Page 74 of A Court of Ash and Midnight
They break over us like a storm, swarming around the champions, snarling and snapping. I pull one of my daggers, and in my other palm, I summon a ball of fire. The council may have prohibited us from killing them, but I have no intention of standing here defenseless. I catch Daemon’s eyes across the chaos, his expression grim, lips drawn tight, and then there is a wolf leaping for my throat.
I throw a ball of fire and catch the thing in the face. It growls and shakes its head in fury, spinning to the side. With its metallic scales, the fire doesn’t seem to harm it much, but it does seem to slow it down. I have another orb palmed before it can recover, and it circles me, growling, but it doesn’t pounce. My eyes move over its body. I don’t see anything that resembles a heart stone, or any stone at all.
The thing notices my moment of distraction and lunges again. Its jaws snap right past my ear as I duck to the side, but then it swings its head into me, sending me flying. I land hard on the ground a few feet away, the airwhooshingout of my lungs. It’s on me in an instant. Glistening teeth, foul breath, red tongue. I drive upwards with my dagger into its throat, and the thing yelps and bursts into ash. A cloud of it falls over me, coating my face and body. I go still for a moment in shock, and then I climb to my knees and survey the scene before me.
All across the small valley, there are champions locked in battle with wolves. Several bodies already litter the ground, and glittery ash swirls in the air, telling me there have been casualties on both sides. As I sweep my gaze back and forth, something catches my eye. A glimmer of deep blue-purple. I narrow my gaze as one of the wolves whips by a couple dozen feet away, dodging through the mass of fighting bodies. There, in the center of its chest, sits a large gemstone. The heart stone.
But then something else catches my attention beyond the heart stone wolf. Daemon, locked in battle with three wolves, fighting for his life.
I don’t hesitate. I break into a sprint, weaving in and out of the maelstrom. Growls and screams fill the air. A spray of blood hits my face. I sidestep a charging wolf, and then a moment later another snaps at my face before spinning to attack another champion. My ash-coated dagger is in one fist, a ball of flame in the other. I hear a snarl behind me and I spin, hurling a fireball at a wolf. It shakes its head and then runs off to find an easier target. I hear a yell, and all I can think about is whether it was Daemon.
But when I spin back around, it’s not Daemon I see. It’s Toryn.
He’s covered in blood, his axe dripping crimson, which makes me think it isn’t just wolves he’s been killing. Two other fae flank him, the same he’d paired up with in the first tournament challenge. All three sets of eyes are pinned on mine, and it’s clear they aren’t searching for the heart stone wolf. They’re here to finish what Toryn started. I search for a way to skirt around them, but we’re locked tight within the nucleus of the battle. There’s no way forward but through.
“You lasted longer than I thought you would, Embyr,” Toryn says. “I’ll give you that.”
“I’m not here to win any prizes,” I growl. “The tournament wasn’t exactly my idea.”
“Oh, I don’t just mean the tournament.” He rotates his axe menacingly, spinning it in his grip. “I mean at Shadow’s Keep. With Commander Thornne trying to kill you at every turn. The poison, the fire…”
Surprise ripples through me. I knew he hated me, but still…as head of the Guardians, I can’t believe he’d stoop to murdering a human. But I guess I’d overestimated his sense of honor and underestimated his sense of duty. He’d clearly viewed me as a threat, despite Julian’s insistence otherwise.
Toryn laughs. “I see you didn’t know.” A shrug. “Well, he’s certainly not the only one who wanted you dead, so it makes sense you couldn’t figure it out.”
He’s not wrong there. And after eight years of running from one enemy or another, I’mdone.
“You know, I’m getting really tired of apologizing for being born human.” I crouch, pushing all of my rage and frustration into the flames in my hands. “So if you’re going to try to kill me, then fucking do it.”
“Try?” Toryn smirks, and then he lunges.
The other two come at me at the same time. I throw balls of fire and stab outward with my dagger, but I’m no expert fighter, and it’s three against one. I whirl back and forth, feeling the bite of a blade here and there, but my flames can only protect me so much. They don’t stop steel. I get in a couple hits of my own, sending one of the men sprawling backward, covered in flames, and slicing my dagger across the shoulder of another, but then Toryn knocks me off my feet and I hit the ground hard.
He leers down at me. “I guess you can test your theory on the afterlife. Don’t wait for me, though… I’ll live a hundred lives longer than you ever would.”
And he swings his axe for my head.
Mid-arc, his arm is yanked backward by a cyclone of shadow.
Toryn’s axe falls to the ground. My eyes widen and he looks over his shoulder. Daemon is stalking toward us, shadows spinning out around him, dark wings stretched out to either side. He yanks Toryn around and sends another cyclone of shadows around his chest, crushing him inside the darkness. Toryn gasps, his skin going purple almost instantly.
“Embyr is undermyprotection,” Daemon growls, his voice shaking with fury. “You will not touch her again.”
Toryn’s companion turns and runs, a moment later getting trampled by one of the wolves. The other is still smoldering on the ground from my flames, a raw, burning mess. Daemon’s gaze remains fixed on Toryn, watching the light fade from his eyes as he gasps for air. Toryn tries to talk, but he can’t get words out.
At that moment, one of the wolves bowls into Daemon from the side, sending both him and Toryn flying through the air.
A small scream escapes my lips, and I run to where Daemon landed a few feet away. I can’t see Toryn anywhere in the midst of all the fighting. Crouching by Daemon, my hands flutter over his still body. But then he groans and opens his eyes. “It’ll take more than that to end me,” he says, slowly climbing to his feet. He runs a finger down the side of my cheek. “Now, we need to find that heart stone.”
“I could care less about the damn stone,” I gasp.
“It’s important,” Daemon says, his eyes searching mine, somber and with almost an edge of…fear? “I’ll explain later.”
I nod. “Okay. I saw the wolf with the stone a few minutes ago. It’s a bright blueish-purple. Embedded in its chest.”
Another wolf charges us and Daemon blasts it with shadows, pulling me behind him. “We’ll find it together.”
We rotate slowly, facing opposite directions, searching for the heart stone wolf. When a wolf charges from my side, I put up my shield of flame and it skirts around with a howl of anger. Another one comes at Daemon, but he quickly dispatches it intoa cloud of ash with his magic. Back-to-back, we move through the chaos, looking for the gemstone.
