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They don’t talk about how messy it is. Killing. In the storybooks, it’s all about glory and honor. They don’t mention how blood can get in your mouth. How bladders loosen. How the smell of death is so cloying, you choke on it. How a face that was once animated can suddenly become lifeless.
How every time you kill, you feel like you lose just a little piece of yourself.
And yet, I keep killing. My sister is in the castle. My friends are on this wall. Ravis is advancing, hoping to overthrow peace. Intending to enslave magic users to his will.
Anyone who threatens me and my family will face my hammers.
I don’t hesitate before I swing, but that doesn’t mean I like it.
I like even less that I’m getting better at it.
“On your right,” Kymora says, and I spin just in time to see a soldier charging at me. I catch him with Echo, send him sprawling to the ground on our side of the wall. His arms and legs land at angles that make them useless.
And then I hear a large crash. The splintering of wood and clanking of metal. The grunting of men and cries of others.
I realize with horror that they made it through the gate.
“Get the prince out of here!” Kymora shouts. “Hurry, before they overwhelm him.”
I spin to find Tazar already hauling Skiro away, Petrik helping.
“It’s not over. We have to—” Skiro starts.
“It’s done,” Petrik says. “We have to get you through the portal now!”
Kymora narrows her eyes at the wordportal, but she says nothing about it. She’s distracted by a fresh batch of men climbing over the wall.
I go to help her, but a hand on my arm stops me from moving. I spin with my shield and stop just in time as I register Kellyn.
“You can’t just grab me when we’re in the middle of battle!” I scream at him.
“Sorry, but we have to go.”
“But Kymora.”
“Has done her part. She bought us more time. The prince promised her freedom. It’s time to let her go.”
“No!”
Kellyn drags me down the steps of the wall, stopping at intervals to fend off an advancing soldier.
“Duck!” I shout, and he obeys as I bring up Echo and send a soldier flying backward.
“We can’t just leave her behind!” I say, picking the argument back up, even as we begin running once more.
“What else would you have us do? Bring her? How in the world would we force her to do that? And you can’t break Skiro’s promise to her.”
“Imade no such promise.”
“So you’d rather, what? Stay here, attempt to kill her, and then die when Ravis’s men surround you?”
I hate this. Hate that he’s right. Hate that there’s so much happening, so much chaos. This is the literal opposite of being alone and safe.
“Surely you want to see Temra make it through the portal?” Kellyn asks at last.
He knows just what to say to get me to move faster.
We plunge into the palace, Skiro and Petrik so far ahead of us they’re already out of sight. Kellyn and I dispatch more soldiers along the way, making for the stairs.
