Page 24

Chapter 24

Rev

Heimlen had called my love for Karus my weakness. He would have said the same of Saelyn .

The man who had mentored me haunted my thoughts at the line of Blight as I held onto the woman I loved.

He had tried to teach me that we were Barons . We led alone, we died alone.

Years ago, I’d decided to fuck that tradition and give my heart to the woman I didn’t want to live without.

Then I’d lost her.

I would not lose her again.

To ancient evil, to the spell we both knew could kill her, to beasts of abhorrent power, to time, to death.

So , instead of turning around and pulling her back to the Fortress and our rooms by force, I found the hand of hope once more in my life to help her destroy what had taken root in our home.

Heimlen had claimed loving her made me weak.

I knew it made me strong.

I heard the first Blight beast before I saw it as it trampled through the Blight to my right. I’d been ready, already sifting through all the scenarios of what the Blightress would attempt once she realized what we were doing. Destroying the Blight here in Felgren would weaken her power, if only for a short time.

All black limbs and red glowing eyes, it leapt into the air, pouncing on the Grower at the far end, bringing it down into the forest floor. I pulled back on some of my power, churning the earth where the Grower fell, swallowing them both into the ashen soil below. Instantly , I siphoned enough power to shield our people, Moira , and half the line of Growers . It was a risk to pull any of my power away from Karus , who picked up her pace, holding onto the sun the size of our rooms in the Fortress . Another vicious snarl sounded to our left as two more Blight beasts emerged from the shadows, taking down one, then another of the Growers within seconds of their appearance.

“ Talon !” I called. Understanding my urgency, he conjured his golden light behind us at the beasts, forcing his power across their bodies. Tendrils of magic wove over and through the beasts’ wooden sinew, striking through them at the last word of his spell. Each fell to the ground, and the Growers regained their footing, running in a mass of twigs and leaves to catch up to their brethren, continuing their growth back into the soil.

The ashes behind us were covered in the beginnings of new life from the Growers , a promise that what was broken could be renewed. I prepared for the next round, hearing the howls in the distance, but was not ready for the blackened trees ahead as they pulled their roots from the earth, forming into the sharp limbs and features of the trees Karus had told me about when she’d been pulled to the Blightress’s lands.

Easily fifty feet tall, the Blighted trees rose in an unnatural stiffness that cracked and snapped with black sap oozing from their gargantuan maws. I understood Karus’s horror at these creatures as an ear-piercing bellow echoed through the forest. One of the abominations swept its limb forward, striking three Growers at the end of the row, launching them into the trees behind us.

“ Pompeii , Renn ! Help the Growers !” I called, pushing more, sending more of what I could to Karus .

A blast of purple and red power flew from the both of them, winding over the new growth of saplings the Growers had planted in the wake of the Blight’s death. Their agricola magic grew the small trees to massive ones, their branches winding around the jagged limbs of one of the Blight trees, rooting it to the earth in a haunting screech of anger. The other Blighted tree darted around the new growth with a surprising dexterity, raging and running right for Karus . Before it could take another earth-shattering step, it splintered in two, the swipe of an azure axe slicing through one tree, then the other, both husks falling in crashing thuds to the ground.

Lia caught my eye and I winked, returning what power I’d taken to destroy them back to Karus .

She carried the sun steadily, despite the battle around her, and picked up her pace, each of us running out behind her, none of us letting her go.

Two more Blighted trees formed from the darkness around us, smashing into the line of Growers . Moira cried out in the destruction of her kind, but stayed inside the shield of power I carried, leaving her faekind behind in the wake of their demise.

Five more Blight beasts burst from the Blight ahead, their bodies slamming into my shield, knocking them back. Karus’s sun disintegrated them the instant they hit the solid earth. Another four hit the shield again, this time with what looked like a long-dead muri at their side.

I held onto the shielding spell with ease, knowing there was only one who could break it.

And then, she was there in a billow of black shadows as if summoned by my confidence, slicing through the last line of Growers with ease. The last ten outside of my circle of blue light fell to pieces on the ground, dead before they could even look her way.

“ Fall back with me!” Lia shouted, letting go of Karus and breaking through my shield to face her sister. Pompeii , Renn , and Philius followed, splitting from the group. Karus stumbled slightly from the loss of power, but kept her focus forward, sending her sun upwards, her growing streaks of white hair billowing around her face.

“ Go !” I yelled behind me at Talon and Ilyenna , pointing toward Lia who held her hands out before her, pulling every stone she could find from the ground and hurling them toward the Blightress and the array of Blight beasts surrounding her. They flew through the air, captured in Lia’s silvery tendrils of power, hitting the iridescent shield the Blightress held.

Karus stopped running, turning for a moment to look back at the scene behind us. “ We have to help!” she shouted over the sound of snarls and roars from the Blight beasts and Blight trees that tore at my shield, fueled by the Blightress’s presence. With one last swipe of thorns and branches against my shield, it finally broke, exposing us to the creatures. Karus’s sun held them at bay as we resumed our pace, never escaping the fight that raged behind us.

“ We destroy this Blight , she’ll be too weakened to stay!” I called to Karus , pulling more of my power to surround just the two of us in a new shield.

A high-pitched scream pierced the air, and we stopped to look back as Renn fell to the ground beside Philius , her body wrapped in black vines grown up through the ashes, pulling her into the earth. With a spark of light, the scent of fire and burning flesh wove through the air as the vines encasing her body burned. Pompeii was there, pulling her away as Philius knelt to the ashes, the wrappings at his wrists now black from the fire burning with his power.

The Blightress’s haunting laughter surrounded us, calling more creatures to her side. “ What a foolish attempt at defiance. This forest is mine. You all are mine .” She bent to the black ashes, flattening her hand on the ground. Inky tendrils of Blight rose, some of them disintegrating instantly as they were met with Karus’s sun. Blight beasts leapt at Talon and Ilyenna , knocking them to the ground, distracting Lia enough for the Blightress to blast through her silvery shield.

“ The Blight will just keep growing!” Karus yelled, holding the sun with one hand and grabbing my forearm with the other. “ Conjure the spell, Rev ! We can fix this!”

Her sun rose above our heads, still growing in the mass of destruction, reducing the Blight to ashes even as the Blightress grew more of her dark stain on our forest.

“ Simulair Solum !” A great ball of warmth hovered above my free hand, not even half the size of the one Karus held.

“ Now !” she called, and I sent my own sun up to hers. It touched the surface and then slipped through to form an impossible mountain of unwavering light that burned my cheeks and lips just by standing under its rays.

I pulled Karus to me as I felt her fading, falling to my knees with her in the ashes. She gripped the back of my neck with one hand, jutting the other up into the air, sending our joined shape of blistering light and heat further up above the trees. Then , wrapping her hands at the base of my jaw, she actually smiled in glorious brilliance and murmured above my lips, “ Without hope, she walks the earth.” Her gaze shifted to the blistering sun still rising above the trees. “ But I have hope, Rev . For this forest, for Saelyn , for us. She can’t take that away. She never will.”

Her raw, blistered lips met mine, and we both let go of the weight. The sun above us, swollen to the size of the clearing we’d made in the Blight’s destruction, burst at the touch of her mouth on mine, exploding in a boom that reverberated through the forest, raining down fire and light that flew through the Blight as swiftly as a Felgren wind.