The motion must have caught her off guard, for within that split second as he reached for her, he saw confusion twist her features. That was all he needed.
With his good arm, he unhooked the blackstone collar from his belt and snapped it around her neck.
Click.The sound seemed to reverberate across space, across time. Sorsha’s face was frozen in surprise. Her sword struck thefloor.
Ramson landed several feet away. Pain exploded in his injured shoulder as he used it to break his fall, tucking and rolling. He skidded to a stop against the foot of the dais.
Even amid the chaos, he could hear his half sister’s shrieks filling the hall. She tore at her collar, leaving bloody gashes in her neck. Looking at her like this, Ramson almost felt sorry for her. But the blackstone did not budge.
She turned to him then, her features twisted beyond recognition, teeth bared like a wild animal.“You!”she howled, snatching her sword.“I’ll kill you!”
He didn’t have time to react. His sword was a dozen feet away, where he’d dropped it. As Sorsha charged at him, spittle foaming at her mouth, her face red with fury, Ramson prepared himself for the inevitable.
And then came a stir of wind, and it felt as though a shadow had slipped before him.
Linn brought up her blades and met Sorsha’s sword head-on. The sound of metal on metal reverberated through the hall.
“Go,” Linn gasped. “Get Ana!”
Ramson didn’t need to be told twice. He scrambled to his feet and made directly for the emblem of the Earth Court. Godhallem had emptied now. The ones remaining were Kerlan’s forces, and Linn and Kaïs and the Affinites they had rescued. Bodies littered the hall, blood and ice and other elements of battle smeared against the floor, but Ramson barely saw any of that.
He fell to his knees before the girl lying against the wall of the Earth Court. “Ana.Ana.” Her name dropped from his lips like a prayer as he gathered her against his chest. Her normally fawn skin was ashen, and there were dark shadows under her eyes. Her lips were almost gray, as though someone had leached all the life and color from her. She was cold, too cold. “Ana, please.” His voice broke.
Love made me weak,his father hissed in his mind.Love made me a fool.
Ramson held Ana’s limp form in his arms, and as he buried his face in her shoulder, he understood the true meaning behind his father’s words.
Lovedestroysus.
It felt as though she were fighting her way out of a darkness that kept pulling her down, like the churning waters of a river: cold, biting, and heavy. In that maelstrom, though, a single voice cut through, as though from very far away. Calling her name.
Ana tethered what she could of her consciousness to that voice, and fought to find it.
Gradually, she began to hear sounds: shouts, the clang of swords, a rushing and roaring sound that filled the space around her. Feeling spread back into her limbs, the sensation of the world moving around her, of warmth enveloping her.
Ana’s eyes fluttered open. All around, the world was seeping back in a confusing blur of colors and commotion, but here, for some inexplicable reason, she felt safe. Someone held her tight.
“Ramson?” Her voice was a rasp.
He looked at her, his eyes clouded with grief, which then shifted to disbelief, and wonder. In the flickering lamplight of Godhallem, the flashes of fire and the light of battle, he looked as though he had aged years, the skin pale and drawn around his face, cuts and scratches on his cheeks and forehead.
For the first time, she realized that she was seeing him clearly, smelling the sharp scent of swordmetal and fire and sweat on his skin, taking in the way his hazel eyes were flecked with bits of dark brown, the cleft to his chin. It felt as though her world had stilled, emptied of something else, bringing her other senses into sharp focus.
It took her a moment to realize what it was she was missing.
“My Affinity,” Ana whispered. “It’s gone.”
There was an emptiness to her where it had once resided: a chasm so vast, an ache so deep, she thought it would be akin to drowning. Ana gasped, gulping in heaving breaths. Tears burned her eyes as she clawed her hands in front of her, searching for anything to cling to.
Fingers twined around hers; a firm grip trapped her hand. The panic ebbed slightly, and her vision focused.
Ramson was still bent over her. Her nails had raked four long scratches across his neck; beads of blood pooled, but he seemed not to notice. His eyes were heat and pain, searing into hers as he held her. “It’s all right,” he said, gently shifting her into a sitting position. He pressed her fingers to his lips, his gaze never leaving hers. “You can rest now. The Navy is on its way—thanks to you.”
She followed his gaze, taking in the scene in Godhallem. It was nearly empty. There were bodies strewn all around in pools of blood. Kerlan had retreated to the back of his dais, hiding behind the throne. He was utterly alone, and the lack of his men around him made him look defenseless, naked.
A few people were scattered across the hall, panting, nursing various injuries. They wore ragged gray smocks, and theylooked…
“Affinites,” Ramson said, following her gaze. “Linn and Kaïs rescued them from the dungeons.”
