Lex was the first to reach me, his hands gripping my biceps while he took a cursory look over my form. Satisfied I was uninjured, he pressed my face to his chest for a brief embrace. I returned his hug and listened to the steadythumpof his heart.
Ilyas’ palm found my lower back, and he grazed it up and down slowly, as if the motion was enough to calm all three of us.
“To the caves,” Lex muttered into my hair, pausing to press a brief kiss into the braids. “Both of you, in the cavesnow.”
“But, Itanya—” I hesitated, pushing off Lex’s chest to argue, but my words were cut short by a high-pitched whistling noise that only grew louder. Lex’s eyes widened, and he tightened his grip on me just before we were thrown from our feet in a blast of air that burst against the ground. My stomach lurched with the movement as we were flung toward the heavens, the sudden weightlessness completely unnerving.
My spear was wrenched from my grasp, and I prayed to whatever deity was listening that it didn’t find a home inside either of the men that I’d come to love.
Lex’s grip never loosened, not as we were thrown into the sky and not as we came back down to earth, landing so hard that the breath was knocked from my lungs with awhoosh.
I hacked and wheezed, painfully trying to get my stuttering lungs to cooperate. The ringing in my ears only served to disorient me further. I pushed to my feet, my steps less sure than before as I stumbled over branches and refuse.
Get to the caves, I chanted, forcing my feet to cooperate.I must get to the caves.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Bondsmith
The crack of lightning across the sky, followed by the quick booms of unnatural thunder, could only indicate one thing: Solace was here.
And she was filled with an unholy fury.
My heart skipped as a second fork of lightning split the sky with acrackthat had the littles covering their ears. Even Itanya flinched, drifting closer to my side as we continued our harried journey from Imena, northward to the caves.
The terrifying display of magic continued to light up the night, illuminating our path and surroundings in jagged intermissions. The fear was palpable, almost strong enough to smell above the sudden pungent stench of ozone.
Terrified cries rang out loudly through the once silent night, puncturing the stillness as white-hot light snaked down from the sky to strike a tree directly in the middle of our path. Bodies were thrown to the ground from the force of impact, a few unlucky ones struck by the residual lightning that rebounded from the tall oak. They lay still where they fell, their corpses smoldering lightly.
I grimaced as Itanya retched onto the dark forest path, her small, sweaty palm gripping my own, terror writ in every tremble of her limbs.
Death no longer surprised me, no longer affected me.
But, as the tree caught fire, the blaze quickly reaching an inferno as the dry twigs and leaves caught light, I began to panic.
The oak was tall and wide, thousands of years old, if I had to guess. Its massive size burned quickly, spurned by the unnatural breeze that flowed from the south, coaxing it to blaze brighter, to illuminate us and act as a beacon for my crazed sister and her army of sycophants.
Frightened people began to move quicker, propelled forward by some innate sense to flee a larger predator, but they wouldn’t make it in time.
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end, my heart threatening to thump out of my chest, as I felt her move closer.
“RUN!” I screamed, breaking through the stillness and quiet of the night. Loud enough that those in front could hear and urge our band of misfits forward. “Run, run!”
My screech pulled wary and terrified gazes my way, their faces lit by the ever-burning tree. I waved my free hand, gesturing wildly for them to continue their retreat, only at a much faster pace. Whatever was writ in my expression spurned a few to increase their pace, but the howls and sudden blasts of magic at my back forced even the most skeptical to flee.
“Run, Itanya,” I barked, pulling on her hand as I pushed the stragglers ahead of us. Screams and wails pierced the night as men and women scrambled over tree roots and felled branches, their steps no longer silent and concealed.
I felt it before I saw it, a looming threat at my back that only grew larger the farther I moved away.
“Take cover!” I shouted, my voice breaking on the screech. At the last second, I pulled Itanya with me behind another massive oak tree just as a spinning vortex of air and fire blasted its way down our previous path. A few heeded my call and took shelter beneath swaying branches, but some were not as fortunate, their screams cut off as the magic consumed them whole.
Itanya shuddered next to me, but there was little time for reassurance.
Get to the caves. Wemustget to the caves.
“Come,” I urged, pulling on her hand as we began sprinting through the woods once more, vaulting over rocks and branches, sidestepping felled bodies.
I cursed my decision to wear a dress tonight; the thick navy skirt continually got caught between my legs, tripping my movements. Itanya cried out as she fell, her own celadon silk skirts twisting her legs.
