Page 129 of With Wing And Claw

She pressed her left hand against her dress.Blue for healing. Another swift sparkle of magic, and all wounds were gone.

One foot to go.

An arrow whizzed past her, piercing the floor behind her. Fuck. They’d finally realised they couldn’t get her within magic’s reach with Naxi covering her back – and so they’d taken upthe more primitive weapons. If whoever was wielding that bow had even the least amount of skill—

A second arrow buried itself into the rubble by her feet.

‘Fuck,’ she managed, out loud now, as she shoved Naxi farther behind the pedestal and half-crawled after her. ‘Alright. Give me your other foot. Keep them away from us.’

Naxi nodded, quiet tears pouring down her face as she squeezed her eyes shut again. Two more arrows whistled overhead while Thysandra repeated her healing routine with shaking hands, working even faster this time. A few fae tried their luck and flew towards them. Every single one of them ended up plummeting screaming to the ground.

Still …

There were at least a hundred of them left, and as soon as they pulled off a single coordinated attack, she and Naxi would be done for.

‘Fuck,’ Thysandra said out loud again, crouching behind the dented pedestal.

Naxi sniffled in agreement.

Only now, with half a second to take a breath, did the pain of her own wounds catch up – the dozens of small cuts and bruises left by flying magic and marble. Her ankle had started throbbing again with Naxi’s magic focused on the circling fae. Her head was spinning. Poison after-effects or loss of blood, she wasn’t quite sure.

Either way …

Either way, she was in deep fucking trouble.

More arrows were hitting against the floor around her, iron tips dragging flurries of sparks from the flagstone tiles. Useless warnings as long as they had cover, but as soon as she tried to move, there would be another volley waiting for her. So was there any way they could get out of here alive? Maybe if she broke a hole in the wall and made a run for it, although they would probably come after her, and carrying Naxi would slow her down. And even if she found shelter or a handful of allies willing to help her out—

Then what?

Her plan had leaked.

It had leakedagain.

How was it even possible? She hadn’t told anyone. She had covered up her absence. She had done everything right, andstillit had all gone wrong – and now the Alliance thought her a liar, her court thought her a failure, and neither of them were wrong.

So what options did she have left?

Voices were yelling behind her, fae lining up for attack in the corners of her sight. Naxi was shaking her arm, saying something. She barely even heard any of it. Her limbs were so very heavy all of a sudden – her thoughts, too … Perhaps she should just go hide in the deepest hole she could find and leave the whole fucking place to the wolves. Perhaps that had always been the best she could do, and—

A horn sounded, suddenly close.

‘The army!’ someone shrieked above her, the words punching through to her moments after. ‘It’s the army! Run!’

Nicanor?

Oh gods – had he found some people willing to come and save her?

She should have been relieved, yet even relief felt like too much of an effort as the sky outside lit up in fiery shades of red again. Stay of execution, if anything. Even Nicanor couldn’t save her forever. The sounds of battle above her were a blur, feeling miles away – swords and dull thuds and a voice …

A voice.

A far too familiar voice, yelling at people to get out,get out.

Bereas.

And at once, nothing was heavy anymore. At once, she was no longer out of options. Decisions made themselves in the infinitesimal moment between one eyeblink and the next – because he washere, the bastard who’d almost killed her three times over, and if she could do nothing else, at least she was going to get some gods-damned answers.

Her ankle screamed in protest as she jumped to her feet and staggered away from the pedestal. Naxi was crying out her name behind her – she ignored that as well.