AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My calves burn, and my chest clenches as we get closer to the bucket. Waves rush to greet the tops of our boots, a fine mist blowing in our faces. Beads of sweat line my forehead, dripping between my breasts.
I’ve never been so scared to fail in my entire life.
I fall to my knees as I swipe up the metal bucket, racing into the water to scoop up as much as I can carry. Niles holds out his dagger, watching my back while I dig my heels into the wet sand to reach the wall of fire around DaiSzek.
Scarlett, don’t let me fail.I pray silently.Help me save him.
I note that all I have to do is extinguish two towers of flaming wooden stakes, side by side. Once the fire is out, Niles can slip between them without getting burned and reach the lock to DaiSzek’s cage.
The battle around us sounds ugly and guttural, blades splitting through organs, men yelping as they lose their limbs. But as I’m about to toss the bucket of water, Niles makes a nervous sound, gasping.
I look away from the flames to see a Vexamen soldier charging us. Dressed in all black, he winds back his arm, ready to chop Niles in half.
I almost scream.
But something wraps around the soldier’s neck. A thin metal chain. And his head slides clean off, thumping in the wet sand. The body continues to stand for a moment, taking two stumbling steps forward as if it hasn’t realized it’s lost its head yet. But as it finally drops to its knees, we see Warrose yank his bladed whip back, nodding at us to keep going.
I sigh in relief, turning back to the burning stakes, chucking the bucket of water as hard as I can. I thrust every ounce of strength and adrenaline into my lunge. The airborne water soars toward the source of heat, splashing over it with a loud sizzle.
It hisses before it’s replaced with more fire.
My jaw drops and so does my stomach. I look back at Niles, who witnessed it too.
“Shit!” I whisper-yell.No. No. No.
“They must have soaked the wood in oil,” Niles says with certain doom.
“What the hell do we do?” I jog back to the ocean waves, swiping my bucket through the water once more.I can do this. I have to do this. My muscles burn as I toss the water at the stakes again. Nothing.
Niles falls through the sand to help me, scooping handfuls of water and throwing them pathetically at the flames. It’s a lost cause, but we don’t give up. We heave, pant, and curse as the fire seems to grow angrier. Niles even resorts to kicking the wooden stake, melting the bottom of his boot in the process.
We turn our heads at the terrifying sound of babies screaming. A man holding two babies in his arms is cut down, a sickle slicing down between the cradled babies, right into his chest. We hear the bones crunch in his breastplate. Our soldier drops to his knees, still holding the babies, as a Vexamen assailant tugs the sickle out roughly, watching the blood spray over his arm.
But right before our soldier falls with the babies in his arms, Dessin swings his sword through the Vexamen man’s neck, batting his head off his shoulder and through the air with little effort. I lose my breath as Dessin dives forward, grabbing the babies in his arms before they can hit the sand and get buried under the dead body.
I should help him, take the babies out of his hands, so he can keep fighting.
“Dessin!” I scream, attempting to run to him.
He turns to me, blood splattered over his beautiful face, drenching his clothes from the many lives he’s taken. And he looks at me with a question in his eyes.
But time collapses. The world implodes. And his stunning dark-mahogany eyes go wide before they look down at the blade ripping through his chest.
I choke on air.
A soldier from behind Dessin thrusts his sickle through Dessin’s back, impaling him, puncturing the space in the center of his chest, just barely missing the babies he’s holding. The sound is deafening. A wet rip that echoes through my heart.
“Skylenna!” Niles shouts from behind me. “We have to get him out!”
But I’m sprinting mindlessly, watching the soldier yank the bloody sickle from Dessin’s back. The blade disappearing back to where it came from. And Dessin never lets go of my gaze, not even after he falls to his knees, still holding on to the crying babies.
“NOOOOO!” My voice blasts through the camp, loud enough to shatter windows and stretch across the open sea. This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening.
Warrose is faster than I am, bolting with an extended arm as he uses his whip to tear down the soldier that stabbed Dessin.
As I close the distance, I dive through the sand to reach him, devastating sounds of despair peeling from my raw throat.
“Take them,” he tells me, blood leaking from the corners of his mouth. He passes the babies to me, coughing up more dark-crimson liquid.
