And then, from Lina, “Shit.”
Ione stared, lightheaded, up at the sky, willing another waterspout to rise, to prove that Kai was still fighting.
“Lina.”She lifted Lina’s hands to her lips, kissed her fingers.Tasted blood.“I understand if you want to stay behind.”She bowed her forehead to Lina’s, memorised the gentle curve of her cheeks, the honey-brown eyes.“But this is everything I’ve trained for.”
Lina shook her head, crumpling.“This is what Castor wants.”She wiped her eyes, let out a shuddering breath.“Godsdamn it, Ione.I’ve suffered Castor my whole life.”And then she smiled, her mouth trembling, and squeezed Ione’s hand.“I would never let you face him alone.”
Chapter Sixteen
Lina
They clambered over the rubble into the altarhouse, sharp, mud-slicked debris from fallen walls and collapsed ceilings cutting their legs, scraping their hands.Lina’s foot slipped on something in the ankle-deep water flooding the halls, revulsion slithering through her at the gelatinous hint of a leg.Voices resounded from other rooms, some she recognised, many she didn’t.Guards, high priests; Mikau, shouting at someone to help lift an injured person.Ami was alive, too.Of course she was, had to be, down at the beach, safe with Cynthia and the rest of the people who fled in time to escape the onslaught.
Beside her, Ione resonated with rage, one hand over her heart.Feeling for Menon, Lina gathered.
Please, Menon, Lina prayed with every ounce of herself.I have not been good.I have not done enough.But please, gods, don’t leave us to die.
The enormous double doors to the stateroom had been blasted open, one hanging on its last hinge.Ione hurtled through, heedless of the inferno raging beyond, the countless spellcasters brawling amongst the remains of what was once a lavish room.But two voices resounded close by, bringing Ione to a screeching halt: Kai’s, and River’s.
Lina pulled Ione back, giving them both a moment to think.To strategise, as though that was possible in this fracas.Pyromancers climbed onto fallen stone and broken pillars, raising walls of flame and summoning midnight suns; Menon’s followers remained below, using the marshland of bloody water cloaking the lattice-tiled floor to their advantage.
Ione coughed, blinking hard against the brightness of the flames and the overwhelming twang of magic, one hand wiping her eyes and smearing blood across her face.She stared, frozen, at her own hand, someone else’s blood, and Lina hauled her behind a fallen pillar.
Ione shook her head, clapped her hands over her face.“Any second now, Menon,” she ground out.“Can you hear that?Our people, dying?”
A clash of metal demanded their focus.River, just on the other side of the pillar, his rapier flashing.One, two men fell before him, his movements quick, precise.Fire blasted towards him, making Ione scream, but River called Kai’s name and ducked, letting Kai whip a heavy trunk of water over his head to knock back whoever had attacked him.
“Ineen.”Kai’s voice, alarm mingling with fury.
River whirled, his horror palpable.
“Ineen, what thefuckare you – ”
Fire surged, too bright to see.There was a shout of pain – River – that sent Ione to her knees.
Suddenly Kai was there, dragging her to her feet, his arms blood-red and blistered through his torn clothes, his face a horror that had Lina stumbling back.
“It doesn’t hurt,” he told Ione.His jaw and neck shone red in the light, the flesh bubbling, healed just enough to keep himself going.“Don’t look.”
River came to Ione’s other side, his expression grave.Parts of his leather armour had cracked, revealing deep, angry lesions on his arms and shoulders.Kai flicked a sheath of water over his wounds, stanching the bleeding, before he thrust Ione into his arms.
“Get her out.”He fixed Lina with a weary stare.“And you.Are you here to make my day harder?”
Lina bristled.“If I was, I wouldn’t be standing here.”
Kai nodded.“Then do me a favour and help River lug my wife to the shoreline.”Blades of ice materialised in his hands, but Lina could tell from his posture, the dull bite in his voice, that he was tiring.Weakening.“Unless you wanna help me put out some fires.”
“Wait.”Ione wrestled herself from River’s grasp and marched up to Kai, her fists clenched at her sides.“I’m going to – ”
“No, you’re not.”Kai stooped to her height, his eyes dark.“If Menon gave two shits about any of us – ”
“Shedoescare, and I – ” Ione broke off, her eyes glazing with some dawning dread.She swallowed, touched her fingertips to her neck.“She will come.I will see to it.”
River saw something in the smoke and dashed behind Kai, his sword flying, connecting.A cry of anger, a wet thud.Lina’s eyes darted, ensuring his safety, searching for familiar faces.For Castor.
He had to be here.Waiting, watching.He liked a good show, liked to see how things played out before he stepped in.
“Ione,” Kai said flatly, his ruined face exhausted.“I keep my promises.Keep yours.”He tossed one of his ice blades into the air, snapped his fingers, sent it whizzing behind him into someone’s chest.“I will protect you, and protect what’s left of this island.But you – ” He took her chin in one hand.“ – get out of here, alive, and go and tell everyone what a big fucking hero I am.”
