Maybe we’re in with a chance.
I pull him to a stop.
“What if we hide?” I whisper.
“They’ll find us,” Sebastian whispers back. “We have to escape this court. It’s our only chance.”
“How?” My voice is a little choked because I feel like we’re running out of options…running out of time.
He cups my jaw, and for just a moment, I want to lean into him and feel his arms around me, but I resist the urge.
“Let’s go, then,” I tell him instead.
He nods.
We run faster as the stream opens out into a wider clearing; beyond it, the forest thins. And through the gaps in the canopy is the edge of the court and the deadlands beyond.
We halt at the edge of the forest. It’s all open ground from here into the deadlands and beyond.
“We’ll never make it.”
“We will find a way,” he tells me. “I’ll use my magic; it might give us the edge we need. I think they mean to take us alive, which gives us further advantage.”
“Will it be enough?”
“It has to be.” He swallows hard. “Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
And then we’re running as fast as our legs will take us.
They come from every direction, and all at once. Some are on foot with swords drawn. Others ride horses that stamp and snort and toss their great heads. The sound of hooves, armor, and shouted commands is deafening.
We are quickly surrounded.
Sebastian shifts closer to me. I feel the warmth of him.
We can do this.
Shadow explodes from his palm in a massive wave that rips across the clearing. It slams into the advancing line of guards with devastating force. A whole host of them are hurled from their feet. Several don’t get up. A horse screams and bolts, its rider tumbling into the mud. The rest of the formation staggers back, and for a breathtaking moment, there is genuine fear on their faces.
Good!
But then he reaches for it again, and nothing comes. His hand extends, and his fingers splay, but there is nothing.
“Come on,” he snarls under his breath.
Guards, seeing weakness, come for us, and I go in behind Sebastian. I have to trust that he will do what it takes.
There is a slap of flesh followed by a crunch of bone behind me. Guards scream.
Fire spills from my palms in a sweeping arc that drives back the guards trying to close in on his blind side. I weave shadow into a shield and slam it into several riders who were bearingdown on us, knocking the horses sideways. The animals rear and stumble, and the riders are thrown.
Sebastian grabs my shoulder and pulls me behind him as a volley of shadow bolts tears through the space I was standing in a heartbeat ago. His sword flashes, and he cuts down the nearest guard, then fells another with a single vicious strike to the temple.
Three more come at him in a tight formation, shadow magic twisting around their blades. Sebastian meets them with both swords swinging.
I turn just in time to throw up a shield as more shadows are thrown at us like spears. I retaliate with shadow magic of my own, and more guards go down.
