Page 117 of Memory of Ashes

Chapter 28

Amelia

She fell to the ground, clutching her chest. Pain spread throughout her body, unlike anything she’d ever felt. The rift had shrunk. The window into the fae’s world was folding in on itself, sealing the two worlds apart.

The world wavered, reality anchoring itself.

She fought to stay conscious.

Tharos ran over to her and sank to his knees.

“Amelia, stay with me,” he said, holding her head.

Darkness washed over her. Then there was nothing.

Amelia lurched upright with a violent gasp, air tearing into her lungs.

“Amelia!” Tharos yelled. “You were dead! You had no pulse!”

She ignored him. The dagger still protruded from her chest, causing pain. She pulled the dagger out as Tharos yelled at her to stop.

“You’ll bleed out!” he yelled.

But she didn’t care. It was the only way to stop the pain. She only wished that Casyl’s face had been the last she’d seen, not Tharos’s.

“Why are you still here?” she whispered.

The wound had stopped bleeding.

“Not all of us made it through the rift,” he said.

She turned towards the remaining men trapped on this side of the rift, and something peculiar began to happen.

They all watched in terror as their limbs started to vanish, slowly turning to dust, falling away as the closing rift inhaled their remains. Some screamed; others stared in disbelief, turning to their comrades to see who would be next.

As the rift winked out, it took their scattered ashes with it. Those who remained stood in shock.

Tharos stood and shakily inspected himself to check that he was still all there. The sound of the approaching army grew louder.

Tharos had said her pulse stopped, but she was alive and the rift was closed. Her death must have severed her connection to the rift long enough for it to seal.

“Tharos, you have to hide us,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper.

He lifted her into his arms, and she winced at the pain as he carried her to his horse. “Follow me,” he yelled to the remaining men.

They descended the mountain and travelled as fast as they could, the cavalry slowing so that the infantry could keep up.

Tharos held her against him with one hand as he held the reins of his horse with the other. Every jolt of the horse sent pain shooting through her.

She drifted in and out of consciousness.

When her eyes opened, she recognised the land in front of them. They were heading back towards the capital.

“Why are we going there?” she croaked.

“It’s the safest place I could think of,” Tharos replied.

“Are we being followed?”