Elora
Between the arrowsflying and the steel clanging, I can’t keep up with the movement around me. So different from the quiet of the wood. So angry and violent and dreadfully loud.
“Elora, move!” Tallulah calls, unleashing her ivy to stop a guard inches from my face.
I hadn’t even noticed he was there. I back up a step, placing my hands over my ears.
The ivy wraps around the man's throat, and within minutes, he’s given up his fight with death. My eyes go wide as I watch the snake-like plant slither back into Tallulah’s palms, as if it were never there at all.
“Are you all right?” She grasps my hand, dragging me toward the crowd when all I want to do is run away from it. Evren grunts from behind Tallulah; I peer around her just as he pulls his blade from a guard. His own face and arms bloodied but there’s no telling who the blood belongs to.
I push past Tallulah, weaving through men and women fighting, swords clanging, bones breaking. My eyes land on Samaria, her hands raised as a dozen more guards head our way.
“Sam!” She doesn’t move, her body rigid, her bow tossed to the ground. “Sa?—”
Something heavy collides with my back, bringing me to my knees.
A rough hand yanks me up, his breath hot next to my ear. I wriggle my wrists, trying to free myself from his grip, but a sickening crunch has the man dropping his hold on me and toppling to the ground.
Scrambling, I scurry backward, just as the wolf pups begin to attack him.
“Elora!” Jarek calls my name, but I can’t find him. There are so many people, everyone screaming and running.
“Elora!” he says again and this time, his hand wraps around my arm, pulling me up. “Stay with me.”
His hands tremble, his blue eyes lined with uncertainty. I nod, attempting to regain my composure. Jarek pulls me through the crowd until we’re near Samaria again. Her fiery eyes are glossed over and white, her face blanched and her body unmoving.
“What is this?” I ask, the words all running together. “What’s happening to her?”
Tallulah and Evren join us, their chests heaving and faces gaunt. Another line of guards rushes from the castle. Tallulah raises her hands, but they tremble and she winces as she attempts to move her wrists.
“She must have opened herself up,” Tallulah says through a grunt, a long strand of ivy wrapping itself around another guard. “She’s using herself as a portal for the spirits.”
My eyes drift past Sam, into the courtyard where guard after guard drops to the ground. Some slam into it, as if being yanked by some invisible rope. Others cower, hail from a few perfectly placed clouds pelting their faces and hands.
“You’ve exhausted yourself.” Evren clasps Tallulah’s hands in his, shaking his head. I can’t decide if there are more freckles on his face or blood splatters. His sword hangs from his hip, dripping red. “We’ve all exhausted ourselves,” he says, turning to Jarek and I.
“You need to—” I’m cut off by a guard to my right, his blade nicking my shoulder. I dodge just as he swings it again, this time it barely misses the top of my head.
Jarek groans and when I brave a glance, he is going toe-to-toe with another guard. His ax straining, the red in his face spreading to his neck.
“Tallulah!” Evren shouts as he swings his blade, stopping a man just before he reaches her.
The light stone ground is painted red. Another gush of air hits me as the guard tries again with his sword, but he misses and that’s when I call my magick, whispering to the rain falling from the sky, coercing it to turn to flame. As the man before me burns, a satisfied smile spreads across my face.
But all too soon, it slips away when I glance back at Sam and a guard is there, a blade to her skin.
“No!” I lunge myself forward just as he swipes it, a line of red beading across the delicate skin of her throat. She drops to the ground, her eyes rolling in the back of her head. The man raises his blade again, but all in a breaths time, Jarek is there, with his ax embedded in the man's stomach.
“Sam,” Jarek drops his bloodied ax to the ground.
Sam coughs, her eyes resuming their natural color. “I’m okay,” she says, her voice hoarse. “He didn’t cut me deep.” She sits up, her breaths short.
“We can’t continue on like this,” Evren says, holding Tallulah up. Her face has gone pale while her palms are angry and red.
“We’re not alone.” Sam nods to the courtyard where all I see is guard after guard swarming toward us. She holds a hand toher throat, pressing against a wound I fear is much worse than she’s letting on. “Enchantress spirits.” She glances at me and then to Tallulah. “I just need to open myself up again?—”
“No.” Jarek’s voice is firm but Sam brushes him off, holding her hands in the air. “You’ll run your magick dry. Not to mention the risk?—”
