“Just like the Arcalon, eh, Thorne?”
Gregor.
The sight of him, axe in hand, grinning like a madman through the blood and chaos, actually made Sebastian smile.
“Wouldn’t want to do it without you,” he growled back.
Gregor stepped into place beside him, swinging his axe in a brutal strike that split a pale skull. They fought together, back-to-back, blades clanging, holding the line through sheer force and fury. Sebastian risked a glance – the man was relentless, every strike devastating. No finesse, no elegance. Just a wall of muscle.
Hells, I could use him in Thorne.
A scream got his attention. Sebastian spun, catching sight of Kara, her shield flaring gold but straining under the ebony magic of three Drakens attacking at once. She and Sienna had been forced apart. Kara was still fighting, alongside several of his men – but barely holding. Sebastian was on them in an instant, cutting them down with savage ruthlessness.
“Thanks,” she muttered breathlessly.
He nodded once. “Where’s Sienna?”
“Got pushed back with the Lyrans, but she’s alive.”
His breath came hard, blood dripping from his blade as he allowed himself a split second’s relief that Kara was still standing. Then a roar split the air. Sebastian turned sharply towards the sound and saw Gregor on one knee with a Draken blade buried deep in his side.
No–
A second stabbed into his shoulder, forcing him lower. Sebastian tried to get to him, hacking his way through, but there were so many. Still Gregor fought on, teeth bared, rage blazing in his face.
Get up, get up–
Gregor swung his axe again, cleaving his attacker in two.
Come on, Gregor–
Sebastian hoped the man might survive out of sheer stubbornness. He just needed to get to him in time. Heal him. But Sebastian’s hope shattered as a third black-veined figure drove a sword clean through Gregor’s neck.
“No!” Sebastian roared, still fighting. He could do nothing but watch as Gregor fell backwards, blood spilling, axe slipping uselessly from his fingers.
“Gregor!” he shouted desperately, slashing at anyone in his way. Their eyes locked across the battlefield, through the melee of bodies, stubborn fire still blazing in the other man’s gaze. Sebastian’s mind flashed with memory – Gregor dragging him injured out of the Fire Trial. He’d been there for him then. Gregor’s lips moved but Sebastian couldn’t hear him.
He never would.
If I’d been faster. If I hadn’t looked away.
The light in Gregor’s eyes went out.
“NO!” The sound ripped from Sebastian and golden light exploded from him unbidden, blasting every Draken within a dozen strides off their feet, scattering them across the field. The air crackled with magic. The force nearly tore him apart – that much power threatening to shred him from within – but he held it in his grief. Mastered it.
He used the single moment of peace to shove his way through the carnage, his gaze locked on Kara. If they could kill Gregor, they could kill her. He wouldn’t leave her side now. Couldn’t risk it. Together they pressed back into battle.
“Arrows running low!” someone shouted from the mountainside ridge. Morra. “We’re nearly out!”
“Then make every one count!” Sebastian bellowed, voice hoarse. “Aim for throats – drop them fast!”
Morra and her people adjusted immediately, releasing fewer arrows – but every one that flew fell true. The field was chaos as the fighting wore on. Bodies littered the sand. Smoke rolled thick above them, dark and choking. The clash of steel and screams of the dying drowned out everything else. Sorrel men had begun pulling arrows from the fallen to fill their quivers and running back to their vantage point. Sebastian felt another wave of clarity wash over his mind. Caldris still doing their work. But they’d all been driven back from the beach, step by bloody step, the barricades swallowed, the sand long behind them – fighting on bloodied grass now. Drakens still poured forward, but they’d slowed, their charge blunted by the coordinated efforts of the Vallennan forces. The sun was lowering in the sky, casting long shadows over the battlefield.
They’d been fighting for hours.
Sebastian felt it then – a shift. Small but real. Vallennan forces were holding ground for the first time in hours. They were still bleeding, but they weren’t losing.
Maybe they could do this.
