Bring it down.
The bolt struck the mausoleum, folding it in on itself. A third strike collapsed it in a rush of molten metal. As we circled back around for a final assault, Res formed more lightning, his exhaustion thundering alongside it. He was scraping the wells of his power. This was all he had left.
We dove low. Res prepared to strike. Then, between one breath and the next, something thudded into him.
His wings snapped into his body and we plummeted.
My stomach dropped, the world twisting and flipping. Then pain, resounding through me like a quake. We slid across the earth, stone tearing at my skin, and rolled to a stop.
I lay still. Every inch of my body radiated pain. My head pounded, shattering each coherent thought I tried to process.
We’d fallen.
We’dfallen.
“Res.” I barely heard my own voice through the pounding in my head.
He didn’t respond.
I lashed out along the cord, pulling sharply. What came flooding back was wild and hot, an avalanche of fear and pain and unbridled fury. I gasped, bolting upright, and found Res struggling to right himself.
An arrow shaft stuck out of his leg.
“No!” I screamed, clawing at dirt and rocks, scrambling to his side. He forced himself to his feet, his injured leg pulled tight to his body.
I was at his side in a heartbeat, my scrapes and bruises forgotten. Res crooned, the sound ragged with pain.
“You’re okay,” I told him, hands hovering uselessly over the protruding shaft. I traced the line of his leg, seeking the tendons and muscles I’d once memorized, and let out a heavy breath.
The arrow had missed tendon, artery, and bone. It was a flesh wound.
“Thank the Saints,” I breathed even as I questioned where the arrow had come from. Caylus’s machine had destroyed the glass arrows… I stopped as my eyes took in the plain wood of the shaft. It was a normal arrow. We’d been too focused on the glass.
I gave Res no warning before I snapped the shaft, sliding both ends free.
He screamed, the sound shattering my eardrums and my heart in one.
“I’m sorry.” I forced back the tears that burned at my eyes.I’m sorry, I’m sorry.
Res panted heavily and tried to move his leg, but contracting the muscle sent a shuddering ripple through him. Fear trembled along the bond, and I sent back reassuring pulse after reassuring pulse.
“Can you heal it?” I asked, though I knew the answer.
Golden light wisped around him, then flickered and died. My heart went with it. He was too weak—his magic had run dry.
A twig snapped. I froze. We’d crashed in a small copse of trees off the edge of the forest, something the Illucian soldiers weren’t likely to have missed. But when I unslung my bow and nocked an arrow, ducking around Res’s side, it wasn’t a Vykryn I found coming for me.
It was Valis.
* * *
I loosed the arrow before I could think. He incinerated it with a flick of his hand.
I’d nocked another before he even lowered it, but he lashed out. A whip of flame shot from his hand. I dove, rolling aside as it struck the ground inches from where I’d been. The wet ground smoked and hissed.
Another fire had started on the grounds. Between it and the nearly full moon, I could see Valis clearly as he advanced, languid and unhurried as a jungle cat approaching its kill.
He was beautiful, in a cruel way. With white-gold hair and amber eyes like a lion’s, he prowled ever closer, his movements lithe in a predatory way. With the flames at his back setting his tawny skin aglow, it was easy to see how people had once worshipped his kind as gods.
