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My eyes widened.
The back of his coat was peppered with bark and branches. Parts were shredded where larger pieces of debris had cut straight through.
Blood dripped from the wounds.
“You’re hurt,” I started. “You?—”
Roan cast a short glance over his shoulder and then onward to me. His face was cold and as shut down as I’d ever seen it. “Yeah,” was his only response.
Turning, he strode away. I stared after him for a moment, thrown by his icy attitude on the heels of literally putting himself between me and danger. The former, I was used to. But the latter…
With a tiny shake of my head, I turned and then froze, all my confusion about him falling away as my blood went cold at the sight of the clearing.
Or what was left of it.
My men were alive. A dirt-encrusted slab of stone reared up beside Ozias like it’d erupted straight from the earth. Several more dotted the clearing near a few of the men, along with tattered webs of vines that wrapped over the others like protective shields. Ruhl flowed away from where he’d been covering Casimir like a blanket, and Niko’s hands shook as he extended his palms toward the earth and sent the vines retreating into the soil. But even with the rough shelters, not a single one of the men was without cuts or growing bruises.
And the clearing itself looked like a war zone. Branches were everywhere. Several trees had snapped, unable to withstand the blast. The ground looked like it’d been scoured, the winter grass either plastered to the soil or ripped away.
Ozias tossed a glare after Roan and then set to checking me for wounds, even though it was patently obvious he was far more injured than me.
“Everyone all right?” Dex asked, wincing as he gingerly touched his fingertips to a gash that was dripping trails of blood down his light-brown cheek.
Byron and Niko nodded.
“Quite,” Casimir said tightly.
Lars said nothing, rubbing his wrist. Nearby Clay stared to the east, uncharacteristically silent too.
Worry tangled up inside me like one of Niko’s vines. I’d never seen that look on the twins’ faces before, and when Dex called their names, Lars flinched.
“What?” The blond giant didn’t meet anyone’s eyes.
“Are you okay?” Dex repeated.
“Yeah.”
Dex studied him, obviously not convinced, but didn’t press for more. “Clay?”
For a long moment, Clay was silent, and then he answered in the flattest tone I’d ever heard from him. “I’m fine.”
No way I believed that was true.
“Does anyone know what that was?” Niko’s voice shook with adrenaline.
“The magic in it was…” Byron trailed off like he couldn’t find the words.
“Horrifying,” Casimir finished while Ruhl swirled around the clearing as if stalking anything that would bring that wind back again.
The scholar nodded tightly.
I shivered in agreement. I’d never felt anything like that before in my life, and I never wanted to again. But I couldn’t take my eyes from the twins for long. While the others were regrouping and Roan was off by himself at the edge of the clearing, my blond giants were still visibly struggling to act like themselves again. Avoiding anyone’s eyes, Lars rolled his shoulders and shuddered, while Clay hadn’t moved from where he stood.
“Clay?” I started toward him. “Are you?—”
“You know what that was?” Clay said, his voice distant. He didn’t look away from the eastern stretch of woods. I gave the others a worried glance, but he didn’t wait for anyone to respond. “The Warden Wall.”
“What?” Niko appeared alarmed. “But… how? It’s miles and miles from here.”
