“I have to drop it.”
Without waiting for a response, Tiberius inched closer to King Saros’s shield, and I dropped my own.
The guard leading Bear to the contraption called, “To grant him his final words.”
My pulse stopped as I realized Bear needed to tell us something. He kept his eyes on me as they strapped him against the platform, the ropes from the pulley system lifting it upright so he was angled toward the Rising forces.
Bear’s eyes softened as a single tear traveled down his broad face. A guard pulled his gag free.
Bear cried out in a hoarse, booming voice, “Glastí!”
My stomach pitched.
What? What does that mean?!
His eyes frantically searched mine as the contraption creaked, the ropes pulling the bottom of it higher so I could no longer see his face. This was happening too fast. I rallied my powers, that strange sensation twisting into something lethal, something deadly. The Transcindiel molded the Obscura into a razor-sharp spear as my hands lifted to the air and thrust it at the massive shield.
Devastation sliced through my shock, my powers raging as they bounced off, and the darkness disappeared in a cloud of shadows.
Bear’s voice boomed once more. “IT’S A F?—”
A scream wrenched from my throat as the platform slammed down against the side of the wall, the massive pike ramming through Bear’s broad chest and cutting off his words in an excruciating cry.
Screams rose from below in violence and anguish. My vision blurred as a flood of memories rushed in, and I was caught somewhere between grief and rage.
Sizzling bacon. The whir of a tea kettle. A booming laugh that shook the small cottage. His bravery as he stormed through the crowds and soldiers in Rivaner to get to his family. The fierceness and determination of his tenacity, his fightand resolution to avenge Morwyn on the Cliffs of Odessa. A reassuring hand on my shoulder after embedding his axe in the soldier, ready to cut me down...
My life.I owed Bear my life and so much more.
Tiberius remained hovering, his emotions soaring down our connection at unrivaled speed. His or mine? I didn’t know. An arm slammed around my waist as I began to tip.
“SHIELD!” Vulcan bellowed, alarm spiking down my bond with Tiberius.
I snapped my head up as an arrow zinged through the air, its tip a gray whir against the white and red walls.
I tunneled intention into my powers, the shield a breath away from forming, as Vulcan’s arm ripped my chest back and his body formed its own shield against mine. He let out a pained grunt as the arrow ripped through his shoulder, the tip of it slicing against my forearm.
Tiberius dipped as my shield finally snapped into place, and he soared away from the walls of Aedrialis and back to camp. Guilt dug its claws into my chest and sent the spreading numbness scattering before slamming me back into reality.
Vulcan’s bloody arm slipped through my hands as he slumped into Nerissa’s arms upon our landing, healers rushing forward. My vision tunneled as the Rising warriors worked themselves into a frenzy after witnessing the horror of Bear’s execution.
Commanders swarmed me, and Carina placed a hand on my shaking arm as I slid from Ti’s back. I stared at Ezrich’s figure in the distance. His knees sank into the mud as he sat back on his heels, his arms heavy at his sides, and his face staring at the motionless figure of his dead father displayed on the wall.
So much was happening. I should go to Ezrich. I should see if Vulcan is okay. My stomach plunged. He’d taken an arrow for me…
A hand was on my shoulder.
“Vulcan will be fine. It’s a flesh wound.”
Astraeus’s words bounced off my mind like water against rock, and my breath continued to escape my lips too quickly. It was my fault Vulcan had been shot… Why did I drop my shield? It was my fault Bear was dead. I couldn’t get through Saros’s shield…
Glastí.Tiberius’s voice shook in my head.He was trying to tell us something.
“What’s happened?” Drystan asked as he rushed through the crowds.
“Glastí,” I replied and turned toward Carina. “What does it mean? Is it Elvish? He was trying to tell us something.” My throat bobbed as the words escaped my lips in tremors, tears forming in the corners of my eyes.
Carina’s brows tilted up and she shook her head, “I don’t?—”
“Fern,” Astraeus breathed. His eyes were wide as they darted between mine and then to the slice on my forearm. “Glastímeansfernin Old Votruvian.”
Astraeus’s mouth fell open as he dropped his hand from my shoulder and turned, his eyes tracing the air surrounding Aedrialis.
“It’s a steepledfern shield.”
