Page 119 of Shadows so Cruel

I glanced down through one of the arrow slits, the plateau outside a field of chaos as the fates tried to fend off the masses of soldiers storming up the stairs. “We have to help open the gate from the inside or they’ll slaughter us before we even set a foot in there.”

Sebian grabbed his bow. “I’m right behind you.”

We dashed to the entrance of the stairwell that led down to the gate, my sword singing with every stroke as I cut down any enemy soldier daring to block our path. Sebian nocked an arrow and let it fly, even as we took the steps two at a time. Each shot found a target among the soldiers braced against the gate below us, creating momentary openings in their defenses.

“More soldiers coming from somewhere,” Sebian shouted.

We had to hurry.

I glanced at the gate, where a massive wooden beam, reinforced with iron, wedged into brackets on either side of the doors. Tendrils of shadow wound around it from outside, slipping through the cracks of the gate.

It wasn’t enough.

On instinct, I lifted my hand at it.

No shadows came.

Gritting my teeth, I charged forward. “Keep them off me!”

Sebian’s arrows whistled to my left and right as I used my sword as a lever. I wedged the blade beneath the beam and pushed with all my strength. The shadows from our deathweavers gripped tighter, adding their dark pull to my efforts. With a groan of wood against iron, the beam started to lift.

“More soldiers coming from inside the keep!” Sebian shouted. “Open the fucking gate or we’ll be done for!”

With a final heave, the beam dislodged, thudding to the stone floor. I yanked my sword free just as the gate burst open, our soldiers surging through in a wave of steel, shadows, and pitch-black birds.

“Inside! Everyone inside!” Asker shouted. “Then cut them down and close the gate! Split their forces in two!”

The threshold erupted into chaos.

Fates held the line, staving off the surge of enemy soldiers still pouring up the stairs from the city, buying precious seconds for the rest of us. Meanwhile, others struggled to push the massive doors closed against the outside onslaught, ravens flitting in through the narrowing gap. Amidst the disarray, deathweavers wove tendrils of shadows to hoist the massive beam, their faces twisted in concentration as they guided it back into its brackets.

Through the renewed clashing of metal and the screams of the injured, I listened to my bond, but my chest remained silent with noanoato guide me.Where are you, little dove?

“Asker!” I shouted. “Where to now?”

He turned from the massive gate, finally closed shut, and blinked around the dimly-lit room hollowed into the mountain. “It does not look like twenty years ago… I believe it lays—”

More Ammarett soldiers stormed into the chamber, flooding from doorways and passages like a wave through a burst dam, the sight sucking all warmth from my limbs. So many soldiers, so many corridors… yet not a single idea as to which would lead me to myanoaley.

Until a shout shattered from the rock. “Protect the king! I’ll have the balls of whoever lets one of them slip through!”

A shudder ran down my spine.

That voice…

I swung around, finding Brisden with his sword drawn a distance from me that seemed both too far and too close. My eyes locked with his, and my vision narrowed. The room, the chaos, all faded into the background of this very moment.

“Malyr…” Sebian said beside me. “Some of the soldiers beside him carry shadowmarks. Wherever she is, it’s behind them.”

Another smile curled my lips. And here I’d feared for a second that I would have to let Brisden go once more. And I would have… to spare my bondmate even a moment more among these monsters? Yes, I would have.

But alas, I wouldn’t need to.

I locked eyes with Sebian for a split second, a silent agreement passing between us. Then we charged.

Sebian darted forward, his daggers slicing through the air. Soldiers fell, clutching their throats or their guts, darkness oozing from their wounds as the daggers found their mark with uncanny precision.

Asker moved in tandem with me, his sword meeting the enemy’s in a harsh cacophony of metal and grunts. “Above, left!”

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