I wipe my bleeding nose again as Phantom lies down and disappears. Karyl gasps.
“Phantom is an embodiment of my magic. We would have fallen out of the sky if we’d stayed engaged. There’s nothing more I can do.”
We both walk to the railing and stare at the battle happening on shore. “I think I see more black than white,” Karyl says hopefully.
I hope she’s right. From this distance, all I see is gray. We lean against the railing as we watch, we wait, and we pray.
34
Battle at the Borderlands
Damien
In every battle, there’s a turning point, a moment in time when the tide shifts so abruptly that you feel swept forward, a cresting wave crashing down on your enemies. We may have started this war equally matched with the silver coats, but everything changes when Phantom roars down from the sky and divides their ranks. We waste no time taking advantage of the turn in our favor. Our unit quickly eradicates those separated from their brethren and distracted by the stream of fire. We charge through the flames in our shadow forms and attack, slicing through the enemy while they gawk at the sky.
Phantom’s second pass weakens their forces even more. We push through to the other side of the port. As my team finishes off the enemy, Undaku orders his men to secure the border, and Prandle’s unit scours everybuilding, rounding up any prisoners for the stockade. There aren’t many.
Cassius’s team puts out the fires that the silver coats started. Most of the port city has been burned, and the Maiden’s Voyage is a wreck of smashed tables and chairs. But there is nothing here that can’t be rebuilt. The only thing we’ve truly lost are the warriors who have died, and we won’t know how many until we sift through the bodies. Tempest arrives with a team of healers and starts methodically working through the fallen men, while others begin the process of burying the remains of our enemies.
Somewhere, I hear a trumpet blare. Thane lights the cressets in front of the Palace of Dawn. Window by window, the candelabras inside are flare to life, and then a raven flies from the aviary to share the news with our allies.
We have taken back Aendor.
But all I care about is Eloise. I search the skies but can’t find Phantom. The last I saw her and the dragon, they were flying over the ocean. Did one of the sunlight arrows hit them? Did they crash into the sea? Is she out there somewhere, even now, struggling to take her next breath?
I race for the shore, my heart pounding and my eyes wild with the need to find her. But I needn’t have worried. She is there, rowing a dingy to shore with my sister Karyl at the bow.
“What the actual fuck?” I mutter.
Eloise is covered in blood as if she’s had a major nosebleed, and Karyl is carrying a rucksack and an enormous bag that clinks when she moves.
“Brother!” she says, dropping the bags on the red sand and running to me with her arms spread wide.
“What are you doing here?” I growl.
“I came to help.” She releases me, and I turn to Eloise.
“Are you hurt?” I ask, alarmed at the blood.
“No. Just overused my magic. Phantom is resting.” She eyes me up and down. “You?”
I look down at myself. There isn’t a single inch of me that’s not stained red. “Fine. I was cut a few times, but the wounds have already healed. We won Aendor. Undaku is securing the border.”
She flies into my arms, and I swing her around.
“Prince Damien, Lord Thane would like to see you in the war room right away,” a boy in a black uniform says.
I set Eloise down but don’t break eye contact. “Tell them I’ll be right there.”
“You should go. I’ll help Karyl find a room,” she says.
“You brought my sister to the war zone,” I say, unable to keep the accusation from my voice.
She raises her brows at me. “Your sister chose to help us fight, and she helped complete the potion we need.”
Karyl reaches into the burlap bag and holds up a vial of black sludge.
“You convinced Catarina to make it for you?” I say, utterly amazed.
