Aya let her power cease, a frustrated huff leaving her as she scanned the battle. Her fingers twitched at her side, as if longing to grab her blade and join the fray.
The sun had crested over the horizon, but it was still tucked behind the Malas. Between their shadows and the cloud cover that began to roll in from the Anath, an eerie darkness had fallen over the field.
At least it made Aya’s light more visible. Her jaw clenched as she sent another pulse of it into the sky.
Aidon stood on her other side, his bow at the ready. Everyso often, he scanned the grounds behind them, ensuring their backs were covered. But so far, no one had approached from either direction.
The tonic had done its job, allowing the first lines of soldiers—Visya and human—to make their attack. But Kakos far outnumbered them, even with the allies they’d gathered. For every line that fell, another rose up in its place, fresh and untouched by the tonic that had muted the power of the front lines.
Will could already see the impact on their own army. Slowly but surely, Kakos was advancing while they buckled under their assault.
Aya shifted beside him, and Will’s hand latched onto her arm.
“Not yet,” he murmured.
“I cannot just stand here and watch this,” Aya argued. His affinity brushed against her instinctively, and he could almost feel the way her power was begging to burst out of her.
“I know,” he said roughly. “But the plan was to draw Evie out.”
“I don’t see her,” Aya hissed as she whirled to face him, her eyes were wide and furious. “Do you?”
Will scanned her features, every bit of her desperation mirrored in his own thunderous heartbeat.
No, he didn’t see any sign of the demigod. Nor did he see the destruction he’d expected from the Diaforaté.
It was almost as if they hadn’t joined the battle at all.
“Something’s not right about this,” Aya insisted. “We’re missing something, something important.” She tugged her lip beneath her teeth as she looked back out onto the field. “She should be here.”
“Unless this isn’t the main event,” Will muttered darkly as he watched the battle. “Is it possible our counts of their numbers were wrong?”
“No,” Aya said with a sharp shake of her head. She sentup another pulse of lightning, this one tinged with rage.
“Easy,” Will warned.
“She has to be here,” Aidon added from her other side. He slowly lowered his bow. “From everything you said, she wouldn’t miss a chance to make a spectacle.”
Will watched as the color drained from Aya’s face. “Seven hells,” she breathed. “That’s it. She wants to make a spectacle.”
Aidon shot Will a questioning glance, but he shook his head in confusion.
“Aya,” Will prompted.
“She’s going to the place where she first called down the gods,” Aya said. Already, she was taking a step back, as if she planned to race into the mountains.
“Wait,” Will pleaded as he grabbed her wrist. “We don’t even know where that is. The Conoscenza just says it was the highest peak, but…”
“I do,” Aya insisted. “I’ve seen it before.”
Will opened his mouth to argue, but a massive explosion echoed across the battlefield, shaking the ground beneath their feet. Will hooked an arm around Aya’s waist as they staggered sideways, loose rocks from the Wall crumbling beneath their feet. Aidon grabbed the collar of Will’s fighting leathers and tugged them both back onto the grass, away from the edge.
“What the hells was that?” Aidon demanded as he turned toward the battle.
Will’s stomach roiled as he followed his gaze. A small crater sat in the center of the battlefield, a circle of bodies littered around it.
No, he realized. Not bodies.
Body parts.
