I sighed heavily and dropped my spear to the ground with a clatter. Blood splashed around my knees and soaked through my pants as I sank to my knees in exhaustion and vindication.
We live to fight another day.
Chapter 97
Lex
The battle was over, the gods’ army fleeing in fear after Ellowyn destroyed nearly half of their forces. All around me, Mages and Vessels alike collapsed to the ground—some sobbed in relief, others retched at the macabre sight that greeted them in their brightening light of day. Others stood dazed, eyes unfocused and unseeing.
I knew that feeling well, my own memories and demons beating at the walls of my mind, threatening to swallow me whole.
Not yet. Not yet.
Quiet murmurs started as Academy soldiers and rebels alike embraced and recounted the horrors of war. Some broke off in groups as they searched the dead for faces they recognized.
There were too few of us left.
Too many dead or dying.
The wounded were pulled from beneath corpses, triaged by those of us sane enough to recognize the need to help.
I watched as Torin stood with Ellowyn cradled in his arms. He said something to the woman next to him, her deep ebonyskin caked in blood, before they both took off at a sprint out of the courtyard and away from Vespera.
Something in my gut lurched at the presence of the woman, a sensation I’d only had in the presence of Ilyas and one other before.
Follow, my mind seemed to say.
I stood halfway between Rohak’s body and the quickly retreating forms of Ellowyn, Torin, and the mystery woman.
More than half of my heart pulled me to Rohak, begged me to stay and make sure that my friend was okay. That he would heal.
But something deep inside insisted I follow Torin and Ellowyn, pleaded that I follow the insistent pull from somewhere in my soul.
“What are we doing, Lex?” Ilyas asked, his eyes bouncing between Torin’s disappearing back and Faylinn bent over Rohak.
“I—” I stammered, unable to make a choice, debilitated by my options. Vespera and the Academy would need a leader to help clean up this mess, to make plans and devise a counterattack.
But that person couldn’t be me.
My eyes lazily fell on Faylinn’s shell-shocked expression once more as she hauled Rohak’s body up and over her shoulder, retreating toward the Academy.
“Rohak is with Faylinn,” Ilyas said, nodding toward them. “She will do whatever she can to ensure he lives. Ellowyn, though? Ellowyn has no one. We don’t even know if we can trust Torin. And, when the gods come again, we’ll need her, Lex.”
I nodded my assent before I turned my back on Vespera and followed the pull in my gut.
Chapter 98
Faylinn
Heaving and panting, my chest constricting with each breath, I slowly stutter-stepped my way through the courtyard toward the Academy. No one stopped me—either they were too engrossed in their own demons to notice I had their General slung over my shoulders like a sack of grain, or the feral look of grief and rage written on my face turned them away.
Either way, it didn’t matter.
If Rohak had any hope of survival—however minimal it was—I needed to get him inside and safe.
I picked my way over bodies and splashed through puddles of blood and rainwater, my boots saturated and squelching with each step. My toes were shriveled and pruny from traipsing through unidentifiable liquids the past few hours.
Every muscle in my body screamed as I slowly ascended the stairs, shuffling my feet up each step to maintain my balance.
