“Lex!” Ilyas shouted, yanking me down by my hand just as an ice spear split the airspace my head just occupied.
“Fuck,” I swore, releasing a potent cloud of Pleasure Magic that instantly incapacitated the Mage not three feet from us. She fell with athwack, her brown braid landing in a red-tinged rain puddle before she slipped a hand down her pants.
My lips rolled in disgust before I pulled my eyes away from the scene.
As incapacitated as she was, she’d be killed soon.
“We need to get to Rohak,” I told Ilyas as we stayed crouched low, crawling amongst the dead bodies that littered the courtyard. The vast majority were our Academy soldiers and the rebels, but there were a fair few of the gods’ sycophants as well.
Not enough. I couldn’t keep the defeatist thought from my head. But I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that if we were to have any chance after this, we needed Rohak alive.
“ROHAK! NO!” The scream that sounded across the courtyard was bone-chillingly sorrowful, and I instantly knew Faylinn’s broken voice.
Ilyas and I froze, crouched behind the corpse of a rebel, as I watched in horror as a dark figure stood above the body of my commander, of the only man I’d ever respected like a father.
The woman was dressed all in black, her long, raven-black braid hanging to mid-waist as she kicked Gisei’s body unceremoniously out of the way. With an expression that was part-glee and part-murderous intent, I watched helplessly as Sasori raised Alois’ abandoned sword above her head with both hands.
Before I could comprehend my own actions, I pulledhardon my magic. Ilyas staggered at the sudden demand, a smalloofleaving his chapped lips. I flung a ball of Pleasure Magic more potent than I ever had in the past. I wasn’t sure what it would do, or cause, once it made contact, but I couldn’t risk Rohak’s life.
Sasori paused with the sword suspended high above her head as she saw the hurtling ball of golden light and Ilyas and I crouched feet behind it. A look of pure betrayal crossed her face before my magic hit her straight in the chest. Sasori’s eyes rolled back in her head, and she dropped the weapon behind her with a muffledclangbefore her body sank like a weight to the ground.
Ilyas and I were instantly up and moving, pausing every so often to shield ourselves from another attack.
“Will they ever run out of magic? Fuck. I thought the mines were destroyed,” Ilyas shouted as we hit the ground to avoid a gust of wind that would have knocked us off course and off our feet.
Probably would’ve broken a few bones, too.
Panting and sweaty, covered in blood and grime so gritty I could feel it on my teeth. I didn’t deign him with an answer, I was too focused on reaching Rohak.
Just as we jumped to our feet, I saw Faylinn sprinting from the opposite direction, the daggers she used for inscribing runes clutched in each hand as she stabbed ruthlessly and without compunction at anyone who got in her path.
Her teeth were gritted in a snarl, her eyes wild and furious as she stabbed and slashed her way forward. Blood dripped from her clothes and sprayed across her face.
She was terrifying and awe-inspiring all at once.
“She’s got him,” I mumbled as I watched Faylinn fall to her knees beside Rohak. She kicked Sasori’s unconscious form away from the General before savagely slashing open her forearm with one of her daggers. Faylinn tossed it aside with a resounding clatter before dipping her hand in her dripping lifeblood and quickly inscribing a circle of runes around her and Rohak. Her lips moved silently as she worked, terror and determination writ in her expression. Once she was finished, an almost imperceptible sheen encased them, and I breathed easier, the tightness in my chest abating some.
My gaze roved briefly over Sasori’s exposed form, and I briefly thought about stashing her somewhere safe before I changed my mind.
“She made her decisions, Lex. You cannot feel guilty about what you did,” Ilyas admonished as we turned to run back toward the battle line.
I shook my head. “You mistake me, Ilyas. I feel no remorse for my actions.”
Ilyas grunted something that made me believe he wasn’t fully convinced, but I didn’t have time to feed him prettier words.
It was becoming painfully clear that we were on the losing side of this battle. Our numbers were dwindling, but it seemed that the gods’ army was constantly growing or, at least, never abating.
How many are there?I wondered in sick fascination.
A scream from ahead drew my focus, and I watched as Ellowyn was surrounded by a group of the gods’ soldiers so deep I could barely see her ice-blonde hair apart from small flickers in between gaps of bodies.
“Fuck,” I shouted as Ilyas and I vaulted over a dead Mage wearing the telltale blacks of the Academy. I didn’t have time to see who it was—my new mission was to make it to Ellowyn before the soldiers ripped her apart.
Or worse, brought her to the gods.
If Solace and Kaos got ahold of our godling?
We were worse than dead.
