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“Help the others!” Icommandedhim, my voice cracking like a whip.
Thatvoice I did not recognize, nor the authority that accompanied it.
“Alright,” Ryker growled, the word ripe with frustration and torment—the sound of someone who wasbeingforcedto do something they didn’t want to. “I’ll get them across. But you donotget captured,” he demanded of me. “You get out of here as soon as you can.”
I nodded—it was all I could do.
Ryker barked orders at the few able-bodied who remained, instructing them to help the Water Cursed who wereunconscious—to carry them across. In my peripheral, I could see him bending down to help one, slinging the woman’s arm over his shoulder, and then he and the others started across.
I concentrated. Fixated. On this one task.
The strokes of time slowed. The beating of my heart seemed to do the same.
And in that moment, as the last of the prisoners found their way to safety, I alone held the river on my shoulders.
Sage
When Ryker and everyone else had made it to the other side, I withdrew my power.
The river came crashing down, smashing upon the riverbed and bank with such force that the ground trembled beneath my feet. Water misted across my face, mixing with my sweat-wicked skin and clothes.
Creator above, I felt cold—like that internal flame inside me had nearly burned itself out, resulting in little less than a few glowing embers on the verge of combustion. My energy stores were depleted.
Across the way, Ryker yelled something, but whatever he was saying was lost to me. All I could hear hammering in my ears was the slow, rhythmic ticking of my heart.
Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump.
Something flashed above me, but when I looked up, all I saw was the calm, serene azure sky.
“What have you done?” growled a voice from behind me—proud and noble and . . . angry.
My heart picked up its lagging speed, bursting into a full trot, a contradictory reaction to the rest of my body—notably my stomach, which felt like it had been filled with rocks. My shoulders tightened tensely as I turned around.
Aurelius’s regal face, framed by sleek white hair, held no hint of a smile.
He wore all white, his richly tailored clothes hugging his lean, muscled body. A thin gold chain slung across his broad chest, tethered to a cape that danced softly in the wind.
But it wasn’t his attire that made my mouth fall open—it was his wings.
They replicated the colors of the waking sun, each plume dipped in glistening gold. They were illustrious, spanning out behind him. Ethereal. Powerful. Incredible.
He looked at the bare bones of cloth that once resembled a dress, to my dirty skin and disheveled hair. Blistering golden eyes flicked up to mine. Full of fury.
It was a different type of fury—different from the kind I had seen in Von’s eyes, which seemed to be on my behalf.
The fury I was seeing now—it was undoubtedly directedat me.
I looked past Aurelius to the curved wall of flame that Ryker and the Fire Cursed had made to keep us safe—to the soldiers that stood behind it.
Understanding nestled deep in my weary, brittle bones.
“You brought an army—” I took a breath, cutting myself short. I choked out the next few words, “—to take them back.”
“I have,” he said. “As well as you,wife.” There was not a single ember of love in the way he spoke the word.
Betrayal gutted me where I stood.
“Youknewabout the Well.” I felt like vomiting, but the anger filling my veins was far more potent. I clenched my fists together. “How could you let that happen toinnocentpeople?”
