Lazarus clucked his tongue. “You could have any man in the kingdom—in the continent—yet you choose him?” He looked at Killian with pure disdain. To his credit, Killian didn’t flinch. “This disgraced lieutenant? A weakling who can barely perform a stunning spell?” He shook his head. “Love is a strange thing.”
Elyse’s lip curled into a snarl. “You confuse love with alliance. A common enemy is the only thing between us.”
Lazarus laughed, a deep rumble that seemed to shake the entire street. “No daughter of mine should be associated with filth like him.”
The words struck hard, as they always did. “I amnotyour daughter,” she spat.
Lazarus leaned forward. The hideous smile across his face turned pitying as he said, “Your silver hair.” He pointed at her hair, now limp with sweat. Then he lifted his hand to his own silver eye, or rather, Ymaritis’s. “You and your brother had more in common than your powers. Too bad you never learned to wield as strongly as him.”
Elyse writhed. Every ounce of her body lashed against the invisible restraints, but to no avail. Her insides were burning, as if she could feel Lazarus’s magic inside her.
“You lie,” she barked at him, her anger boiling into denial. Ymaritis was not her brother, and Lazarus was not her father.
Lazarus stood straight again, relishing the chaos that blazed inside Elyse. “After tonight, I’ll be laying low for a while,” he said. “I’ll need to prepare for the grand show.” He gave Killianone last ridiculing look. “I think your soldier here will truly appreciate it.”
Lazarus took a step back and clapped his hands together. As soon as his palms met, a shockwave burst from his hands and rippled down the block. The entire street trembled, quaking beneath Elyse.
“Have fun,” Lazarus called before he disappeared completely.
As soon as he vanished, Elyse and Killian were free to move again. But even in Lazarus’s absence, the earth continued to shake. The birds had disappeared, but the screams remained, along with the groaning of buildings and the sound of stones scraping together.
“Shit,” Killian mumbled as he rose to his feet. Elyse did the same, hissing at the wound in her back. She planted her feet wide against the shaking street.
Then the street caved in on itself.
It happened fast. One second the stones were there, then they were tumbling down. A hole erupted from the ground, taking more of the street with it every second. Elyse scrambled away from it, trying and failing not to trip over the shifting stones. Killian grabbed her by the arm and pulled her up and away from the horrific hole that now took up half the street’s width.
“Manny and Sera are down by the inn,” Killian shouted over the chaos, pointing across the ever-widening gap. He took another step back to stay clear of the edge. “We need to get to them and take as many people as we can away from here.”
Elyse looked to where he was pointing, to Manny and Sera waving frantically at civilians. Throngs of people were fleeingtheir homes and shops, the very buildings they had just sought fortress in.
Elyse took another step backward as the street began to slant downward, caving in toward the hole. It felt as if they were being sucked in. The buildings along the block began to tip inward.
“Elyse,” Killian pleaded, but she didn’t bother to reply.
She grabbed Killian by the wrist and whirled them away.
14
Killian
The first thing Killian noticed was the scent. The air tasted different as he gulped down breath after breath, more like pine and grass than the smell of a river drifting through a city.
The second thing he noted, as the ringing in his ears faded away, was the near silence. Beside him, Elyse breathed heavily. Crickets chirped in the nearby trees, and a breeze stirred the leaves, but that was all. No screams, no ravens, no thunderous roar as the street crumbled and cobblestones toppled down into an endless pit.
No Manny. No Sera.
“Elyse,” Killian let out, somewhere between a sigh and a reprimand.
She was hunched over, a grimace twisting her face. She still gripped his forearm tightly, her nails pinching at his skin. Bloodcoated the back of her undershirt. Killian gritted his teeth. She was hurt. She needed medical attention, and he would ensure that she received it. But first, they needed to get their friends.
Elyse seemed to realize she was still holding onto Killian. She flung his arm away as she stood straight, or as straight as she could. Killian felt a pang in his chest. It pained him to see her in this way, even as his frenzied mind told him that she would be okay, that she had endured far worse.
“We have to go back,” he declared, stepping toward her.
Elyse glared up at him. Despite her ragged posture and her drained face—or perhaps because of it—she looked deeply intimidating.
“We have to get Sera and Manny,” Killian went on, more pleading this time. “We can’t just—”
