‘Zara!’ I cough the word out. ‘Zara.’
‘I’m losing her! I’m losing my bind on the bitch!’ Kestria’s shout is far more effective at conveying what I was trying to say.
‘What else have we got?’ Jonas cries as he turns in circles. He’s been alternating his powers between blinding Mattieu and Odetta, but it’s getting less and less effective – not because he’s weakening, but because they somehow don’t need to see to know where to aim to hit me. ‘Seiren! Can you do something? We need help!’
We’re losing. I can see it. My friends are fighting with all they have, using force, fury, and fists.
And I’m hiding behind them. The one thing I told myself I’d never do in this competition.
I need to be doingsomething. I need to help. But every time I unsheathe a dagger, I have to duck again before I can get a damn throw in.
‘Yeva!’ I can hear the hopelessness in Jonas’s voice. He’s trying to lead, but he’s failing. ‘Can you do something here?’
‘Nothing while these wind weavers keep blowing all the flames out!’ she yells back.
Ash. We need ash.
‘Yeva! Yeva!’ It takes more than one yell for me to grab her attention as she’s fighting Elenor from Rowell. ‘How much ash do you need to cause some damage?’
‘How much? Anything,’ she replies. ‘Anything’s better than nothing.’
‘Hold on. I’ve got it.’
I’ve been crouching this entire time, trying to give my attackers as little area as possible to aim for, but now I need to change that.
I push up onto my knees and strip my top off. The cold bites at my skin, but right now that’s the least of my worries.
‘Llin, when I say, I need you to let one of the blasts come past you,’ I instruct her.
‘What?’ She swivels to look at me for just a millisecond; more than long enough for me to see the worry on her face. ‘You’re joking, right?’
‘Don’t worry. I’ll be prepared. Just keep me covered for onemore sec.’ I lift my arms above my head and wrestle with my top. ‘Okay, Llin. Let me know when it’s coming.’
There’s not a heartbeat before she screams, ‘Incoming now!’
I plummet, landing face-first into the sand while simultaneously throwing my top into the air. Just as I hoped, it ignites and disintegrates into flames. It burns hot, and in moments, it’s ash.
‘That enough for you to work with?’ I ask Yeva, who has just landed an impressive punch to Elenor’s jaw, sending her down and out.
‘It’s a damned good start.’
She lifts her hand, and the cloud of ash rises into the air, swirling and thickening. Jonas wasn’t joking. It’s incredible what she can do. With a rush of air, she sends it across the yard, straight towards the eyes of half a dozen Rettlings. Hope flutters in my chest, but then their wind weaver spots what’s about to happen. Before we even have time to blink, the ash is blown back at us.
‘Fuck!’ Yeva begins gathering the cinders together again, but clearly it’s tougher when the ash is scattered everywhere.
I’m not the only one on my knees now. Kestria and Seiren are both down, as are Baylis and Loch. We’ve only brought three of theirs down – including, by some small miracle, Odetta – and Jonas has now taken over battling Zara. He’s blinding her so she can’t use her powers on me, but he’s also having to fight against two other Rettlings at the same time. And I’m still bloody well crouching here.
I scan the yard, desperate to see a solution I haven’t yet thought of, but what I actually see is a figure striding towards the field of battle. Fuck. If things weren’t bad before, they sure as hell are now.
Kyor swaggers towards us. He’s never shown up for training when he’s supposed to – princely privileges – and now that he’s finally arrived, all he needs to do is join Zara’s team and I’m as good as dead.
‘What’s going on?’ he asks, voicing his question to no one in particular as he strolls into the centre of the fray.
‘Bring the other team to their knees.’ It’s Loch who replies. No doubt Kyor’s voice is clearer to him than to the rest of us.
‘Or Mortidem,’ Holden calls from a safe distance away. ‘Whichever takes your fancy.’
From the sneer on his lips, Holden clearly thinks his ‘joke’ is amusing, yet Kyor remains impassive, scanning the yard coolly, like we aren’t all battling as hard as we did against the fucking jötnar.
