Page 219 of Season Warriors & Wolves

“No.” I was not sure about anything that would happen today. I was not even sure what I’d realised the night before was even true at all or if it was just a way my mind was trying to cope with it all—with my death. “I was hoping you would be since this was mostly your idea.”

She shivered, pale eyelids fluttering fast. “You will not tell Kilian this was my idea, will you?”

“Keep me alive first.”

“Do not be tempted to kill her. You know her weakness, you are her weakness, but do not be tempted to kill her whatever she does or whoever she hurts. She has to be commanded back to the sceptre. Keep holding her back until we’ve got the sceptre.”

“And if I can’t? If I lose control?”

Oryn appeared behind her along with Macaria and Penelope. “If the king fails to bind you with his magic, we will try to contain you for as long as we can,” the man said, almost regretfully. “Then we will direct your magic to another realm that accepts it without stealing away your control over it. A realm that needs it.”

I was also not sure how they would do that either no matter how many times Visha had explained to me.

Penelope had blanched and she shook entirely. “I don’t want to do this. It is not what we talked about in the meeting, Snow, please.” She cried. “I don’t want to do this. If your seal opens entirely—”

Macaria put a hand on her shoulder. “We will try, won’t we, my sweet child? For the sake of many.”

“Let’s tell him, Snow. Kilian needs to know what you told us all. What might happen.” The young one’s eyes pleaded with me one last time. Soon she gave up altogether, giving her grandmother a nod despite the tears. “Alright then.”

The four Crafters linked their hands in a circle around me. Ancient letters flew out of their tongues and slithery tentacles of glistening red raced between their linked fingers to hover in my air.

A vacuum suddenly opened above me, feeding onto their magic and then—I felt the seal open halfway through, much more than it had ever opened before.

Like the clash of two storms and a barrelling thunder.

Pain struck me hard, immediate and relentless, pounding on my bones and branding my skin. The seal on my back peeled open like a wound. My magic crawling out of it like burning salt.

I felt…I felt—

So much.

I could taste the air, touch it, sense every living thing around it—heartbeats, voices, the buzz of wings, the faraway roll of waves—everything. The muffled noise of the zgahna had finally stopped, and the words were now clear, no longer a buzz. A shiver went down my spine at the voices I heard. The voices it had collected all of those years. Laughter, screams, the cooing of a child, orders, prayer. All. All it had witnessed over the centuries it had protected us.

All four Crafters turned toward the rumble of the Volants. Watching the ancient fog roll down the mountains in a terrifying wave, engulfing everything under it. The ruins, forest and village, heading towards where the battle ahead awaited.

I bolted to the top of the Theros walls, watching the Isjordian army enter the sun city entirely, finding it empty, unprotected. Their confusion was evident. So much so that no one looked victorious as much as they looked afraid.

Cora appeared beside me, battle ready. “You can give them a choice. They still can have the choice to abandon this war, Snowlin.”

“They had a choice. They’ve chosen to die.”

And when all city gates rolled down all at once, the ground below shook from the force and so did the sunny skies from the immediate storm rolling over the blinding sun.

Then…thunder rained. Furiously. Blinding. Burning. Heavy. Unexpectedly. For miles along, the scenery glowed brighter and hotter than the sun itself. There was no time for screams or pleas or running away, they all melted under the heavy weight of their armour and greed.

The beige stone walls of the massive city were stained with soot and blood. The air was choking with the electric taste, but it stank of burning flesh and smoke.

Solaryan soldiers rolled out from their hiding spot, archers lining the whole city wall perimeter.

Every khamir beast that slowly revived from my attack, did not escape the soul killers pouring down like hail on them. There was no battle to ensue when Solaryan soldiers descended below. Only slaughter. No bodies to bury. Ash had already settled.

I turned to Cora who had overlooked the small battalion here. “Magnus?” My voice was not my own, and the Sun Queen hesitated as did I, her eyes wide.

“What remains of the Isjordian fleet will not last long. My husband is one with the seas, he will not need help. Go, we will all meet in Isjord.”

Nodding, I floated overhead until the sun city below grew smaller and smaller, and bolted. I had an oath to keep and my hands were itching to burn and unburden myself with the word I’d given to those who dared fight against me.

The moment I reappeared over Hanaian waters, the small distance between the Sayuri and Aru where Isjordians were sailing, the wind halted and so did the ships being stirred by it. Soldiers put a hand over their brows, squinting up at me, grasping it a little too late what I was about to do.