I opened my mouth to give her some bullshit denial, but she cut me off.
“Don’t lie to me, girl. I heard you call Prince Alastor’s name when we grabbed you. And now all three of them are outside.” She crossed to me in two strides. “Who are you, and what have you done?”
Outside, Octavian bellowed her name again. And there were other shouts, too, and the sound of metal on metal, blades clashing together. A mild itch was spreading across my skin.
Laitha let out another curse, then glided past me to the door of the tree. The itch on my skin intensified as she swept outside.
She’s going to do something terrible.I’d managed to raze an entire section of the forest without eventrying.If this woman was as powerful as she claimed, then what could she do with skill and intention?
I couldn’t stop her. I had no idea how to tap into that power again, and as long as my wrists were still bound behind my back, I couldn’t even open the door and go after her.
But I could warn the brothers.
“WATCH OUT!” I screamed, even as theshiveryitch in my skin continued to build. “SHE’S—”
The door to the tree slammed open, chips of bark flying everywhere.
On the threshold stood Radven.
“Come on,” he said, beckoning to me as he watched the camp over his shoulder.
The moment I was within reach, he grabbed my upper arm and ran, around the tree and away from the camp.
I stumbled along with him as fast as I could, while also trying to see what was going on behind us.
The camp was in chaos. Most of the tents had been slashed to bits, and half a dozen unconscious—or dead—bodies lay on the ground. In the middle of it all stood Octavian and Alastor, back to back, their swords swishing through the air in surprising harmony. Some of Laitha’s men and women still fought, but none could even get close to touching the two brothers.
And then there was Laitha. She stood just beyond all of the fighting, her hands outstretched with her palms to the sky. And hereyes—even from this distance I could see there was something unearthly about them, something that made even their usual paleness seem normal. Theshiverin my skin was building with shocking speed.
“Rad—”
“Come on. Quickly,” he said, still dragging me along as fast as he could.
“We can’t just leave them!”
“They can handle themselves,” he replied, but even he sounded a little uncertain.
He didn’t let that slow him down, though, and I sensed his increasing impatience at my slowness. When I tripped over a root, he grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder.
And then he sprinted.
“Hey!” I started to protest when I was over the initial shock of being flung about like a sack of potatoes. What was it with these people and throwing me around? Since meeting them, I’d spent half my time hanging upside-down.
It wasn’t the most comfortable position, but Radven was definitely faster than me, as well as less likely to trip and fall flat on his face. With my wrists still tied behind my back, it would only have been a matter of time before I stumbled over another root and broke my nose.
Radven darted through the trees, me bouncing on his shoulder, and as far as I could tell through the veil of my hair, no one was following us. For a rescue, this was actually going pretty smoothly.
And then I was blasted in the face.
That was the only way I could describe it—ablast—even though I wasn’t struck by anything physical. It was more like a shockwave, starting at my head and shooting all the way down to my toes, ashiverso strong it knocked the breath right out of me.
Even Radven stumbled and stopped, looking back in the direction from which we’d come.
“What was that?” I asked. I was honestly shocked that I wasn’t writhing in intense pain after being hit with that. A faintshiverlingered on my skin, that was all.
“Someone just manipulated a very large amount of essence back there,” he said. “We just felt a ripple.”
“Was that Laitha?” I said, panic rising. “Did she… What do we…?” If that blast ofessenceor whatever had been directed at Octavian or Alastor, there’s no way they could have survived.
