rising into a chorus of fury.
Gavrin and Zayn growled, as they held their swords out, ready to fight.
Only a scattering of people—outsiders, rebels, and a small handful of guards—crossed the space to stand behind us. It wasn’t many. But, those who moved did so without hesitation, and their eyes burned with the same fire I felt in my chest.
I could sense he was near.
The air shifted.
The breeze picked up.
I turned back to the square, letting my magic hum through the ground, the air, the very stone beneath us. My voice rang out, steady and fierce, carrying over the murmurs and the distant clamor of steel.
“You call him king, but Aymon rules through fear and chains. You’ve been taught to hate what you don’t understand, to burn what you cannot control. That is not strength—it’s cowardice.” I swept my gaze over the faces watching me. “Today, you choose. Not just your ruler. Your legacy.”
I let the silence stretch for a heartbeat, then spoke the words that had been building in my chest like a storm.
“Stand with him, and you’ll die. Stand with us, and we will tear down every chain, every wall, every lie. We will build a kingdom not of kings and subjects—but of people who stand as equals. Magic and mortal, side by side. This is not just rebellion. This is the beginning of a world worth fighting for.”
People scattered.
“Choose wisely,” I called, my voice cutting through the chaos. “Because once you take a step, there will be no turning back.”
And then the squareerupted into motion.
Chapter Thirty
10 Hours Earlier
Zayn
I hadn’t been able to reach Elara through our bond. No whispers, no flickers of her emotions—just silence. But I knew she was alive. I could feel it in my bones, in the way my chest still ached for her.
Makar, Gavrin, Eryn, and I had been trapped for hours, the stink of rust and blood thick in the air. Cold iron dug into the skin of my neck, burning, searing—though it didn’t mark Makar the same. Being Mage spared him the pain, but not the restraint. The iron cuff still stripped him of his power, leaving him as helpless as the rest of us.
The heat from the metal had become a constant throb, and my hands itched for the chance to rip it off and make someone pay. My jaw ached from clenching it so damn hard.
That’s when I heard her.
Not Elara. Someone else. A voice slid into my mind as smooth as silk and twice as dangerous.
