Somehow, despite the agonizing pain that flared through me, I remained standing.
Bleeding.
But standing.
How?
I plucked the ironstones I could reach from the backs of my arms, then turned slowly to face Haldron.
“You should be dead,” Haldron whispered, awe and fear in his eyes.
I should be.
I had no idea in Solric’s name how I was still standing.
“And yet, I’m not. You keep failing to kill me, Uncle.”
I started for him and Haldron kicked his heels into the sides of the horse, taking off at a gallop, leaving the Vangar to close the path behind him.
Grabbing Lucia, I hauled her behind me as one soldier rushed toward me. I sidestepped him, grabbing his shirtfront. A savage twist to his arm yielded his sword, which I caught with my left hand as I lifted him and sent him hurtling over the cliff. Dropping closer to the face of the mountain, I turned to face the Vangar.
The other soldiers fell into formation around me. Then they attacked.
The rawness of my powers had been the source of my ability to defeat anyone who’d challenged me in the sparring rings during the harvest festival, but I’d sensed that power growing. And now, despite my pain, despite the ironstones still embedded in my flesh, every obstacle in front of me felt nonexistent—no more difficult than snapping a twig.
Above our heads, dark clouds stirred to life once again, as though the sky seethed with my anger, reflecting the violence in my heart.
I caught my breath, each exhale dissipating like mist in a fierce wind that battered us. My eyes locked with the commander of the Vangar as I deflected his soldiers’ inferior attacks.
The commander stood with relaxed poise, ready to strike.
My muscles twitched with the hum of energy that poured through me, barely contained. I lunged forward again, leaning into the power that filled my fingertips with surging heat. The commander met the blow with a deft parry, but the strength of my blow knocked him back several feet.
Surprise showed in his eyes. He spun, aiming a precise thrust at me that forced me to move with superhuman speed to block.
As our swords clashed, the sound echoed off the mountains around us. But he had time to recover that I didn’t have. I needed to thin the herd. Now.
I plunged my sword into the gut of the next soldier who attacked, not bothering with anything less than a killing blow. This wasn’t the time for a spar.
The scorching heat that now seemed to live within me roared to life and I adjusted my fingers over the hilt of my sword as it grew hotter.
Concentrate.
I risked letting go of the sword with one hand, then thundered my hand against the face of the slippery ridge—just to knock them off balance. The mountain gave a mighty crack and rumble, then stones fell as the cliff split open instead.
What the fuck did I do?
The Vangar commander stared at me, horror in his face as he caught his balance, the ridge splitting in two. A gap, about five feet wide, appeared between us. Two of the soldiers who had been standing near it tumbled into the chasm that had been created.
“Rykr!” Lucia screamed.
I turned to see Seren’s mother backing up. The path had split in two, and one of the remaining soldiers closed on her.
I charged, slicing through him before he could swing, but not before she slipped.
As the man fell dead, Lucia’s scream carried in the wind. I lunged for her, catching her by the chains that bound her.
“Hold on,” I yelled, flattening myself into the blood that poured from the man I’d just killed. It dripped onto my forearm and face, splashing down on her.
