Water splashed from behind, where his head breached the water, the sound too close. Terror stabbed into me, sending a wave of energy, and I cut through the pond as fast as I could. My lungs burned as I forced my face in the water, not risking the break my body demanded. Finally, my feet slipped across the small stones lining the bottom of the lake.
Blood gushed from my knee as it crashed against a jagged rock, and I shoved myself up, stumbling down the rocky shoreline. Rain pelted my face. Wind whipped through the small clearing as I sprinted for the darkened trail opening ahead.
Water splashed from behind, and I urged my legs to move faster as the hard stones cut against my feet. Shadows loomed at the trailhead, the welcoming darkness beckoning me to its shelter.
A body slammed into me from behind, and my face smacked against the small stones. A flood of hot liquid poured from my nose, and hard hands gripped my shoulders before flipping me to my back.
Panic surged from the depths of my being as wraithlike memories from last year raced forward.A group of soldiers closing in on me… The sun disappearing against the rising cliffs of Skyscape Pass… Hands appearing on my shoulders… reaching for my clothes…
My life-threatening reality punched me in the gut, pulling me back to the pond. The man’s silver eyes burned against my face, and his hands reached for the thin band covering my breasts. His nails raked down my neck and chest. I screamed as I shot my hands to his face, scratching my fingernails against his cheek as my knee met the space between his legs. His hand slapped over my mouth, and I twisted, snapping my teeth over his finger and biting as hard as I could.
Blood gushed in my mouth as something cracked between my teeth. He ripped his hand away with a howl. I shoved my thumb into the side of his silver eye, and he reared back enough for me to land my heel in his gut and wiggle out of his grasp.
I tripped as I got to my feet, and his hand wrapped around my ankle. A jagged stick leading from the nearing trail scraped against my side as I fell. My hand wrapped around the base, and I swung with all my might. The long, ragged bark popped off the side as it smashed into his face.
His head whipped to the side, blood spewing from his mouth. I struggled to my feet and widened my base as I brought the stick back once more, bracing myself, before I slammed it over the top of his head and into the ground.
Vander’s body slumped, and I twisted toward the darkness of the trail before sprinting into its shadows.
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
NERISSA
My love for you does not rise and fall like the tides. It is ever-growing, ever-reaching like the tree of our land.
– Hidden correspondence from Kresida to Carina. On Carina’s person at the time of her death.
Nerissa – North of Ayla, Lotrennia
Ganmira and Renova’s twisted laughter echoed through the woods. Their massive claws left giant divots in the damp ground as they took slow, deliberate steps around an elf and two wolf pups in the center.
My eyes landed on Lida. Her mouth was curled over her teeth in a snarl, and her chest heaved as her head swiveled between the two massive bears circling her. Lida was as much a partner as Kresida, the two of us having spent years onboard theEvectatogether before she’d been taken by Dark King Daimos. A wave of protectiveness crashed against the rising force of comradery. Two fuzzy faces peered out from beneath her wiry arms, themuscle just beginning to return to her emaciated form from her months as an ashen.
A short sword glinted against her back as she pivoted, but she held the pups in an iron grip, not daring to shift their little bodies. My old crewmate locked her tawny eyes with mine, and I brought a finger to my lips. Her eyes flicked briefly to where Kresida stalked through the trees opposite of where I stood.
I blinked once, forming an urgent connection with Aquila. His presence surged behind my eyes, and I hurled every sense of mine down our bond, urging him to our location. A nod of assurance rushed in response, followed by a familiar yet long-forgotten wave of calm confidence. I stopped breathing.
My shoulders sagged, and I soaked in the familiar emotion.
Bayne.
It had been almost sixteen months since he’d closed his Bellator bond off from the rest of us. And for me, for someone who shared one with him since our birth, it had been like ripping the roots from a neighboring tree out beneath me. They had grown deep together, their lines tunneling down, drinking from the same rain, feeding off the same soil. And then, when he’d begun to feel Antares’s soulbinding thread, he’d run an axe through each one.
Bayne’s reassurance knocked at my gates, and I opened the connection to my brother and sent a fiery wave of urgency back.Hurry.
The two Embodied twisted through golden light, appearing in their goddess forms as they stalked Lida and the pups. Ganmira murmured something in a language I didn’t recognize, and Renova cocked her head, wiping the crimson line of blood from her snowy white chin.
“You have courage to stand against two gods, Elf.”
Lida snarled as she snapped her face to Ganmira, who lazily dragged her bare toes through the dirt.
“It did not end well for your companions at the gate. Drop the powers.”
Powers? My confusion dissipated as the sharp ache of failure stabbed me in the chest, and my mind flashed to Carina’s dull gaze against the Kayj sky. My mystic sobraen, my friend. A hard hatred rushed in its wake, and I gritted my teeth.
Ganmira raised a long finger, and a tendril of golden light ignited at the tip. Her lips spread into a sinister grin, and she stretched her arm forward. My eyes flicked to Kresida, now in position and ready to leap from the shadows for Lida.
The golden light spiraled through the air toward Lida and the pups, and I surged through the trees, slamming a shield in place between them. Breath sucked from my lungs as the force of Ganmira’s Transcindiel power slashed against my barrier, and I staggered forward.
