“The new Aether weapons are primed along the walls of the Outside,” Maireth says, her wolf mask gleaming in the chaos. “At the first surge of your Lightborne magic, theywillfire.”
The world seems to tilt.
Elyssara’s hands tremble with contained power.
“You’re lying,” she spits, though the words come thinner than she wants. “You would never hurt your own people.”
But Elyssara knows she would. Has seen her brutality first hand.
Maireth’s head tilts by a fraction.
“I’ve wanted the filth from the Outside gone for years. What better way to do so than by blaming the future Queen of Dravara.” Her voice remains smooth. “The people would demand war, and of course I’d oblige.”
Blue light crackles faintly along the soldiers’ shields as if to prove her point.
“I know the kind of creature you are, Elyssara,” Maireth continues. “You would burn yourself alive before you let the Outside fall because of your choice.”
Her gaze sharpens.
“And my instincts are always correct.”
Rage claws at Elyssara’s ribs hard enough to split bone.
Kael roars as another soldier drives a blade into his side. Not deep enough to kill. Deep enough to enrage.
The sound breaks her open.
She cannot use her magic.
She cannot leave him.
She cannot do nothing.
So she grabs the fallen sword from the nearest corpse and throws herself into the melee.
Soldiers spin on her.
Steel collides.
Pain bursts up her arm as she catches a strike. She twists, driving her blade into the soft seam beneath a soldier’s breastplate, his shield held out to block Kael. Hot blood spills over her hand and it feels like home.
Another man slams into her from the side.
She stumbles.
Her shoulder clips the stone wall hard enough to blur her vision.
Kael’s eyes dart to her between strikes, depthless and terrible.
The Decay surges in response to her pain, like beneath the rot, he still exists somewhere. Still sees her. Not as a body to cull, but as her.As his.
It erupts from him in a wave, swallowing three soldiers at once. They collapse choking, clawing at their own throats as the rot races under their skin.
For one wild heartbeat, Elyssara thinks he might break through them.
Then one of the shields turns.
Not toward Kael.
