Gone.
The world crashed back into her.
She hit the ground hard as something cracked deep in her thighs, and air punched out of her lungs.
“What in the ever living…” she groaned before noticing the noise roaring over her, through her.
Metal against metal, shouts torn from the lungs of the dying, fire splitting sky from ground. The stink of blood and smoke and burning flesh clogged her throat until she gagged on it.
Sprawled in dirt slick with something wet, her fingers twitched uselessly through bone and ash, searching for a world that wasn’t there anymore.
Who… Her mind staggered.Who am I?
Names danced at the boundaries of thought. Wrong names.
But beneath them, burning steady and furious—hers.
Rynna.
The truth of it thrummed in her marrow.
Rynna.
She rolled to her side, coughing dirt, eyes dragging open to the battle around her. Warriors clashed in flashes of steel and magic. Creatures too twisted to name bounded through the smoke. Somewhere, someone begged for mercy. Somewhere, someone else laughed.
The sky above bled red into black.
Then it came. A vibration through her bones, deep and final as a death knell.
Save this world…
Her teeth clenched against the weight of it filling her lungs like water.
For all the other ones you destroyed. For all the life you have taken.
Her breath broke on a sob, and she lowered her palm to the torn earth beneath her, pushing herself to rise.
One heartbeat. One step.
Rynna.
She was still standing, still fighting. And she would save this fucking world.
Chapter forty-three
Theyhadbeenrunningall day, the cool mountain air growing warmer as they descended north from the rugged peaks of the Stone Mountains. Around them, the landscape shifted from jagged rock and windswept trees to denser forest. And as the canopy overhead thickened with dappled shadows. Roots tangled underfoot, while the soft crunch of fallen needles muted their steps.
Coming to a stop, Rynna shrugged off her pack, the worn leather straps creaking softly as they slid from her shoulders.
“I didn’t realize how close Skarn’s other lab was to Fallowmere.” Rubbing the back of her neck, her fingers slid against the thin layer of sweat beneath her tunic. “I guess it makes sense why they chose that village for the original experiments seven years ago.” She paused, looking at Kaelith. “It’s hard to believe it’s only been two weeks since this all started.”
They were due to meet one of the great eagles, set to fly them the rest of the way into the marshland between Pulse Reach and Tide Reach.
“Two weeks already?” He dropped to the ground at her feet, his shoulder brushing her thigh.
Rynna let herself lean into him, just enough to feel the warmth of his skin. Behind them, wind stirred the scrub trees clinging to the rocky slope, their limbs scratching across the terrain as distant peaks rose into the horizon like blades.
“Ugh, it’s going to be like that now, isn’t it?” Taren groaned, lowering himself onto a nearby boulder. He rubbed his temples. “I think I preferred the people-eating monster.”
