“Or,” Ben cut in, his eyes on Gunnar, “we bring Elazar with us. To the castle.”
Lu’s lungs emptied on a rush. Before she could ask anything, Ben slid his hand into the pocket on Gunnar’s shirt and withdrew a vial.
Her last vial of permanent magic.
“Elazar will want this,” Ben said. He took Lu’s arm, imploring.“Get to the castle. I’ll be right behind you—with Elazar in tow.”
Gunnar shook his hands, fists breaking into flames. “If I do not kill him first.”
Ben smiled, feverish against the sounds of war, and closed his fingers around the vial. He nodded at Kari and met Lu’s eyes one more time.
“Save him. Save them both,” he told her. He broke through the raiders’ line of defense, running hard for the wharf and, beyond it, one of the staircases that led up the tide wall, into the city. Gunnar followed, Ben’s fire-wreathed shadow.
Lu’s heartbeat thundered. Around her, the group of half a dozen raiders and Kari crouched lower, readying more weapons and plants.
She didn’t want to be here. She hadn’t wanted to bethis, a soldier in a war, ever again; yet Lu found herself plunged without warning into a battle, surrounded on all sides by allies with weapons flashing and bundles of magic lighting, launching, exploding.
The last time, she promised herself. An empty promise. But on it, Lu took pistols from one of the raiders and filled her pockets with more ammunition.
Kari’s smile in the rising twilight was soft and sad and just as destroying as the weight of this fight. “Use your Incris,” she told Lu.“Go.”
Lu waited until Kari moved first. Then she ran.
Despite Kari’s plea, Lu braced herself against her Incris, trying to keep pace with her mother. Defensors lashed out at anyone who came near—citizens, raiders, bodies moving on the poorly lit wharf. Their cries were more desperate than Lu had ever heard. She ducked around one such defensor purely on the delirium of his rage, his swords swinging over her head.
Croxy. The berserker plant, taken only by the truly desperate—or the truly destroyed.
Elazar had held nothing back from this fight. Not even his own soldiers were unaffected.
Ducking, stabbing, running—Lu slammed into the rough stones of the tide wall only a breath ahead of Kari, who led the way up a staircase, climbing hard for the road and the city.
Defensors waited for them at the top, swords and knives ready. Kari dove on them, twisting to parry, and Lu slid up behind her, ready to help—
“Elazar!”
The voice boomed across the wharf. The fighting didn’tstop; the hysterical screams of soldiers and civilians alike didn’t break. But there—Lu spotted Ben down the tide wall, at the top of the next staircase, his hand lifted above his head.
“One last vial!” he shouted. “Permanent magic!”
And he was gone, Gunnar grabbing his arm and pulling him off the edge as bullets flew.
“Adeluna!” Kari drew her back. The closest defensors were dealt with. “He’s heading for the castle—come!”
The last time Lu had seen the cobbled roads of New Deza, they had bustled with life, merchants and patrons and families, doors thrown open for inns and shops. Now the streets were as the rest of Grace Loray since Argrid’s takeover—rolled up on themselves in terror. Boards covered the delicate glass of shop windows; a sign painted with a red cow and pig hung crooked from its bracket. Above, shutters slammed and someone cried out.
The most direct route would take them through the city. Kari sprinted north, Lu at her heels, the other raiders rushing behind them.
The noises of the fighting drew closer to the castle’s courtyard with every passing breath. Vex waited, the seconds dragging through his body and stretching his resolve. When it snapped, he didn’t know what he’d do—dissolve, likely. There would be no body for the defensor with the torch toburn. He’d just disintegrate, float up into the clouds, and vanish.
Tom kept his arms behind his back, his focus on the planks under his boots. Occasionally he would look at Teo, then down again, eyes closing in something like pain. Vex hated him more—whatever internal struggle Tom was fighting, it made him way too human.
Next to Tom, Teo sobbed, facing Vex now, and that small spot of emotion was the only thing that kept Vex from begging for death.
A wail grew louder, coming up the road. Vex contorted to look over his shoulder. The raiders and defensors in the courtyard, three dozen at most, were focused on the open gate.
The attackers had made their way here after all.
Vex’s stomach sank. Lu and Ben had chosen to save him over stopping Elazar? No. They had to have something else—there was another reason—
