I don’t know what to make of the fact that he didn’t drag me from the beach and force me to return to the palace to keep me safe. Everyone in Lyrichia will die for certain if I’m killed, and still, he listened to me. Like he knows I need this.
The ravagers sweep in fast.Too fast. I can’t differentiate one from the other as they circle. Guards are at either side of us with blades raised, but Wilder doesn’t push me back; he waits for them to make the first move. The first ravager lunges, and Wilder moves in a way that tells me he’s been holding back every time we’ve sparred in the ring. He’s so fast I can’t blink without missing something.
His sword sweeps the air, laced with aether. It swarms around him as he becomes the wind itself. Three ravagers fall in the span of a single breath.
But there’s still more. So many more.
A ravager lunges for me, and I throw my weight into the swift jab upward. In the ring, I’m focused on defending myself, but it won’t do me any good here. I’ll end up cornered. So I attack with brute force while the nails of the ravager reach for me.
Wilder moves at my left, distracting the ravager as I drive my dagger up through her throat. Black blood spills from her emaciated neck. The putrid stench of decaying flesh floods my nose.
Holding my breath, I dig the dagger deeper until the tip peeks through her open mouth at the back of her throat. When I pull back, the ravager falls to the ground.
Wilder spins, suddenly at my side as he thrusts his blade down, finishing the ravager off by slicing off her head in one sweep.
He doesn’t slow, turning to drive his sword through the chest of one at his left. He drives it up and cleanly through, until the ravager’s guts tumble onto the beach. But even that isn’t enough to stop him, just to slow him down as he attempts to crawl on the sand. Wilder wraps the ravager’s neck in a halo of aether, pulling tight until it rips his neck in half.
At my right, two ravagers close in. I’m not quick enough to fight them both, so I aim for the one closest, but I miss, digging my dagger into his thigh. The other lunges, and her nails sink into my arm. I wait for the pain as she rips my leathers open and her nails bury themselves in my flesh, but there’s nothing.
No pain.
No blood.
At least, nothing here. Distantly, I feel something tug on the thread that ties me to where Wilder battles on the beach, and I see him wince as his arm slices open.
“What are you doing?”I shove a dagger into a ravager’s eyes, forcing her back.“How are you taking my wounds?”
“Focus.”
Focus? Like it’s that simple when he’s clearly cast some kind of magic to absorb anything inflicted on me.
A ravager tears its nails into Wilder’s side, and more blood spills out. He’s taking too much damage. Mine and his. And afterthe burst of aether he expelled to force the ravagers into their physical form on the beach, I feel his magic wavering.
I duck when a ravager’s teeth aim for my throat, managing to slice him in the gut. He tumbles to the ground, and I press my knee to his chest, bringing my blade to his throat. With all my weight, I push down until the large dagger slices through, and his head rolls off.
My back is forced into an arch, and with no pain searing through me, it takes me a moment to realize I’ve been struck. I look down to see long nails sticking through the center of my stomach, where a ravager has speared me with their hand from behind. He pulls back, and I turn in time to see the ravager aiming for my chest this time. Rolling, I get out of the way, but he lunges for me. With my dagger firm in both hands, I hold it upward, piercing the ravager’s heart.
His eyes roll until they’re solid black, and it takes all my strength to force him off me.
I stumble to my feet, catching sight of Wilder. His magic and strength are stretched to their limits with the sheer number of them he’s fighting. Blood pools all over him. From his wounds to the ones he’s taken for me. But he doesn’t slow. Doesn’t falter.
He continues to fight for a kingdom that would rather see him Cleave.
Through the mess of guards and ravagers, one sets their focus on me. It’s a shadow before she takes form. She moves like the wind around the rest of them. Slipping where there shouldn’t be enough space. Weaving through the battle. She’s upon me before I can blink.
One moment, I’m staring into the ravager’s white eyes, the next, Wilder is standing between us, taking the full force of the ravager’s attack to his chest. He stumbles, and I grab the back of his shirt like that will be enough to steady him.
His skin is so hot through his clothes that I can barely handletouching him. But I don’t let go. I hold the heat that swells within him like it is a part of me, and in a breath, he lets it explode. Ravagers fall and run and burn. They retreat just enough to give us a break. It drains so much of Wilder’s magic that his skin cools. And when he turns, I see the full scope of his wounds.
His eyes no longer glow gold. They’re a deep amber, cast in shadows. Blood covers his clothes.
My palms find his chest, pressing, trying to hold him together, and that’s when I feel it.
Thump. Thump.
Thump. Thump.
His heartbeat.
