I sprinted to reach them, my lungs burning and heart feeling like it was going to burst from my chest. This was a large city and sprinting across the tops of walls during a battle was not ideal. As I appeared, a new set of men had reached the top.
I used my power on them, fear and paranoia sending them fleeing in droves.
And so this went for hours, until the sun was low in the sky, resting just above the horizon. I ran from wall to wall blanketing the rebels with my power, never taking it back. I ignored the frantic beat of my heart, the burning in my limbs, the sweat dripping from my face and chest from running wall to wall, and the pounding in my head.None of that mattered because we were holding our own against a ten-thousand-strong army, sending hundreds of men fleeing in all directions.
It was nothing short of a miracle that I didn’t pass out.
“Lady Aribella!” Captain Greylocke grasped my shoulders and forced me to look at him.
Why did he look so horrified?
Some wetness trickled from my nose and I reached up to touch it only to come back with blood.
“My lady, you have fought with honor. But you need to rest. You can’t do this all day and night.”
I yanked my shoulders from his grasp. “I can and I will,” I snapped, tripping over my own feet and catching myself at the last second by gripping the wall.
“At least have some water, some dried fruits.” He handed me a canteen.
“North wall needs help!” a soldier cried and I ran to them, plugging my nose and keeping my head tilted back in an effort to stop the bleeding.
I’d always wondered if there was a limit to my power. I guessed today I would find out.
I reached for my magic and whimpered when I didn’t feel it there. The river had run dry and now I grasped at nothing.
My magic seemed to work in such a way that I sent it out, but eventually I pulled it back or it came back to me over time. Since it was still on the enemy troops that had fled, I found that I didn’t have any more power to pour over the rebels that were still advancing. So I reached out and started to pull back the magic I’d sent out,and I felt the river fill within me until it was roaring.
I sucked in a cleansing breath, ready to take down more rebels when another iron ball sailed over my head and toward the castle Stryker currently lay in. I could only pray it didn’t harm him as I pressed on with a battle cry.
Chapter 23
Stryker
It was my hearing that returned first. Screams of agony and battle cries broke through the fog that held me captive. I still wasn’t fully aware of my body, so when the first piercing noises broke through the haze, I thought I was dreaming.
But it wasn’t a dream, it was a nightmare.
I tried to come back into myself, to force the arms and legs that I couldn’t feel to move, but my body wasn’t my own.
Bits and pieces of some faraway slaughter filtered through to me in audible chunks that would tear apart my ear drums one second, and then go silent the next.
Inch by inch, I dragged myself back into consciousness. Driven by the desperate instinct that I was needed, that I was about to lose something precious, I clawed against the dark abyss that threatened to pull me back under.
After what felt like an eternity, I finally forced my eyes open. My limbs were heavy as lead and my mouth was as dry as the Southern deserts.
Through blurred vision and the low light of a dying day, I made out that I was in my chamber, back in my castle in Easteria.
How did I get here? What’s happening?
Just as I formulated the questions, an explosion ripped through the outer wall of my room, punching a hole and causing rocks and mortar to rain down on me.
Forcing my body to move, I rolled out of bed just before part of the ceiling caved in and the bed collapsed.
If I had still been lying there, I would have been crushed.
I shoved to my feet and quickly stumbled to the door. When I looked through the giant new hole in the room, I gasped.
From my vantage point high in the castle I could see the chaos on top of and beyond the city walls. Throngs of rebel forces pressed in on all sides.
