All the prices Kakkari asked seemed to bepain. Suffering.
I’d believed that therewere sarkiaswith actual power among theSetava Terun’scoven.
Now, here one stood.
“Kill her now!” I bellowed to mydarukkars,who were closing in on her, as I darted for theSetava Terunon the dais, my sword drawn. “Before she—”
But it was too late.
It felt like an explosion went off within the room. Out on the plains, I remembered that pivotal moment when the fog had seemed to retreat into the Dead Mountain before it hurtled across the land. As if the mountain had been breathing it in, nourishing it, giving it power.
It felt like that. Only this time, it felt like thesarkiawas breathingusin. And when she screamed her exhale, we all went hurtling across the throne room.
The cries of thevekkiriechoed.
The grunts of mydarukkarssounded.
I felt the snap of my forearm as I landed on top of it. I felt my sword slice into my side, drawing even more of my blood, when I fell.
I exhaled sharply, feeling the pain explode through my limbs. When I looked up, I saw we’d all been pushed against the far wall, thrown like we were weightless.
Thesarkias’whispering intensified. I dragged my gaze to mydarukkars, scented the metallic stench of blood, and I wondered if others had been injured too.
When I stood with a pained grunt, when my warriors began to rise too, I caught the eye of thesarkia, whose blood seemed to pour down her chest. She was looking straight at me, her expression mirroring my own.Determined.
I had thought it was theSetava TerunI needed to kill. Kill the leader of the coven and the rest would fall. Only, it wasn’t theSetava Terunthat had the power here.
It washer.
I drew my sword out from underneath me, feeling blood leak over my hip.
Mina, I thought, casting my gaze briefly over the humans. Had Mina felt that surge of power?
Mina’s villagers had been pushed up against the far wall too. Tess’ eyes found mine. With a furrowed brow, I watched as she slid a dull dagger from Benn’s own pocket, where he’d been flung next to her. The male wasn’t breathing anymore.
“Vorakkar,” came Besik’s voice. I cast a glance at thedarukkarwho, up until this moment, I hadn’t trusted I could depend on. Only now, as blood dripped into his eyes from the wound at his temple, I saw the fierceness of his expression. I saw the strength of his will. “What are your orders?”
I risked too many lives in this throne room. The humans, mydarukkars’. My own.
How much longer could Mina hold the barrier?
How much longer before her own strength would begin to wane?
I felt that energy rising again. Much too soon. I felt it spread over my skin, but it felt warm and soft. Just like it had felt when my wife used her gift on me, when she told me that she’d cast it unknowingly over me because she’d only wanted to keep mesafe.
This wasn’t thesarkia’spower. Thesarkiawhose blood was the price she had to pay.
It was Mina’s.
And it washere.
Chapter Fifty-Two
There was a strange place in the folds of my gift where the pain disappeared entirely and there was only beautifulrelief.
It filled my body with lightness. I felt like I was floating. My limbs weighed nothing. And though streaks of light filled my vision, they no longer felt like daggers spearing into my mind.
It had taken a long time to reach these heights. It had taken endless suffering where I felt like I was screaming, wailing into the night, and yet I made not a single sound.
