Grief built in my chest and spilled down my cheeks as I was forced to watch my best friend die.
“We can do something.Anything,” I gasped, turning wet eyes to plead with Torin. His lips were folded into a grimace even as I saw tears running down his cheeks to stick in the scruff along his jaw.
My heart cracked then.
“There is,” a deep feminine voice sounded from behind me. Torin and I whirled, power lancing into our palms at the intrusion, before easing back just as quickly.
The Bondsmith stood there, disheveled and exhausted, with dark circles under her eyes as if she hadn’t slept in weeks. Despite her appearance, her crystal-blue eyes were hard and unyielding, flashing with a rage I’d never seen. Her hands shook with emotion as she turned her fierce expression to me.
“Get me to my daughter.Now.”
Chapter One Hundred Fifteen
Folami
My feet carved a path of destruction and death through the seemingly never-ending ranks of the enemy soldiers. At one point, it was easy to tell the difference between Solace’s ragtag bunch of sycophants and the well-trained, heavily armored Samyrian soldiers.
Now, though, they all blended together in an endless symphony of blood and death.
The battle was noiseless; the only sounds were the steadythumpof my heart and the even cadence of my breath.
Breathe in—strike, parry, dodge.
Breath out—thrust, twist, stab.
It was a deadly dance that painted me in the rich red tones of blood and bathed me in the scent of death.
I loved it—I lived for it.
Blood matted my braids, spraying in a macabre arc whenever I twirled with my spear,thunkingagainst my back wetly until I was just as coated as my spear’s head.
Featureless faces blended together as my weapon never stuttered, never faltered, the exhausted expressions of my Mage and his True Pleasure Bond emblazoned in my mind and fueling my every reach, every thrust, every block.
I fought my way to them, the death that I brought of little consequence.
No one hurt my Mage and lover; no one.
A blur to my right caught my attention, momentarily interrupting the smooth cadence I’d fallen into. A woman in black leather armor, raven-black hair braideddown her back, and a savage look on her face, stepped around a Deucenan soldier. Her sword swished through the air, momentarily blinding me with the flash of bright light as the steel caught the rays of the sun, before it embedded itself in the man’s neck.
Blood sputtered immediately from the wound, spraying everyone in a five-foot radius, as he fell to his knees with a gurgled cry.
The woman wrenched her blade free with a kick to the dying man’s chest before rounding on me.
I cocked my head to the side, casually wiping blood from my face as it dripped down my eyebrow to land on the apple of my cheek.
She opened her mouth and said something, but it was drowned by the comatose state I’d fallen into as I fought my way across the battlefield.
The woman growled and bared her teeth, ire flashing in her amber irises as she repeated her statement.
Her last word forced me from my fugue, the sounds of battle immediately overwhelming. Cries and moans filled the air as magical attacks whistled overhead.Boomsof destruction followed as steel rang against steel.
“Say that again,” I commanded, my voice funny even to my own ears.
“Are you deaf or dumb?” the woman spat, her eyes flashing dangerously. She was unhinged, that much was clear, and relatively unstable.
That was both a benefit and a detriment in battle—she would be impervious to her own pain and more apt to strike uncoordinated yet deadly blows to her foe.
“It doesn’t matter,” she spat, continuing when I refused to answer. “Makes sense that Lex would choose a second Bonded that couldn’t hear or speak back to him. Probably was tired of it after me. Needed that control, that ability to lord his power over you.”
