CHAPTER FIFTY
Attempt to flee again, and you’ll receive her hand with the finger next time.
—Correspondence from General Calvus to Vienah. 30thof Winter, 071.3E.
The pirate’s eyes shot to Carina and Drystan as he continued, signing the words, “The shield is thickest, widest, on its outer edges. We need to take it down from the top.”
Carina blinked, realization brightening the green in her irises.
“He’s right,” she whispered. “Saros reinforced the sides of his shield by thinning out the top of it. We can break it from above.” Her eyes slid to me and darted to Nerissa as she approached.
“Your friend may have just won us this war,” Astraeus said in a low voice as Carina explained it to Nerissa.
I blinked as emotion swarmed my chest and that burning sensation pricked my eyes. I reined the feeling in, certain if I let it out, there would be no stopping the flood that followed.
“We obviously can’t fly and fire an air cannon from above,” Nerissa cut in.
“You won’t need an air cannon,” Astraeus said, glancing at me. “You’ll need a perfect shot. The thinnest point should look something like that.” He pointed a ringed finger at my chest, where my amber amplifier had fallen open, showcasing the spiraling creature inside.
“A rubelline arrow,” I answered, understanding sinking in. We’d need to shoot an arrow to weaken the thinnest point and then send a blast of magic into the shield, shattering the rest of it.
“How will you see the thinnest point if the shield is invisible?” Drystan asked.
“If Aquila and I send enough power into it, we should see a ripple off its surface,” Nerissa replied.
I opened my lips to respond I didn’t have a good enough shot when a heart-stopping scream cut through the growing commotion of the Rising camp. It was followed by hundreds of black arrows raining down from above. Carina shouted as she stretched her own shield farther as forces continued to gather, the arrows bouncing off the invisible wall and clattering to the ground mere feet away. Drystan hurried to the front of the group, shooting his hands to either side, horror strewn across his face as he gazed at the spiked bodies.
Evony shoved through the soldiers, letting out a devastating sob. I steeled myself, leashing the powers that longed to rip free, and rushed to where Evony had fallen to her knees, sobbing and shaking.
“Evony,” I breathed, grasping her shoulders as she wept. “Breathe, Ev. Breathe.”
“I…” she muttered between gasps, “I can’t… We have to…”
My hands found her face.
“Evony, look at me.”
Her eyes, wild with wrath and pain, shot between my own and the wall.
“Look only at me,” I whispered.
Dad… We have to…she mouthed, face pale with shock.
“With me,” I whispered, turning her away from the walls.
“No,” she whimpered.
I tugged her away from the city and through the crowd of gathering soldiers. “NO!” she screamed at me, ripping her arm away.
“NO! I can’t hide. I can’t donothing. You can’t keep me from this!” she shouted, throwing her arms to the surrounding army.
I swallowed the lump forming in my throat, dry from the truth in her words, a large, dark form appearing at my side.
“I told you to get back to the eastern shore unit!” Ezrich’s words were sharp, laced with his own anger and pain.
“Fuck you!” she screamed at him. “You were supposed to wait for him!”
Ezrich’s face crumpled for a moment.
