A sudden motion out of the corner of my left eye caught my attention, and I nudged Asha. Groggily, she pulled her heavy head from my chest.
We watched in stunned silence as Faylinn darted from the cover of the trees, clothes pristine and hair wild as ever, daggers clutched in her fists.
“Fuck,” I whispered as she dodged an attack, sinking her dagger into the gut of a Mage. She left it there while he keeled over, simply pulling another from her belt.
“Where is she going? She’s supposed to be at the Academy!” Asha said, springing from my shoulder as she bent to pull her sword from the dead Mage.
“Did you really think she’d stay put while Rohak came here?” I asked dryly. “Do you think I would be able to stay away from you?”
Asha shook her head as she wiped the blood from her blade on the grass.
“You knew,” she accused, the nearby screams of death and raging battle nearly drowning out her accusation.
I sighed, delaying my response as another Mage spotted us, moving to attack. I opened the earth beneath him, swallowing him whole before he even made it one step farther.
“Of course I knew. Fay is . . . Fay,” I said, my voice trailing off as my blood ran cold. Over the crest of a hill, I spotted a mass of white so bright it was nearly blinding.
Dread pooled in my belly as I wiped sweat and dirt from my brow with an equally dirty shirtsleeve.
“Fuck. That’s Solace,” Asha said, grabbing my hand with her free one. “I’d bet anything she’s Fay’s target.”
Fuck.
“We need to follow her. I owe her—”I passed down the Bond, but Asha shushed me immediately.
“Even if you didn’t owe her your life, we would follow her, protect her.”
Gratitude and love overwhelmed me as I looked at my Bonded, the mother of my child.
“Gods, I love you,” I said as we took off hand in hand after Fay. “When this is all over, I’m marrying you properly.”
Asha hummed in agreement, both of us stopping periodically to help our fellow soldiers, all the while keeping Fay in our sights.
Hang on, Fay. We’re coming.
Chapter One Hundred Twelve
Faylinn
Iwove through the trees, taking no care to muffle the heavy sounds of my footsteps as I careened through the thin forest, snapping twigs and crunching leaves as I went. No one was paying attention to this side of the battlefield anyway, too preoccupied with the soldiers that seemed to pour over every hill.
Bodies in various states of injury covered the ground, the spring-green grass completely transformed by the mud coaxed to the surface by heavy feet and the blood and bodily fluids that stained everything they touched.
Screams of the dying washed over me, their cadence rising high above the sounds of battle as magic zapped through the air. Windstorms caught my hair, tangling my already unruly curls while the earth bubbled and roiled, pockets exploding heavenward as Earth Mages attempted to bury their enemies.
Foe and friend blended together as battle lines heaved and blurred.
“Cut the head off the snake, and the body dies,”Rohak had told Torin, his words echoing through my mind like my own personal marching cadence.
My sweaty grip tightened slightly on my daggers as I saw a Mage approach out of the corner of my eye. I ground to a halt, sliding along the wet leaves and spraying mud in a wide arc. I crouched low, ready for an attack, but when the seemingly unaware Mage turned to face me, my breath caught in my lungs.
His eyes scanned crazily, shaking in their sockets as he looked without seeing. What was even more alarming, though, was the lack of skin on his face and his missing lower jaw.
Sinew hung from his upper mandible, a few wayward teeth still intact, while others embedded themselves far into the upper part of his mouth.
While he wore black, it wasn’t the Mage blacks of the Academy; in place of a simple tunic and pants, he wore armor with spikes protruding from the shoulders and an ornate leather breastplate. His long black hair was pulled back in a simple ponytail, the blood-soaked ends of it slapping wetly against his armor.
Samyrian.
