Page 192 of Burn of the Everflame

“Her,” Vance snarled. “Kill her!”

His commands went ignored, and his troops continued to close me in. I pushed my way through to Diem’s side, where she was gripping the woman’s temples with a determined glare.

“I can’t find a way in,” she gritted out.

I set my palm against her skin and let my shadows flow. “Absorb my magic. The extra strength might help.”

“I have plenty of magic. There’s nowhere to put it. It’s like he’s hidden the door into her mind. All I can see is empty space.”

Vance let out a roar of frustration. He blew another whistle. “If you won’t kill her”—he swung his finger to Diem’s army—“kill them all instead.”

Diem jerked her hands back as if something had burned her. She gaped down at the woman in horror.

The Descended around us came to a stiff stop. Their bodies looked like puppets dancing on strings as they lurched away toward our army’s lines. I looked across the field to Alixe, whose eyes darted between the advancing enemy and her Queen, awaiting Diem’s orders.

“Shields,” Alixe yelled, and not a moment too soon. A mammoth wall of twinkling, multicolored light enveloped our army just as a wave of crackling magic surged across the pass.

“Alixe can’t hold them off for long,” I told Diem. “Half our army is mortal. Shielding everyone will drain our Descended fast.”

“Don’t hurt them,” she insisted. She grabbed the woman’s temples again. “I need more time. She has to be in there somewhere.”

Diem’s skin began to shimmer as a bone-trembling amount of magic radiated in the air around her. My godhood roared, sensing her desperation and straining to get free of my body and help her.

But here, I could do her no good. I turned my sights on the one place I could unleash it in full: the man who tried to take me from my Queen.

I set on a furious course across the field. Vance was so busy basking in preemptive victory, he didn’t notice me craft an illusion to conceal my approach, though the godstone sword I carried repelled my magic, making it appear to float toward him like a menacing omen of death.

How very appropriate.

One strike, I thought, and he’s out of our lives for good.

I paused. If Diem couldn’t find a way to call Vance’s army off, would his death condemn them to obey his last command forever?

I glanced back at my Queen. My heart wrenched at the distress on her face as she fought to break the woman free of the hold on her mind. I cherished her unwavering belief that no one was too far gone to be saved. I loved her for it.

Unfortunately for these people, I did not share it.

If they were the price it took to rid my Queen of her greatest threat . . . for her, I would pay a terrible cost.

I kept my sword still as I crept closer. Ophiucae’s shield did not wrap around the men like a skin as it had in previous battles. It had expanded to form a spacious, protective dome. Godstone could pierce it, but I could not. I’d have to turn my sword into a spear, and I’d only have one chance to get it right.

A creaking sound rang out behind me as our army’s shield began to break. Diem had the power to strengthen it, but she was oblivious, consumed by her efforts, and calling out to her would give me away.

I continued on. Alixe would have to fight that battle on her own. I could not miss this chance.

Vance and his men were easy enough to fool. They couldn’t get enough of seeing our army’s splintering shield, drinking it in with glee. Their horses, though . . . animals always had a preternatural sense for magic. Their dark, nervous eyes followed my every step. When I moved to circle behind them, they whinnied and sidled away. The men dug their heels in to keep them still, but the closer I got, the more the horses skittered to avoid me.

“Stupid beasts,” Vance muttered, jabbing his boot into his horse’s side.

“They sense something,” another said. He glanced into the forest. “Maybe we should have left the others behind us.”

I froze. Others?

Our army’s shield gave a thunderous crack, and a giant tear ripped through the center. Diem jerked out of her daze and raised her palms to help, but her efforts came too late. Vance’s troops had already surged through the opening.

Alixe thrust a hand toward the sky, sending a sizzling beam of light into the clouds—a signal for the archers. Bowstrings twanged, and a hailstorm of arrows rained down from both sides of the field.

A handful came down on Vance and his men. Though most bounced off their shield, a few godstone tips seared through the sparkling dome. Two of Vance’s cronies fell, and another was thrown to the soil by the buck of a wounded mare.