Page 167

Next to the giant corpse of a hound, in the middle of an empty cabbage field … Not the best strategy to remain invisible. I nodded and hobbled one step forward, then nearly collapsed the moment I tried to lift my good foot – a pain as if someone was jabbing a spear into my left leg from below.

With three long strides, Creon stood beside me. ‘Come here.’

‘What—’

He’d already swept me into his arms.

I clung to his shoulders for dear life as he ran, away from the hound, away from the dead fae, towards the city in the distance. Out of the cabbage fields. Into yet another stretch of grain. The world was jarringly quiet around us, not a soul moving to stop us … But close by, to the south of the city, fae and phoenixes were battling above the throng of bodies, red magic and fire flashing wherever I looked. Clouds of arrows came whizzing over at irregular intervals, but fewer and fewer of them.

And there, in the distance …

Was that Agenor, that lone figure charging an entire unit of the Mother’s fae?

I buried my face in Creon’s neck and tried to stop thinking, to stop hearing. My ankle throbbed like hellfire. Still, better to focus on the pain than on the cries of dying people out there, those hundreds and hundreds of individuals who wouldn’t have been here if not for me – who would still have been alive if not for me.

Creon slowed down.

I jolted up, ready for alarm … but there were no fae to be seen except those surrounding the city half a mile away, like a swarm of deadly insects blotting out the sun. A small shed rose from the meadow before us, however, and it was there that Creon was headed.

Shed.

Shelter.

I couldn’t help breathing a sigh of relief.

He kicked open the door without further ado, carrying me into the dimly lit space beyond. The smell of dust and straw filled my nostrils; mice hastily skittered off into the corners as he set me down on a bale of hay and knelt before me. His fingers tenderly prodded the swelling in my boot. Blue magic skidded over my skin, and the pain softened, although it didn’t disappear entirely.

‘Better,’ I whispered. ‘Much better.’

A wry smile on his lips. ‘I know.’

Bloody demon powers … but I didn’t have the heart to say it out loud, not now, not here. Not as the battle outside raged on, paying in blood for every minute we delayed.

‘We should go on,’ I breathed.

He didn’t rise, didn’t take his fingers from my skin. ‘Yes.’

For an endless tick of time, neither of us moved, watching each other in the dusky light of that muddy little shed – a moment etching itself in my memory like a carving in stone. His pupils, blooming wide in the unfathomable darkness of his eyes. His sensuous lips, parted a fraction – the only softness inthe sculpted austerity of his features. A single loose lock of hair, black on bronze, brushing over sharp-edged cheekbones.

Last time, my thoughts whispered.Last time.

Without warning, he rose and leaned forward, lips seeking mine in a hard, desperate kiss.

It was all teeth and nails, that kiss. All the fears we wouldn’t let ourselves speak out loud. His fingers tangled in my hair, pulling me closer; I all but threw myself into his arms, hands finding the familiar edge of his jaw, the pointed tips of his ears. A last taste. A last reminder. A single thundering heartbeat, and then it was over; he pulled away as abruptly as he’d lunged at me, eyes wild, lips flushed.

‘Time to go?’ His voice was rough.

‘Time to go.’ Mine was barely a whisper.

He squeezed my hand as we slipped back outside. Alyra sat waiting on the windowsill, visibly impatient … but the reproachful thoughts I expected didn’t come.

The city was close enough now that I could distinguish the individual buildings propped against the earthen wall, the shapes of the bodies pinned between the lilies.Therewas the guardhouse Rosalind had told me about, a slender and now partially burned wooden tower that marked the spot of the tunnel door. A single sprint away, nothing but an empty meadow in between.

Creon flicked a spark of yellow magic at me before I could speak, turning the black of my shirt and loose linen trousers into a shimmering, pearlescent darkness.

‘Stay close to me,’ I managed.

He gave a tense laugh. ‘Nothing I’d rather do.’