“No,” I said. “Not yet. We’ll have to keep an eye on her if she survives this, but we have to keep an eye on all of Tempest.”
“It is what we do,” came the murmur of different voices in my head.
Twisting to avoid a cannonball and another barrage of arrows, I closed my wings before surging toward the earth. Soldiers screamed and scattered to get out of my way as I grasped the barrel of one of the canons, lifted it into the air, and flung it into a nearby lake.
I was rising back into the air when the blast of building power struck me. The impact spiraled me backward, flipped me over, and created an awkward dance as I struggled to regain control.
As I tumbled over and over again, a blast of light erupted through the top of the palace and tore out its sides. As it swept across the field, it knocked aside all those in its way.
The concussive force knocked everyone to the ground and slaughtered those closest to it, but as it spread across the field, it didn’t kill those further away. It just tossed us aside like we were toy soldiers on a child’s battlefield.
When I finally managed to right myself, I came to a stop over the Revenant Woods. Beneath me, the trees swayed as the explosive light billowed across them.
Even the creatures of the woods were affected as the corporeal ones regained their feet and rose beneath me. The blow didn’t impact the poltergeists, but they twisted and bobbed as they searched for the source.
“What was that?” someone demanded through our bond.
I flew back to the battlefield, my gaze focused on the blinding white light still emanating from the top and sides of the palace. It was a beautiful, brilliant glow against the night. It backlit the palace, turning it into something ethereal and haunting as its turrets stood starkly out against the black surrounding it.
And then, as swiftly as it came, the light vanished. It left nothing but darkness and confusion in its wake.
On the battlefield, many amsirah regained their feet, but the dead remained where they’d fallen across the land.
“What was that?” someone asked again.
“It was either an awakening… or death,” I replied.
“I think it was a combination of both,” Avex said.
I suspected my friend was right, but I had no idea what it meant for all of us.
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
Tucker
The blast knocked me on my ass and threw me onto the blood-soaked ground. Mud splashed my face and slid down my cheeks as I lay there, trying to catch my breath.
Thick storm clouds and dwindling tornadoes filled the sky. As the distant light faded, so did more of the funnels when the amsirah controlling them lost the ability to maintain them. The explosion had thrown the tornadoes off as much as me.
Some of the rain and wind ebbed too, but the lingering effects of the blast, humming along my skin, lifted the hair on my arms. I had no idea what happened in the palace, but I knew Ellery was the cause of this.
I’d felt her power before. It hadn’t been this intense, but it was unmistakably hers.
We were finally discovering what the first amsirah to possess all five weathers was capable of. As I shoved myself up on my elbows, I saw that it was great power and greater destruction.
Around me, others groaned as they stood; I felt their exhaustion and soreness in every muscle. Being knocked on my ass was just one more beating for my already battered body.
We were all exhausted, but staying down would only result in death. I shoved myself to my feet and staggered forward when my legs almost gave out. I managed to right myself before I sprawled into the mud again.
My lungs protested when I took a deep breath and wiped the rain from my forehead. I spotted my sword and took a few unsteady steps to reclaim it. Planting the tip of my blade in the mud, I used it to help keep me standing as gargoyles flew over the field, taking out more of the soldiers.
They must have been as exhausted and battered as the rest of us, but they were still fighting. In the distance, that brilliant light continued burning before going out as suddenly as it erupted.
I’d been so focused on the distant glow that I’d shut out all other senses. I didn’t realize that had happened until the roar of the tornadoes and the splash of rain hitting the puddles pierced the quiet. I winced against the harsh cacophony as darkness descended once more.
Gradually, the world returned to normal, and the rain petered off to small, slow drops that rippled the puddles. It was a cleansing of the world, of the realm, and all the death filling it—a cleansing of the soul.
With the light gone, the palace was lit only by the remaining lights of the toppled building. They revealed gaping holes in the walls and an odd tilt to the remaining parapets at the top.
