I didn't need to go back at all. No one with half a mind would give up on an escape attempt and go back to risk their lives for the person who had captured them.
I was still muttering something of the sort to myself as we neared the fortress once more, and a few of the soldiers tore their attention away from Legacy to look up at the sound of hooves.
"Down!" I shouted, letting the magic beneath my skin curl into my grip.
Legacy was the only one who moved, flinging herself down to the ground, which was just as well; she was the one I had been talking to in the first place.
With a fierce swing of my arm, I released the reins, sending my magic coursing through my body and out toward the soldiers. A brilliant burst of rainbow colors erupted from my hand, a powerful surge of energy that knocked the soldiers off their feet.
The clatter of armor and startled shouts filled the air as they tumbled to the ground, their weapons falling uselessly from their grasp. My magic felt like a raging storm, wild and untamable, as it engulfed the soldiers and sent them reeling.
Legacy stayed where she crouched, her arms over her head, as I swung down from the saddle and walked toward her, the reins in hand. None of the soldiers moved, but I didn't bother checking whether they were still alive or merely unconscious. The horse and I stopped next to Legacy, and I stuck my hand out to help her up.
She moved slowly, peeling herself onto her hands and knees before leaning back to look at me. Our eyes met, and my cheeks flushed, but I refused to be the one to look away first. Yes, I was the one who had left her, but anyone else would have done the same.
Meanwhile, I was also the fool who had come back.
Whatever Legacy saw in my eyes, it seemed to satisfy her. She took my hand slowly, her grip warm and slick with blood as I helped her rise to her feet. She didn't let go, and I didn't either. I was strangely reluctant to move, despite the blood on her hands and the silence between us.
Moments later, she let go first, and my face flamed. I did not meet her eyes again.
Legacy cleared her throat as we stepped over the bodies of the soldiers, heading toward the open front gate. All of theviolence seemed to be confined to the outside. Hopefully we would be safe enough inside the fortress, at least for now.
My plan had not changed—to track down the traitor Tannin and drag him back to Ehuna so he could tell her that he had lied about me. As for Legacy's plan, I had no idea what it was now that she had been betrayed by her own people. We had that in common.
A huge shadow loomed overhead. Without looking, I already knew what it was, but I glanced up anyway. Tannin’s “little” bird. Had it seen me unleash magic without the use of a gauntlet? Would it tell Tannin?
I sped my steps in time to my thrumming heartbeat. Legacy and I worked together to close the gate and slam the bar down on the inside, then we moved slowly to lead the horse farther inside and care for her. Everything within the fortress held still and silent.
"I had a vision just before they attacked,” Legacy admitted. “Why they were doing it."
She spoke slowly, and when she didn't continue, I prodded her with one of the brushes we were grooming the mare with. We had been in companionable silence before, but she couldn't just say something like that and leave me hanging.
"The advisors. On both sides,” she said. “The one who spoke to you, and one of mine as well, whose name I don't know. They don't want anyone to know that you escaped, so they came to kill us."
I bit my lip to keep from telling her thatI'dtold her about that. I had been vague when I'd alluded to my own side betraying me, and even her question about me being tired of the war hadn't quite been enough to convince me that I could trust her. Now her own people were trying to kill her, and me, because of what she knew. If we hadn't been on the same side before, we were certainly getting closer to it now.
"I wish I was surprised," I murmured.
She kept looking at me, and I gritted my teeth. Exhaustion weighed on me, I'd just used a massive amount of magic to potentially kill a swath of soldiers, and I'd given up my one chance at escape to save someone who might be an ally or might be an enemy. I wasn't in the mood to be stared at.
"What?" I snapped.
“You can do magic without a gauntlet,” she said.
“So?”
"Why did you come back?" she asked.
I didn't have a good answer for her. I should have stayed away, taken my chance at escape. But I hadn't, and I couldn't bring myself to regret it.
I shrugged. "I wish I knew."
Chapter
Twenty-One
Holed up within the walls of the fortress, Legacy and I finally had an actual conversation, and I wasn't sure it was worth the wait.
