‘Give me space!’ Kyor shouts from where he slices a sword through a Torailian just seconds before it fires at Caz. ‘I need space.’
‘No, you?—’
‘I’ve got this, Thorn. Trust me,’ he yells.
Fear grips me. If he overuses his magic, he’ll be drained. Permanently.
Unless I can stop that from happening.
I don’t give myself a chance to think. To second-guess. Instead, I pull at the magic which lingers there in the twisted plant roots that burst through the earth. I drag it upwards, freeing it from its confines before I push the magical energy into Kyor. I don’t want to do too much – he’s already got so much power that giving him more could be just as detrimental – but just enough. Enough to stop him from draining himself. Because if he burns himself out, there’ll be no coming back from it. Nogetting his power back, ever. And even though I’ve given him a boost, with the huge amount of energy he’s about to release there’s still the chance that he could drain himself dry. But he didn’t hesitate when I asked him to trust me with the Myrkr, and I owe him the same level of trust now.
My silence, he knows, is my acceptance.
Kyor detonates.
Chapter 53
Lightning tears the air apart – a hundred forks, bright enough to dull even the sun as they dive across the sky before plummeting down and slamming into the ground between the Torailians and us with enough force to crack stone.
My eyes squeeze shut and my entire body clenches at the brightness and the sound that follows. Thunder bellows out with such a monstrous roar that Loch drops to the ground screaming.
How anything that size could possibly be controlled seems beyond belief, but as I regain my sight from the blaze, I see it was exactly that. Controlled.
Some forks struck the Torailians directly, their screeches barely audible beneath the lingering rumble of thunder before they fell silent, once and for all, their charred bodies littering the ground.
‘Kyor?’ My heart stutters at the sight of him kneeling on the ground, but as he twists to face me, he raises his hand to show me the tiny sparks bouncing between his fingertips.
He still has magic. He didn’t drain himself.
The relief that floods me is instant. Of course he didn’t. He’s a soldier, a commander; he knows exactly how far he can stretch himself.
The lucky few Torailians who were not struck directly by lightningwere blasted off their feet and are now scrambling as psychic orders are almost certainly screaming through their skulls to retreat.
Among that final few is the woman who infiltrated my mind. Who had the audacity to call Fen a beast.
With the sudden urge to take one more utterly deserving life, I take a single stride towards her, only to have my route blocked.
‘Thank the Gods, Rose.’ Caz stands in front of me, bloodied but on her own two feet. And she’s not the only one. Thessa and Ruben stride towards me. As do the rest of the group. Somehow, we’re all here. We’re all still standing.
‘How the fuck are we still alive. Again?’ Benny asks.
I don’t bother replying. None of us know. Instead, I turn to look at Kyor.
‘After this,’ I say quietly, ‘we will talk.’
He nods. Once. No defence. No excuses.
‘But right now,’ I continue, ‘I have something here I need to finish.’
Stepping away from the group, I pull at the magic simmering within me. Magic I may not accept but will not deny. A magic I’ve only ever called on once, to speak to the kraken. But I reckon if it can work on a fucking great mythical beast in pain and held against its will, it shouldn’t be too hard to use on a patch of broken and beaten mortals. I raise my voice inside my mind and turn back to the Torailians.
You don’t get me.Not today, nor any day.My voice is resonant. Commanding. A warning that needs no vines or ice to validate it. And there’s no doubt that my voice reaches them as fear flickers in their eyes.I will tell you this once and only once. If you try to hunt me down, I’ll see the rest of you dead, like your compatriots.I gesture to the bodies littering the ground.There will be no mercy beyond what I’m offering you now. Remember that. I offer you mercy, but I will only extend it once.
Several heads bow as if accepting my word, but one pair of garnet eyes refuses to fall. Not that it matters. She will not get the followers to take me again, and she and I both know it.
Then, because it’s what my little brother wanted, I bend down and pick up a single arrow from the ground. The first present I have got him for longer than I care to remember.
With a confidence I’m not sure I feel, I turn back to the group. But before I move, I reach deep, not for my magic, but for something else.
