“Dad,” he said, his voice shaking as he reached for my arm. “It’s Dad, Lyvia.”
My name broke off his lips, and he lifted a trembling hand to his temple.
“What do you mean? Where?”
He looked up, his dark skin pale.
“On the wall.”
Crimson streaks thinnedas they dripped down the walls of Aedrialis, a stark contrast to the bright white stone illuminated by the midday sun. An excruciating, distant scream cut through the air before it crumpled into a pained moan and was lost among the shouts of the Rising soldiers. A desperate connection formed with Tiberius as I shoved my way through the soldiers, who stood shoulder to shoulder, simmering at the spiked bodies dotting the upper edges of the walls. The same pikes we used to slip into Aedrialis last year.
A message to traitors.
Ezrich shoved a path through the remaining soldiers, and my heart stopped as my eyes landed on a line of living prisoners standing at the uppermost battlements, each awaiting their gruesome sentence. Ezrich’s hands bunched into fists, and numbness spread through me as I took in Bear’s unmistakable large form at the front of the line, standing next to General Calvus.
My blood stilled as my powers stood at attention.
Not Bear.
Vulcan stepped to my side as Tiberius’s dark form shot into my view.
“With me,” I commanded, barely registering Vulcan’s confirming growl.
Ti slowed his landing gallop, and I sprinted into the short opening ahead of me, Vulcan close behind, before leaping onto his back.
We launched into the sky, and I pushed our dark shield into place, stretching it as thin as I dared to get a better view as we flew to the edge of King Saros’s impenetrable shield. Tiberius’s massive wings pumped steadily as we hovered only twenty feet from where Bear stood shackled.
My heart crumpled as I took in his form. Old and new blood stained his torn, ragged clothes. The white, bubbling blisters of fresh burns lined his powerful arms, and he squinted through bruised and swollen eyelids, his face falling as it landed on me.
“Bear,” I whispered, the name broken on my lips.
Something was happening to me. Rage and devastation swarmed, the Obscura seizing the emotions as the Transcindiel surged alongside some powerful force filling my being.
“We can’t do anything. Saros’s shield is too strong,” Vulcan urged me from behind. “You’ve already tested it against your powers.”
Blood darkened the center of the sickening contraption used to impale the bodies on the pikes lining the walls of Aedrialis. Held upright by a steel brace and pulley system, they rolled the wooden platform to the next empty pike.
“I have to try,” I breathed, as I envisioned my shadows sharpening into a line of spearheads.
“We’ve already tried this,” Vulcan urged. “Do not waste your strength. Your powers will bounce right off.”
No.
Bear winced as he straightened, turning to General Calvus, mumbling something through the gag in his mouth. The general, a man I’d seen countless times in Mount Telum and one of Saros’s most trusted advisers, pinched his brows in disgust as he looked at Bear, but gave a resigned nod to one of his men. A sneer slapped across his face as his eyes landed on me.
Bear turned very slowly to face me.
“What’s happening?” I asked, more to myself.
“It’s time,” Vulcan murmured.
My head shook, but Bear’s dark eyes remained pinned on my own without an ounce of fear in them. Instead, they held a world of memories in their depths. Was he thinking of Evony and Ezrich? Was he reliving those days of adventure on board theEvectawhen he fought side by side with Bayne? When he saved Morwyn? Did he regret joining the Rising? Was he wishing he’d stayed behind with his family?
The guards began speaking, turning to face Rising fighters gathered below.
“Can you hear what they’re saying?” I asked Vulcan.
“No,” he murmured. “Not well enough through your shield.”
