Hefting my stolen blade, I stumbled forward.
Seeing my intent, Aiden used his whole body weight to spin the Wolf toward me. I lunged and stabbed the Wolf’s armpit.
He released Aiden. Aiden snatched up his sword and whirled in a flash of silver to slit the Wolf’s throat.
Then, it was just the two of us, standing ankle-deep in bloodied bodies. We stared at each other, panting.
Something warm trickled down my back. My shoulders burned every time I shifted. But I shoved the pain to the back of my mind. I was still alive. I could still fight.
Aiden’s eyes raked over me. I waited for him to tell me to go back, to stay behind.
Instead, he murmured, “Stay close to me.”
I nodded. We picked our way across the square. I couldn’t help glancing back at Davka, her unseeing eyes fixed on the glowing sky.
My throat tightened. Gods, what was I going to tell her family? And Maz... I was going to break his heart. Again.
Someone shouted from the north end of the square. Yarina waved to us. “Our warriors broke through to the shore, but we need to help them!”
Aiden strode faster, blood trickling from his thigh. I hurried after him.
Yarina was splattered with blood, but otherwise looked unharmed. She gave me a tight grin, waving a gory scythe in her good hand. “And they thought I couldn’t beat everyone one-handed.”
I hesitated, wondering if I should tell her about Davka. But then something whooshed overhead.
A burning barrel careened into the tall wooden building next to us and exploded.
Aiden, who’d pulled ahead, jerked around and locked eyes with me, just as the building buckled.
I grabbed Yarina’s arm and flung us backward. The building crumbled at our feet, pouring rubble between us and Aiden.
“Kiera! Yarina!” he shouted.
Perhaps I was imagining the panic threaded in his voice. But it warmed my weak heart, anyway.
“We’re here!” I tried to shout back, but immediately coughed on the cloud of dust and smoke that billowed over us. Yarina groaned.
“Gods damn it,” I muttered.
Her foot was stuck under a burning timber. “Go on, get out of here, princess,” she said through clenched teeth, trying to tug her foot out. “Or we’ll both be easy kills.”
Protect.
Davka would never leave her sister. But there was no way I could lift that log. Even with leverage.
“Hold still,” I ordered.
I lifted my sunstone sword and brought it down on the thick wood.
Yarina shouted in surprise. Aiden yelled again from his side of the wreckage.
The sword had bit nearly halfway through. I just had to make sure the next strike didn’t go too far.
Yarina and Aiden continued their ruckus while I focused. Sweat dripped into my eyes, and I wiped it away. I raised the sword again.
Breathe in. Breathe out. One, two?—
I swung. Splinters flew. Yarina cried out in pain. I yanked the sword out of the cracked wood. Yarina dragged herself away, swearing up a storm. Her ankle was bent at a bad angle, and her boot had a gash in it from my sword.
