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All I see, as I dance forwards, lunging at a naga who fights with two long knives, are the bodies of the dead.
I knock one of the knives out of his hand, and the look of crazed excitement flickers out of his eyes.
I leap forward with a howl and drive the sword through his chest. I pull it back with a ferocity that I haven’t felt in years.
I bump into Lasta then, and push him out of the way as a dagger flies through the air towards him. I deflect the dagger with my sword and kick the naga who threw the dagger right in the face.
“You okay?” I ask him, and he nods breathlessly.
“We need to stop this,” Lasta says, and the worry in his bright eyes is obvious.
“Yes. And we need to do it before more get hurt,” I reply and lift my hand to wipe sweat off my face.
“I think it is time you and I work together. Like we used to in the past. We’re trained to do this. Zalith and Slyth cannot do this without us. And I cannot do this without you.”
Lasta’s words are frank, and they give me pause.
He’s giving me a chance to put the past away and walk into the future together.
And so, in the middle of the chaos, I take his hand and shake it, before we both turn to face the violence.
30
MAYA
“It’s been too long,” I say, pacing back and forth in Aurora’s room.
We all slept in her bed together, and it is now morning. The men still have not returned. No one in the castle appears to know what happened. No one has any news about them, and it’s beginning to drive us all a little crazy.
“It certainly does feel that way. But imagine how bad the situation must have been. It was never going to be a quick and easy task. If the King really had his men there, then they probably destroyed that town.”
“Yeah, but were our mates in that town when they destroyed it?” Krista sobs.
Lorelai and Rory have kept it the most together, and Krista was doing well until this morning. Now she’s on my level. Rory is trying her best to keep it together for the rest of us, and Lor has just been sitting in the window seat staring out of it for the past hour.
The sight of her in that seat takes me back to Selliss’ room. At this moment, part of me wants to go back to that room. I was lonely, but Selliss and I were safe. And if he died in that town last night, then I will never forgive myself for ultimately being the reason he was there.
It will be my fault if he dies. This is what I’ve been telling myself all night, reciting it over and over in my head instead of sleeping.
“We can’t keep thinking like this,” Aurora says.
“Getting a little hard to do that,” Lorelai says, still staring out the window.
I’m not sure if she’s watching out for our men or if she’s just staring blankly, but either way, I think she’s starting to lose it.
“I know, trust me I’m having a hard time, too. But we have to hold it together. If they come back, they are going to need us.”
“If?” Krista asks, lips trembling.
“When. Fuck, I didn’t mean that. They will come home, girls. They’re probably just helping clean up after the battle. They can’t just leave the town in ruin.”
“You think it was that bad?” I ask. “That the town would be in ruin?”
“I don’t put it past the King's men. I hope not, but they are cruel enough to do that kind of damage.”
Finally putting an end to my pacing, I sit on the bed, staring a hole into the ground. If Selliss does not return, then I have to come up with a plan. A plan to slip out of the castle and do what I should have done all those weeks ago in Selliss’ room.
I cannot live without him. He is all I have.
