“How, by Eroth, did Frost get over that without melting his skin off?” Tabi joined Lory by the banister, her features for once showing that her elite upbringing and years of training before joining Ashthorn hadn’t made her immune to fearing pain.
“Might have something to do with his particular abilities,” Lory suggested, remembering she’d read in the book about the different types of magic that ice was almost as rare as dreamweavers. Usually, they manifested as low-key partial abilities like cooling down items at the touch of your fingers and palm. Power such as Aiden’s was rare and dangerous. No wonder they’d wanted him at Ashthorn. He was a weapon, not only against usual enemies but against the sun itselfwhen it baked the city—or the thing Ulder seemed to fear even more than weapons made of steel: fire magic.
“Unfair advantage,” someone murmured behind them. Lory didn’t bother to turn around to tell them she couldn’t care less if it was unfair as long as Aiden made it to the other side alive; she was too busy following Thal and Jarek’s attempt at crossing the narrow bridge, which seemed to tremble at every step they took.
“Careful!” Lory’s scream echoed between the limestone walls as rocks crumbled from the side of the bridge.
Beside her, Tabi twitched as if ready to jump over the railing and reach for the two young men who were fighting not to slip off the bridge as it wobbled, ready to collapse at a wrong step.
“Come on, you can do it.” Lory wasn’t screaming. Even if she had, the pounding of her heart would have drowned out any noise as the path detonated beneath their feet, each step one closer to safety, yet one closer to death. If they didn’t hurry up, they’d fall with the bridge. “Run!”
She didn’t care about the others’ murmurs and Brunn and Dunveil’s commands to stop as she leaped over the balcony rail, grabbing not for the iron bar beneath but for the wall across the gap the others had avoided due to its distance.
Hurry up, Lory.No matter how much she rushed herself, scaling a wall took its time, as did a sprint above a roof full of treacherous gravel. She didn’t think as she ran, didn’t consider the thirty, forty, fifty feet below that would mean her certain death if she faltered once. Only Thal and Jarek wereimportant now, and the bridge was within reach. If only she could make it past the last roof?—
“Stop!” Falcrest’s booming shout almost brought her to a halt, but it didn’t matter what would happen to her as long as she saved Thal and Jarek. She hadn’t been able to save Evven?—
Just a few more steps and… leap.
Sweat beaded her neck and forehead, fingers throbbing as if she’d dipped them into a bowl of glowing embers, and her arms and legs were protesting with every step as she pushed herself harder, faster.
“Stop, Lory!”
This time, it was Frost who objected to her mad attempt at rescue, but the bridge was swaying, and stones were falling—as were Jarek and Thal.
Fuck—
“Hold on!” Someone was shouting now, but she no longer heard it. The only thing she could see was a memory of Evven’s face as he sent a knife flying for the man about to kill her—and the light leaving his eyes. She’d lose them. She’d lose Thal and Jarek like she’d lost Evven if she didn’t do anything.
And she wasn’t ready to let them die. She couldn’t.
They were both clutching the ragged stone where the bridge had broken apart, their legs dangling and kicking at the air as they fought for leverage. From the corner of her eye, Lory could make out a tall, dark figure pacing the edge of the roof by the other end of the bridge.
“Do not interfere, Vednis.” Falcrest’s warning wasn’t optional, and she knew it. If she failed to obey, she’d be the next to die.
With shaking hands, she stood there, watching Thal slide lower and lower with every second, Jarek’s grasp slightly more secure on the other side of the gap, right at Falcrest’s feet.
“Don’t even think about it, Lory,” Thal called from where he was hanging too far away for Lory to reach, even if she dared. “I’ll be fine.”
Fighting the panic rising in her chest, she waited, a hundred ideas of how she could try to help them—and fail—crossing her mind, yet she remained still, frozen to the spot by Falcrest’s command. In her chest, something else was coming to life: Like a beast with a will of its own, her magic opened an eye, observing, rallying, readying. She’d go up in flames right here if she didn’t do anything about it, and then, there would be no going back. It would be her certain death.
“Stay calm, Lory.” Her whisper was meant only for herself, but from across the roof, Falcrest’s gaze hit her like a physical blow, summoning hers until she faced him.
The message was clear in his eyes:Keep your shit together.
How he knew she was about to become a living torch, Lory didn’t know, and it didn’t matter. None of it mattered as a gust of wind raced through the space between buildings, and Thal screamed as he was shaken like a leaf from his handhold.
“No!” Lory was about to sprint onto what was left of the bridge on her side of the gap, but her body froze on the spot as if encapsulated by a layer of ice, and when she glanced down, she sure found ice crystals on her boots and the fabric of her pants.
Frost.
The ashling had joined Falcrest on the other side, a frown on his features as he seemed to will Lory to remain where she was.
“Thal?” Perhaps she couldn’t run to him, but she could reassure herself the absence of a bone-crunching thud meant he hadn’t yet fallen to his death.
“Stay the fuck out of it, Lory.” The strain in Thal’s voice meant he was still fighting, and as long as he hadn’t given up, there was hope.
Hope for both Thal and Jarek. The second ashling was holding on to the stump of the bridge with only one hand while, with the other one, he was weaving patterns in the air—patterns that, Lory realized, were summoning air toward him. Another gust of wind ran through the gap separating Lory’s side from Falcrest’s and Aiden’s, and she knew it had been Jarek’s doing that Thal had slid farther down, where Lory could no longer see him.
