Page 32 of A Sea of Fate and Starfire

I dropped.

“Get her cordae back here,” Nori growled down the line. She turned to face me, her voice flat. “Maren.” As though she were dealing with a child.

It should have enraged me. But the metallic screech of steel lancing down a separate blade was louder than her disparaging tone. I tried to track the sound, tried to trace how far away it had strayed.

He dropped into a crouch as a blade swerved clean over his head.

The ground beneath my legs gave a subtle quake. The hair on my arms lifted.

And a second Rivean came around Kye’s side, the soldier’s arm arcing as steel narrowly missed Kye’s throat. Kye rolled to the left, dodging out of the man’s path.

Heat. Fire. Smoke. It was inside me. Outside me. It dragged within my breaths, clouded my vision, barricaded my thoughts. A calming hand lay across my shoulder. I shoved whoever it was aside.

A third slammed into him, sparks flying as their steel clashed, but Kye parried quickly enough that he missed that one, too.

The sky cracked wide with darkness, clouds billowing so tight they threw the world into night. That taste of ozone prickled in my nose, oil over wet stone. Olinne—Olinne was the one holding me in place. She pulled in close, murmuring comfort into my ears.

But the fourth.

The fourth man didn’t miss.

KYE, I shouted.

Ahead, in the center of the oncoming mass of soldiers, a white vein snapped from the skies, lighting the entire mountainside. Thunder crashed in the same moment, sound that crossed all barriers, lancing down my bones, piercing through my heart.

Again. And again. The strikes hit erratically, static knives aimed at the earth. Screams showered in the distance, formations of red dissolving into chaos, dispersing in all directions like a cloud of dust.

“Leihani, stop. I’m okay.”

Kye was suddenly close. His arms wrapped around my head, pulling my face into his chest. I breathed in his warmth, and though it burned against my thorax, I pulled it in deep, the fur across his shoulders thick between my fingertips.

Power shuttered from my blood, suddenly weak within my reach. The sun flickered overhead. “Eyes open,” Kye murmured into my ear. “I’m here. Stay here with me.”

“You left,” I choked. “I called and you didn’t answer.”

“I didn’t leave.”

Hands against my back, but I barely felt them. The burn faded as Aitne stitched the wound together with new skin, though each breath remained tight and sore.

The lightning strikes had stopped, but somewhere across the frozen peaks, thunder rumbled. The Rivean army had retreated just enough to hide under the trees, but I knew they weren’t gone.

My knees wobbled. Sleep knocked at the back of my skull, demanding to take the lead after healing me. I forced my eyes open as Kye lifted me into the air, a sudden, nauseating lurch against the cold. The Naiads pressed forward, shielding him as he hurried in the direction we’d come. Back to Calder’s army.

“Don’t leave me,” I forced out.

Kye turned sideways to step around a rock. “I’m not going anywhere.” He slipped, catching himself just as fast, though the jolt snapped my eyes open.

But that’s not what I meant. Kye was here as a commander. He’d been brought to fight. I hadn’t. I’d all but bullied my way into this battle, a place he hadn’t even wanted me to begin with.

Calder didn’t need or want my presence in these mountains. But it required his. Would he set me somewhere safe just to turn and run back?

A Rivean cut through the trees, sword missing Kye’s nose by inches as he jerked us backward, hauling me close to his chest. I struck out an arm, calling to the man’s blood, heating every artery. My strength was flagging. So I forced every ounce of spare power into the thermal expansion of his blood.

The man exploded. Wet, pink dust burst across the snow.

Kye snapped his gaping mouth shut as he strode around the rosy cloud. “Leihani,” he sighed. “When things settle, we should probably discuss your negotiation skills.”

“Yeah, well, you’re welcome, by the way.” A warm trickle escaped my nose, and I wiped it away in a red smear.