I continue before he can utter a retort. “Your warriors have laid down their weapons in the field behind us. If you agree not to kill any of my soldiers in the process, you have my permission to take your people with you.”
“I don’t need your permission,” Antony snaps before his focus falls to Thyra. “But I’ll accept it.”
He scoops up his helmet from the snow and rises into the air in a rush of wind. Within a heartbeat, he’s gone.
I listen carefully to the very brief fight mysoldiers put up before a rush of wings tells me the Iron Fae have run to their eagles and taken to the air, following after Antony.
The fire is put out. The oil is no longer burning.
I didn’t want extra mouths to feed, anyway.
Now the back of my neck prickles because something Antony said doesn’t make sense.
When he warned me about the ashen-brown wood, he also spoke about being pulled into Thyra’s blade visionsevery night.
She hasn’t had any blade visions…has she?
“Thyra.” My command is urgent now, my Lethian power pushing at my throat as I stroke the hair from her face. “Wake up.”
Chapter Sixty-Four
Thyra
I’ve been plunged into darkness.
Pure and complete darkness. Heavier even than the seemingly endless night in the bloodlands because it’s…
Nothing.
No shapes. No forms. No air.
I gasp against the weight settling across my shoulders, not knowing if I’m breathing, the heaviness in my mind trying to push me down into an absence of consciousness I fight against with all my might.
At the same time, I struggle to believe I still exist.
Before I found myself in this darkness, golden energy had flooded the air around me. I recognized the signs of a blade vision, wrenching me away from Antony just when I’d discovered he was alive.
But this isn’t anything like the visions I’ve had before.
Dark nothingness extends in every direction and the silence around me is complete.
I can barely sense my body. My limbs may as well be made of liquid night as I try to take a step forward.
Only to stumble and fall to my knees.
My head is heavy.
My thoughts are heavy.
Maybe if I stop fighting it, put my head down, and sleep?—
The hairs on my arms rise as the darkness breaks for a flash.
A dark field stretches out around me, dust swirling, my body seeming to lift into it, floating upward. A lightness shockingly distinct from the heaviness I felt only moments ago.
The field vanishes as quickly as it appeared, and the darkness and weight resume.
With a scream of effort, I push myself upright, managing to stumble a step, only to fall to the ground again, but this time, I feel grit beneath my palms.
