Enough to make Khayrivven take a tentative step in her direction before she closed her eyes, enough to make the blade draw blood on the side of her neck, the cut eliciting a hiss from her. But she didn’t fight Enya’s loosening grip, the woman letting her slide down her front, deeming the threat the two men posed more important.
“I’ve always known she was weak,” Ycken’s drawl carried across the cave as Lory’s shoulder, and then her temple hit the stone floor.
Despite the pain at the impact, she didn’t flinch, keeping her eyes well shut, and a familiar caress touched the edges of her mind a moment before Khayrivven spoke to the three Flame-born.
“Do you prefer the easy way, or should I give you a head start?” His voice was violence wrapped in silk, a quality that didn’t fail to instill fear in her, even now that she knew it was a mask.
“I’d rather die than rot in Ulder’s dungeon,” Hadrick roared, his words accompanied by the thunder of his boots across the ground as he charged past Lory’s head, and Lory fought not to flinch. As long as she pretended to be out cold, no one would see her as a threat, which would give her the perfect opportunity to turn the odds in favor of the three Flames, when what she should have been doing was to fight at Ycken’s side to prove her loyalty.
Steel found steel somewhere close, and a flash of orange light, followed by a wave of heat, made her roll back andto her knees, instinctively reaching to her hip for a dagger once more.
Khayrivven was locked in combat with Hadrick, his saber a blur of silver, but so was the middle-aged man’s knife. He parried with impossible speed, his impeccable footwork and balance unexpected.
Ycken was locked in combat with Olive, who stood her ground well enough—and Enya.
Where was the woman?
Lory had barely glanced up when Enya’s fist met the side of her head.
Pain exploded in Lory’s skull, a multifold of when she’d hit her head on the ground not a minute ago, and had Enya chosen this moment to end her, Lory couldn’t have done a thing about it. But the Guardians had mercy on her this time.
“Traitor,” the woman spat and stepped over Lory’s slumping form, charging to Hadrick’s aid instead, and Lory fought the blackness pulling on the edge of her vision.
Not now, not now, not now.She needed to stay alert.
“Sides the Flame must choose,”the leonthor spoke into her mind, and a shudder raked through Lory’s body in response to the icy tone the creature had assumed.“Her people she fights for, or the enemy. Not on both sides she can stand. Not hide from the choice she can.”
Lory’s head swam, her shoulder still painful from Enya’s grasp, and the side of her neck dripping blood, but the leonthor insisted,“Not run from the choice she can. Choose she must, so it may begin.”
“What must begin?” she whispered, forcing herself to push back onto her hands and knees.
Another flash of orange and yellow consumed the cave, burnishing the fighting forms in fiery hues as if they were made of flames themselves. Lory strained to find the source of the fire, but the glow had already vanished once more.
“Not speak of it we must,”the leonthor once more evaded a direct answer, fucking bastard.“Freeus she must.”
“Not without answers, I won’t.”Lory could barely think straight, her stomach turning from what must have been a concussion, but she was clear about this one thing.“I’m not doing anything without knowing why.”
Beneath her palms and knees, the ground trembled as Lory tried to keep her eyes open, following the dizzying movements of the three people in rags and the two in uniform, perhaps another symptom of her concussion, but the deafening roar echoing through the cave wasn’t.
As if trapped by invisible strings, Khayrivven’s sword arm stopped mid-motion, not getting low enough to stop the blow Hadrick’s knife would have dealt, had the man not been frozen himself. Enya’s legs stopped running, time seeming to slow, and so did Ycken’s and Olive’s movements until all five of them stood still, expressions of terror on their faces as they discovered the massive creature stepping into the cave mouth, his antlered outline gilded by the morning sun.
The leonthor’s split tail swished, strands of sandy-beige hair following the movement like an afterthought. With massive paws, he stomped the ground, the entire cave shaking in response.
“The savior or the downfall of her people the Flame will be,”the leonthor thundered into Lory’s head, ignoring the others as if they were nothing more than an inconvenient decoration of his cage.“The savior or downfall of Brestolya.”He took a looming step closer, his breath laced with the stench of rotting meat fanning over her face, making her insides turn until she retched onto the floor.
“Free we will be if she chooses right. If wrong she chooses, in blood Brestolya will end.”
Lory’s vision blurred as a wave of orange and gold swallowed the leonthor, but she refused to close her eyes.
In a gust of heat and shadows, the leonthor seemed to dissipate as he stalked out of the cave.
With everything she had left, Lory pushed to her feet, stumbling toward Hadrick, who was still rooted to his spot, as were the rest of them. Lory seemed to be the only one capable of moving freely, while the others’ eyes kept following her every step.
Over Hadrick’s shoulder, she met Khayrivven’s eyes, the panic there second only to her own as she reached for Hadrick’s knife and pulled it from his grasp before slipping under his arm to stand beside Khayrivven.
She barely made it there when time seemed to continue in its flow, and Khayrivven’s saber sliced into Hadrick’s forearm, unchecked.
Blood sprayed from the wound, and Enya’s cry of fury as she attacked the captain was accompanied by a burst of golden flames surging for Khayrivven so fast Lory didn’t think as she willed them to change course and spin into a column ofdancing fire at the edge of the cave, right where the leonthor had stood a minute ago.
