I fell hard against the ground, rolling a few times in the mud and blood until my momentum was stopped by a fallen soldier. I’d knocked my head hard against the earth, my vision blackening and ears ringing from the impact.
With a groan, I pushed myself to a sitting position, only to be met with Solace’s sinister outrage. She put her mouth right next to my ear, warm breath fanning against my cheek and making my hairs stand on end.
“Fool,” she whispered, loud enough I could hear over the slowly dissipating cloud in my ears. The sounds of battle slowly swept back in, the crunch of bone and shrill cries of men and women making me wince.
Solace’s white gown was covered in ash, the fabric nearly transparent with the amount of bodily fluids it held. I tried to scramble back from her, my heart beating wildly as I was suddenly aware of how close to death I sat.
My hands scrambled for purchase in the wet earth, mud sticking to my fingers and palms as I slipped and slid. Solace simply smiled and stalked toward me, reaching out with one long-fingered hand to wrap solidly around my throat.
With a strength I didn’t know she possessed, Solace pulled me from the ground by my neck, her fingers squeezing mercilessly against my throat.
I gurgled and gasped for air, thrashing against her punishing grip with all my might. The sounds and smells of battle faded again as my energy was unerringly focused on the crazed woman.
“You are just like your mother,” Solace spat. “Arrogant beyond measure because my fatherfavoredyou.” Her eyes flashed dangerously as her fingers closed impossibly tighter. The blood rushed to my face as my lungs fought to inflate. My muddy nails and fingers scratched against her skin as my legs kicked and twitched, trying anything to loosen her grip even a fraction.
But it was of little use.
I was outmatched and foolishly outplayed.
No one was coming; no one knew I was here.
My vision blackened and narrowed to a pinpoint, ensuring that the last thing I saw in this world would be my killer.
The loud thumping of my heart echoed in my mind, its cadence slowing as if offering me a final countdown of the moments I had left.
Tears streaked down my cheeks from the sharp realization that I would die here, and Rohak with me.
I opened the Bond, then. Pouring every ounce of love and devotion I had for Rohak into it, hoping he could feel it. The Bond flared in alarm, Rohak evidently catching onto the pain I was subconsciously projecting.
“Goodbye, my love. I’ll see you in the ether,”I whispered down the Bond, even my inner voice fading.
My eyelids began to flutter closed as I felt a pulse of sheer terror down the Bond. I tried to soothe him, but my movements were sluggish and uncoordinated.
From somewhere deep beyond, I heard a scream and felt my body suddenly careening through space.
Perhaps this is how it feels, then?
Abruptly, my lungs filled with air, my breaths too large for the amount of oxygen I was just deprived. My head hit the ground first, followed by the rest of my body as it tumbled bonelessly head over heels.
I hacked and retched, bile and spit ejecting from my stomach as my body rejected the idea that we were still alive. Air that was necessary for my survival scalded every inch of my throat with each inhale.
The muffled buzz of awareness forced my eyelids to flutter open as the ground roiled beneath my limp body. I watched in a numb daze as two people who looked vaguely familiar fought against Solace.
A man—an Earth Mage, judging by the green power climbing up his arms—threw attack after attack at Solace, never letting the goddess rest. His eyes, the same color as his power, were wild and wet, terror and an anger like I’d never experienced before flashing with each move. Sweat and blood marred his brow, a burn marring the majority of his neck and shoulder.
Who was this man who fought for me?
The woman was smaller, lither, with fire-red hair and a snarl of savage grace as she brandished a short sword in Solace’s direction. Together they fought, completely in tandem and sync, the Bond Marks on their forearms pulsing brightly with each move.
It was a beautiful dance of savagery, but one that couldn’t last. I felt Solace’s hit land against the Mage before I saw it, the wind knocked out of his lungs as he stumbled back a step, losing the grip on his power.
As soon as he was incapacitated, Solace reached for the fiery woman.
I rasped a warning cry, my voice breaking with the effort as tears cascaded down my cheeks.
But I was too late, too far away, too injured.
Solace lashed a stream of air around the woman’s sword, wrenching it from her grip so forcefully that she lurched forward, impaling herself on the blade Solace had flipped around.
