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“Get back!” he shouted as he braced his feet on the ground. “Take Tessa! NOW!”
Muscular arms wrapped around my waist. Alastair took off at a run, pulling me back, moving faster than I would have expected. Heart pounding, I kept my gaze glued on Kalen as what felt like an entire army of shadowfiends descended upon him. That horrible helplessness choked me once more. There was nothing I could do. No way that I could help. None of us could.
We were too late.
The beasts drew nearer, so close that I could see the saliva dripping from their bared fangs. Kalen curled his fists. I braced myself, knowing exactly what came next.
He shouted into the wind. His dark power boomed from his body. It felt like a crack in the world opened up, splitting right through my eardrums. I winced at the darkness of it and how strands of pain wrapped around me, tugging me down into the darkness—into death itself.
The ground shook. Sand sprayed against my face, stinging my skin. The power hurtled toward the shadowfiends and crashed into them with a force that broke every bone in their bodies. They collapsed on the rumbling ground like puppets with cut strings. Then the wave of Kalen’s power receded just as quickly as it had washed up against us.
Kalen fell to his knees, body curved, chest heaving.
“Let go of me.” I twisted in Alastair’s arms.
Alastair released me, and I stumbled forward on trembling legs. Gritting my teeth, I forced my feet to keep moving forward, but it was as if I waded through soup. The remnants of his power still warbled through me.
When I finally made it to his side, I fell to the ground in front of him and searched his tortured gaze. “What’s wrong? Are you all right?”
He clasped my hand and shuddered. “I almost lost control that time. I could have ripped open another fucking chasm. It could have…” His voice broke. “I could have killed you.”
“But you didn’t.” I pulled his hand to my chest and rested my forehead against his. “I’m here, safe, because of you. If you hadn’t killed all those shadowfiends, I’d be dead.”
His sapphire gaze ripped through me. “I shouldn’t have brought you out here with me. It’s too dangerous.”
“It was my decision,” I said firmly. “It was a risk I was willing to take. To find my…”
I couldn’t say it. Now that I’d seen just how many shadowfiends were out here, I couldn’t even mouth the word.Mother. Unshed tears burned my eyes, as hot as the flames of Albyria. She and seven other mortals had tried to flee to safety. But there was no such thing as safety out here.
As if reading my mind, Kalen’s lips flattened. “Come on. Let’s see if we can find them.”
He didn’t say what we both knew—whatallof us knew.
I still would not let myself even think it.
We stood and waited for the others to join us. Just as before, they took up their formation and we marched forward, heading further into the darkness beyond the city of Endir. No more shrieks echoed around us. No more terrified screams drifted on the wind. It was silent out here, a heavy sound that weighed on my shoulders like metal chains.
Just ahead of me, Kalen suddenly stiffened. He slowed to a stop and then turned. Tense lines bracketed his mouth, and the sorrowful pinch of his brow caused a whimper to creep up my throat.
“No,” I whispered, shaking my head until the world around me was a blur. “No. Please, no.”
Toryn let out a strangled noise, and the silence of the others was deafening.
The mist crept along my skin.
“Tell me it’s not her,” I choked out.
Kalen’s cheek tightened. “Toryn and Alastair can take you back to the castle. You don’t have to see this.”
I started to shake, my teeth knocking together. Words coated my tongue, but I could not find a way to speak them. They just sat there like a lump of bitter sand.
But he knew. He looked into my eyes, and he understood. I could not turn away. I had to face the truth of it all, even if it killed me.
With a heavy sigh, Kalen shifted to the side.
Ten broken bodies littered the ground. Blood was everywhere. A severed arm sat close to my boots, and a pool of blood crept toward me. I swallowed down a lump of nausea, and my eyes blurred. There was so much death. So much fear on the faces looking back at me. Their mouths were still opened wide in silent screams.
Shaking, I stepped over the arm and searched for the face of the woman who had raised me, who had loved me in spite of everything I’d done to cause her pain. A second ticked by, and then another, and I tried to strangle the hope that threatened to rise up from the dead.
