Because we’d seen that magic before, when the Zalaam queen killed my grandmother.
She was here.
And as we rose into the clouds, my chest so tight I struggled to catch a breath, I saw what she planned. No, what she’d alreadydone.
The wall was falling.
CHAPTER 39
AMEIRAH
It happened slowly, and then all at once. The dust, the black star-flecked magic, and then—stone shattered, cracks webbing through the towering structure. And it simply collapsed.
Screams might have sounded from the border villages, might have echoed from the mountain people who lived in Kalder, but nothing was audible over the thump of my own heartbeat and the inescapable crack of wings in flight. So many wings.
Thousands, Aliah had said, but it seemed like a hundred thousand as they blotted out the sky, blocking the sun’s rays until darkness dappled the mountains and the ruins of the wall. What did this make us, if the wall had always been a border between our countries? Were we still Ithanys and Kalder, or had we become like the Wyvara of old?
Heir of the famed bloodline of Wyvara.
I gritted my teeth, shoving Bakshi’s words out of my head as I assessed the swarm of wyverns. Legion was too small a word.A shudder made me cold, and unease clamped around my chest. My wave of deathfyre killed those wyverns in the Red Star, but there’d been a fraction of them compared to these.
“Everyone with magic, start calling up your power,” Kamaal commanded, power carrying his voice across the wind towards us.
I took his advice, and though I still hadn’t had a single magic lesson, I took a deep, settling breath and reached for myrage.It was anger that empowered me every time my deathfyre rose, and it was easy to freefall into the scorching brand of it now. Wasn’t it enough that I’d lost the only living family I might have left? Now these Zalaam creatures would attack my husband, my legion.
I sat straighter on Raheema’s back, my breathing deep and furious, and the ever-present fear of falling faded into the background. I half expected Varidian to give the order to retreat, but there were thousands of enemy wyverns poised to enter Ithanys, and we were all that stood between them and innocent people. Varidian wouldn’t leave. Neither would I. No matter the outcome.
And yet… a tremble of uncertainty wound from his soul to mine, and he sought eye contact as if he needed the reassurance.
He’s afraid to use his magic,Raheema murmured.He doesn’t want anyone to see.
“Do it,” I said across the distance between us. “If anyone has an issue with it, they can take it up with me.” I raised my bare hands, and a flicker of a smile met his mouth. I held his stare, let him see nothing but confidence.“Fight,Varidian. With all the weapons you have.”
I watched his chest expand, watched his back straighten and he nodded, a rush of love pouring through from him to me.
“Wyvern, call your fire,” he shouted over the groaning of rocks sliding down the mountain’s peak—ruins from the wall. “Riders, weapons up. Let’s roast these fuckers.”
It was nothing like the battle for the Last Guard, nothing even like the clash outside the Red Star’s walls. We faced an organised, deadly unit. A true army.
“Take out the riders first,” Kamaal commanded, and it was easy to see how he’d led warriors in battle and earned his reputation. His voice alone roused my heart into a steady drumbeat. “Form a line. We do not let it break.”
Mak pressed closer to my right, Saif carrying Shula closer on my left, until our eyes could meet. She grinned, as if this was exhilarating and not absolutely terrifying. Maybe I would enjoy it too if I had battle magic.
Raheema scoffed.You have deathfyre. You have magic so boundless, it’s the envy of kings. You don’t need measly battle magic.
The scent of iron and brimstone heated the air, ripples moving around us as she called up her fire. A matching tremor went through me as I drew up the memory of Mingyue’s face when she first saw me, like I was a gift and not a curse. I used it as fuel.
Rage struck my blood like a match struck and when I lifted my hands, they were lined with dark, writhing fire. I didn’t think it would be enough to stop this many wyverns, to hold the line for Ithanys, but that wouldn’t stop me trying.
“Ameirah,” Varidian said, drawing my attention. When our eyes met, he said, “I love you. You are my happiness, and my pride.”
“I love you, too. Don’t even think about dying here.”
His steely expression broke to let a smile through. “Is that an order, wife?”
“Yes, it is, husband.” I held his stare, let the order flow into his soul.
He laid a hand over his chest, and I could have sworn there were flickers of light in his eyes. “You have my word, Ameirah.”
