But I was so much more.
I’d honed my strength and agility for years; I’d studied politics and warfare to give my people the best chance at survival.
I was the damnedReveredfor Spirits’ sake, chosen by the Angels and confirmed in the Undertaking. Power ran through my blood just as the Angelcurse did, and the two tangled together now, dual pulses synchronizing into one as the emblem around my neck heated.
I’d bow to no one. Go forth on no one’s terms but my own.
When the first war broke out, I’d lost everything, but I’d be damned to a Spirit-guarded hell if I’d let these enemies take anything—anyone—else from me tonight.
Underestimating me was the last mistake Aird would make.
Swinging my legs, I knocked his out from underneath him. He hit the cobblestones with a rattling thud.
Then, I was on him. Short sword at his neck.
My necklace seared my skin with a heat I relished.
“Where. Is. She?” I hissed, each word punctuated.
He stared back at me with a manic gleam in his eyes. “She’s looking over us. She sees all, and she waits for you.”
I gasped. There was only one place in the city where you could see all of Damenal laid before you.
“Pleasure working with you, Chancellor.”
The Mindshaper’s blood was hot over my fingers as I sliced my sword across his neck.
I sheathed my weapons, turning back in the direction where Tolek had fallen, but I didn’t even know my way back through the debris.
And Aird’s threat rang in my ears.
Every part of me wanted to crawl through that bloodshed. To find Tol. To fight side by side with my family.
I tried to dig into the roots of the Bond on my neck, but it was impossible with the amount of warriors in the city. These tattoos weren’t meant to form a bridge like the Bind.
I had to trust that the other Mystiques would take care of Tolek. Because the only true way to end this was with Kakias, and I was the only one who could see to her. As long as she was alive, the people I loved weren’t safe. I’d throw myself into the Spirit Volcano before I dragged any of my family into her vile presence.
Clamping down on the taint of fear stinging my throat, shoving aside the images of my family bloodied and dying, I turned my back on the battle and fled, off to bring a cursed end to a wicked queen.
Chapter Forty-Six
Malakai
Another wall had collapsedmoments ago, only a few blocks over.
The dust in the air was so thick, everything blurred. Screams were nothing more than ghostly echoes.
How the fuck are they doing this?I charged down a side street, following Cyph away from the latest explosion, through dueling warriors and toward the plaza.
Cyph swiped his scythe through the air. An Engrossian’s masked head tumbled across the stone.
I hopped over the body, boots sticking in puddles of blood, and tightened my hand on my sword. We rounded the corner into the plaza and?—
It became harder to breathe.
The Engrossian army moved like wraiths across the wide-open space. Charging from alleys and banging down shop doors. Cries rang from upstairs windows as they ransacked homes.
And in the square…blood. Flashing steel and bodies. My lungs tightened with every weapon I saw, my throat closing.
