Swarming.
The spears and swords they wield are a dull silver—the iron weapons I saw being forged in Cainon’s personal armory.
“Fuck,” Rhordyn hisses, charging on. There’s the whistling of more arrows splitting the air. The pound of them thudding into trees. His entire chest jerks, and his soft, grunting soundscreamsat me.
He’s hit …
I look up into his inky eyes, at the darkness smudged into the skin surrounding them, wild panic notching its noose around my throat.
“Rhor—”
Another thud snatches my breath …Another …His face twitching with each horrific, puncturing blow, though his feet continue to pound the earth. The next thud sounds like it lands farther down his body, and he stumbles a step.
My heart and guts plummet as he snarls, regains his teeth-gritted composure, and carries on.
My throat tightens.
A head pokes out over the edge of my internal chasm, inky eyes blinking. Thatcreaturescurries out, tail flicking in its wake. Wings folded back, it uses my spine as a ladder, chased by that slithering slur of darkness that weaves up the insides of my skin andslicesfor release—the tapered tips honed into razor blades thathack.
Hack.
Hack.
My head fills with so much pressure I’m certain my skull’s going to split as we break through the jungle’s fringe, coming to a grassy plateau that stretches beneath the weeping sky, then falls away, melding with the distant sound of crashing waves.
A cliff.
Rhordyn doesn’t stop running, though his steps are slower now, every breath strained.
Another meaty thud—louder this time. I feel that sound in my chest as he pitches forward, almost losing me in his stumble, something sharp poking through his shoulder and snatching my ability to breathe.
A large, pronged arrowhead.
That creature wraps its claws around my ribs, tips upside down, stretches its twiggy wings, and starts toflap—tilling up crystal debris and vines, shredding those buttery blooms. It stretches its neck, opens its maw, andscreamsas a wildness surges through my veins, one barbed word bouncing around inside my chest like a thorny ball.
Protect.
Protect.
Protect.
“Put me down.”
He regains his footing, heaving breath, forcing us forward with another churn of unsteady steps—like he didn’t even hear me. He snarls through elongated canines, his face a rabid twist of wrath and pain.
“Rhordyn, I saidput me down!”
No response.
No loosening of his arms.
That darkness continues to bludgeon my brain as I look over his shoulder to where the steep wall of the jungle meets the grassy plateau, gray-armored guards spilling through gaps between the trees.
Gray Guards.
Another whistling sound has my heart in my throat—a long, thick arrow cleaving the air at the speed of a lightning strike. I feel the moment it thumps into Rhordyn’s back, like someone just shoved their hand down my throat and mulched my heart in their clenched fist.
He lurches, time stretching.
