“Yes, actually,” he replied, taking a moment to dramatically swingTarriousin an arc in front of him. “Mother.”
With no further explanation, he began to advance on me. Though before he could, a loud crack of thunder rattled my teeth with how high in the sky we were.
Snapping my head to look above, I realized the weather wielders werecraftingone of the largest wielder-made stormsI’dever seen. A good stormwasall the North needed to sway any battle in their favor. And if whatI’dseen of the battlefield below was stillaccurate, the navy had yet to arrive.
Somebody had to stop the storm.
Or at least slow it down.
I gasped as I feltTarriousand its flames bounce off the black chain-mail armor I hadcoveringmy torso. If Ididn’thave it on, that may have been a critical strike.
And yet Dimitri had taken the opportunity with nohesitation.
Meeting his eyes, I searched deep in his gaze for the brother I once knew better than I knew myself. He had tobe inthere somewhere, and yet right then, heremainedlost to me.
I felt a fissure tear in my heart as I realizedI’dhave to eventually give up on him.
I hoped the dip in my emotionsdidn’tstumbleByn, who I could feel was drawing closer.But as the clouds began to thicken overhead, I knew I had more to worry about than both my twinandmy husband.
This was aboutallof Inphis.
Lifting my chinin an effort tonot look as troubled as I felt, I called out to Dimitri, “Catch me if you can.”
Then I tucked my wings in close to my body and nosedived.
A controlled fall took more skill than it mighthaveappeared. And to get to my destination, I had to fight every urge in my body to spread my wings and simply fly the rest of the way there. But I knew falling was faster,and right then, every second mattered.
Before I could get too close to the ground, I angled myselfjust right, then spread my wings wide. Gliding along a perfectlytimed air current, it carried me closer to the western towers. The weather wielders seemed to besomewhere inbetween the middle of the encampment and the western towers, and since my twin was in the middle, I chose the towers instead.
I considered going directly for theweatherwielders, but they weregenerally veryheavily guarded, and Iwasn’tsure of their exact location. Plus, since the storm overheadwasn’tslowing down, I knew they were still safe enough to be wielding the sky—and I doubted I could take them all on my own.
I touched down on the flat roof of one of the towers, rolling to a stop and quickly jumping to my feet.I’dalways beena fasterflier than my twin, and I knew the dropI’dpulled had bought me extra time,too—though it stillwouldn’tbe much.
I could feel Byn drawing closer again—as though he was following the soul-tie between us to me—but I blocked out that feeling in favor of focusing every piece of myself on the task before me.
I clenched my eyesshuttight as I funneledall ofmy power into the moon stone on the third finger of my left hand—the one I used to weather wield.Throwing as much energy into it as I could muster, I flung my open hands in the air and connected with the sky.
With small storms, it was easy to form a fist and put an end to it in one motion. But with how much energy was behind this storm, I could barely bend my fingers against the rawziriliumI could feel fighting against my attempt to slow down the storm formation.
Digging deeper into myself, I realized there were so many more levels to myziriliumthanI’dever known. Funnelingmore and moreof myself into this one act, my fingers slowly began to bend, forcing the storm to slow ever so slightly.
But it wouldn’t be enough.
My mouth fell open in a scream as I burrowed evendeeperinto the core of my power. I fell to my knees as my entire body shook with the effort to close my fists and pause the forming storm overhead—even if only for an extra moment.
A moment on the battlefield could mean life or death.
And not only were my soldiers, my people, onbothsides of this war—but so were my friends. Myfamily.
And for them, I could do anything.
It felt as though my very flesh and muscles were ripping themselves from my bones with the physical strain this was putting on my body. And yet, I pushed harder. My voice gave out as I dug a tad deeper, funneling every fiber of my power and energy as a wielder into the act at hand. I could vaguely feel my body violently shaking, but I was so far down inside of my ownziriliumthat it felt like a distant thought—not even a concern.
Then, with that final push, I closed my fists—the energy of an entire storm now being held in my hands.
I gasped, once again able to recognize the sudden agony I felt as the pain in my body from using so much energy. Back in my own body, I quickly folded in on myself, bringing my closed fists to my chest and holding them there. I still shook violently, the power of the energy I was holding back buzzing within every inch of me, fighting for a way out. Stillkneeling on thetower’sroof, I looked up and was reassured to find that the storm that had been circling overhead had paused its formation.It hadn’t dissipated, but it looked as though it had frozen in time, and I knew that so long as I kept this energy trapped within me, I could spare the Southern army a few more moments.
Then I felt the edge of asword being pressedagainst my throat.
