Blood was pumping through me, my pulse racing with adrenaline and magic and death and fight. It felt surreal to take on the Salt soldiers directly, to look them in the eye when I felt the thread of their life drain from their bodies, as I had wanted to do so many times.
My gaze wrenched up when I began to hear the screams, hundreds of them echoing in my head, all around the battlefield.
Without my control, the creature I’d created had begun to crumble, the decaying parts of the soldiers falling to the ground, slamming into the battlefield and Reza below.
I tried to find Yaseema and Mishah in the chaos, but it was impossible—bodies fell all around the pass, and both soldiers and rebels ran from the avalanche of death coming for them.
I broke through the shell of branches surrounding me, racing toward the creature, evading falling pieces of dead Salt soldiers falling from the sky.
I concentrated on the beast, trying to conjure the threads of rot once more, feeling my power flood through my veins with every step closer to it.
And in the din, I caught sight of wild dark curls as she charged the Viceroy, a blade flashing in the sun.
Chapter 49
Dear Amma,
I thought about leaving so many times, trying to find a way to get to you. I ignored your warnings, ignored the whispered songs about the horror of it all.
It couldn’t be worse than the horrors we faced every day.
—Letter from Yaseema to her mother, recorded in Mahira Nazir’s journal
Yaseema
The bodies were falling, and I knew we had very little time to get the crown that sat on Reza’s head, in addition to the one in his chest.
Kiyan had lost control of his creature built of death, and I looked up, my heart in my throat, trying to see if he was okay.
If he lost control, that could only mean he was either dead or fighting.
But the rain of Salt soldiers from the body of the creature made it impossible to see anything on the battlefield above us.
Instead, Mishah and I darted through the bodies, the living Salt soldiers not paying much attention to us as they ran from the bodies of their fellow soldiers falling from the sky.
The few that did notice us charged, attempting to stop us from getting to the Viceroy. They were quickly cut down by Mishah’s blades, her fighting skills something I was still surprised at.
“If you could fight, why didn’t you defend yourself with the general,” I hissed. “Why did you wait untilIkilled him?”
“I didn’t want to give my cover away, did I?” she said as she slashed down another soldier. “And besides, your reveal was much more dramatic.”
Reza was fighting rebels in the storm of bodies falling, having paused from his path toward the Mountain. With every touch of his hands another resistance fighter fell to the ground, their life drained, body cursed.
“We’ll never get to the Mountain. This is impossible,” I said as I ducked the swing of a sword from the silver-clad arm of a Salt soldier.
“Nothing is impossible, only very, very difficult,” Mishah replied as she speared the male who attacked me.
“Okay,” I nodded. “Well, this is very,verydifficult.”
“We’re almost there. All you need to do is take his crown while I distract him.”
“And if he comes after me?”
“I’ll be right behind you. You aren’t alone, Yas.”
I remembered her words to Kiyan earlier.
She won’t be alone. Ever.
