She purrs. “I like it when you’re rough with me.”
“Were you a unicorn in a former life?”
She shrugs. “Could have been. I certainly enjoy the taste of them.”
Somewhere nearby, Iridiel nickers.
Peering at the flames, she wrinkles her nose. “Gareth Elliden, Lord of House Elliden and noble of the winter realm will—” She looks harder, squinting into the flames. “Fall.”
My heart stutters, everything going cold inside me. “No.”
She nods. “Yes, oh yes. He will kneel before Shathinor’s heir. He will fall. Cenet will take his head.”
“No!” I point to her palm. “You tell that Spires-damned flame to tell the truth! Gareth will come back to me.” My throat constricts, my eyes stinging. “He promised.”
Sabine slaps the flame with her other hand. “Now, tell the truth, naughty flame. The changeling must know what happens to her mate.” I move closer, willing the flame to give good news.
“Look closer, my dear.”
I do. I stare until my eyes begin to ache, but then I see something. Gareth, his head bowed as he kneels before Cenet.
“No.” I cover my mouth with my hand.
Cenet raises his sword and swings hard, taking Gareth’s head in a single blow.
“No!” I scream and back away.
She cackles, then closes her fist. “That is what I see. He will fall.”
“I won’t let that happen. I can’t.” I fight the tears that well and well.
Sabine stills, so still she must be a dead thing or something close to it, then turns her head toward the city. “The battle has already begun. His fate approaches.”
21
Gareth
Calasterno wheels us away to the right as another spear flies past us. Cenet’s forces roll over our fighters like a bloody tide, and one wyvern has already fallen. There are too many undead.
Even with the Phalanx cutting down wide swaths of enemies, Cenet’s magic brings them back. They soldier on, killing the living and overrunning the Cranthum soldiers. We can’t last. Not against this vicious onslaught of unkillable foes.
“Light them up!” I yell to Calasterno over the wind as Phin peeks out from my pack.
The wyvern bucks my command and roars. Taking direction isn’t his strong suit, especially when the snack he wanted now rides on his back with me.
“Calasterno, now!”
With another groan, he inhales. Then fire rains down on a host of enemies, and they fall. But unless we burn away their legs, they’ll be up again, dragging their carcasses to Cranthum and killing all in their path. Eventually, they’ll find the ones we’ve hidden in the jungle. I can’t think about that, because if I think about Beth, I’ll turn from my duty and fly to save her. She wouldn’t want that. She put her faith in me. I won’t break it.
“There!” Phin squeals. “Look, the slaves are concentrated around that one point far to the left. Do you see it?”
I lean forward and spot what he’s talking about. Thorn is already cutting a path toward it, ripping the undead to pieces in his bear form.
“Cenet. It has to be.” He’s placed a wall of bodies around him. Undead armor that he hides behind while spinning his dark magic into his soldiers. We’ve been searching for him since the battle began, but the waves of undead have proven too strong, too many, and too deadly. The city will fall unless we can take down the puppet master.
“Calasterno, to the left. That concentration of soldiers. We need to burn them to ash.”
He roars, the ornery beast, but flaps his wide wings and banks. Phin scurries back into my pack as I hang on as tightly to the wyvern’s spines as I can. It’s a miracle of the Ancestors that I haven’t fallen to my death already.
