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CHAPTER TEN

M Y NOSTRILS FLARED with steaming breath that dried my lips to the point of cracking. It was as if I had transformed into a beast of fire and ash as I paced in front of the two runaways. The aches in my leg and shoulder no longer existed. All I could focus on was Gwyn and Fyrel huddled up together on the floor.

“You could have been killed!” My voice boomed against the cavern walls. The flames of the fire Gerarda had made twitched and sparked higher for a moment. “What possessed you to go after the waateyshirak on your own? With no plan and no backup?”

Fyrel bowed her head. Her own chest was heaving just as much as mine was. At least she had been scared into seeing sense, but Gwyn leaned against the wall, perfectly calm.

She crossed her arms. “We had a plan.”

“To lure a beast toward you and fling a spear at it?” Outside, a flock of birds took flight as the sky cracked with a bolt of lightning. I took a deep breath. My rage was overwhelming my powers. My control was a thin thread, stretched and ready to snap.

Gerarda placed a hand on my shoulder. “They’re fools”—she shot a disappointed look at both, and only then did Gwyn have the decency to blush—“but they’re alive.”

A half sob, half grunt ripped from my chest.

Gwyn’s hard mouth softened. Fyrel stared at the ground unable to look at me. I just wanted to go a week— one week —without the threat of losing someone close to me.

Elaran lifted her chin. She stood on one leg, the other too burned to take her weight. I didn’t want to try to heal the skin until Feron and Rheih could inspect it. I’d learned my lesson with Maerhal. Her brow tremored with pain and annoyance at the girls. “Tell us why we shouldn’t strip you both of your weapons and never let you join a mission again.”

Fyrel’s bottom lip quivered but her back straightened against the rock. “We were wrong. We’ll accept whatever punishment you see fit.”

“No, we fucking won’t.” Gwyn turned with a look of disgust on her face then snapped her head to me. “At least we were willing to find a way to destroy those creatures.”

I chucked what was left of the spear at her feet. “With a makeshift weapon you didn’t know would work?”

“But it did.”

“She has a point,” Gerarda mumbled.

“And yet she wasn’t the one who killed the beast. You did.” I turned back to Gwyn. “I know you have more sense than this.”

“Sense?” Gwyn stood. “Sense to try to fight back instead of hiding in the Faelinth while Damien adds more swords to his armies? I heard you in the meeting room. The waateyshir was an obstacle. I was taking care of it.”

I pointed at Fyrel’s burnt clothes and Elaran’s charred leg. “Does that look taken care of to you? You didn’t even know if my dagger would work on the waateyshir .”

“I’m not a complete fool.” Gwyn crossed her arms. “I’ve listened to the stories of Faelin too. She struck down dozens of beasts with her sword. So did the other warriors of Niikir’na with their weapons.”

I ran my hand through my braid, pulling strands loose that stuck to my sweaty skin like leaches. “Faelin’s sword is hanging in pieces in Aralinth. Not to mention the blade is ten times the length of this. And all the others have been lost.”

Gwyn’s brows creased. “But they were all blood-bound blades. Like yours.” She nodded at the dagger lying atop my discarded cloak.

I paused. “You left because you thought a blood-bound blade would kill the beast? Or because you overheard Vrail’s untested assumption?

“I knew a blood-bound blade would kill it.” Gwyn crossed her arms. “And thanks to me, now you all know too.”

Gerarda gave a grunt of a laugh. “I think you mean thanks to me.”

“Either way.” Gwyn scowled as she shrugged. “We know how to kill them now.”

I rubbed my brow. “One blade against all the waateyshirak is not a plan. We need more weapons than that.” My fists shook at my sides as my magic surged to a mountainous peak. I spoke through gritted teeth. “Why not bring your theory to me instead of going out on your own? Your actions almost cost five lives tonight.”

Gwyn pinched her arm and pursed her mouth to the side. I stooped and put my hands on her shoulders as gently as I could manage with the magic coursing through me.

Her blue eyes were misted but hard. “You have been so busy and this was just one more thing for you to deal with.”

My heart ached. “Gwyn, you needn’t worry about that.”

“But I do!” Gwyn knocked my arms off her. “The more things distracting you, the longer it takes for us to attack Damien. I’m not some burden that you need to coddle, Keera. I’m not that little girl who used to cry in your chambers anymore. I’ve fought soldiers and won. I almost killed a waateyshir tonight. That’s what I want. I want to fight. I need to fight. I just want this to end.”

My entire body shook with anger. Not at Gwyn, but at seeing the same rage that had taken hold of me my entire life come to claim her too. I never wanted to pass on that rage to the next generation of Halflings. They deserved a legacy of hope and peace, to love freely without the shadow of the king haunting their dreams. My hands clenched at my sides as my emotions reached a heated peak to match the swell of my magic.

“Gwyn, you are not and have never been a burden.” I choked on the words. My hold on my gifts was waning, but Gwyn needed to hear this. “I’ve never thought that.”

A tear welled at the corner of her eye. She reached her hand out for me, but I stepped back. “Don’t touch me.” My voice shook enough for Gerarda to step between me and Elaran.

“Keera, your eyes.”

I didn’t need a looking glass to know they were glowing.

They were burning.

Some new kind of power thrashed underneath my skin. It didn’t scorch like a burnout, but instead itched like a thousand tiny bugs were burrowing under my skin, vying to get out.

I had no idea what would happen when my hold broke.

I ran out of the cave. The snow cooled my skin but did nothing to damper the competing powers inside my chest.

Gwyn followed me, her face stark with worry as she ripped herself from Fyrel’s grasp.

“Keera, I’m sorry!” she shouted through the snowfall.

“Stay back!” I turned with my arm stretched out toward her. There was a loud crack. But no lightning shot from the cloudless sky. Instead a golden bolt shot through my hand and hit Gwyn square in the chest.

The itching ceased but I barely noticed.

Time seemed to stretch. Gwyn crumpled to the ground like a feather, lazily falling until she folded onto the burnt snow. Unmoving.

I screamed at the ground, and the trees behind me burst into flames while the forest floor froze to ice. Above me, large storm clouds appeared, whirling in giant circles as I let my magic drain from me. These gifts were not just overwhelming; they were dangerous.

I was dangerous.

I needed to dull myself.

“Is she dead?” I screeched as a towering wall of stone lifted from the earth and fell back onto the flames, smothering them along with the heightened stores of my magic. I fell forward onto my knees, trying to catch my breath. I couldn’t look at Gwyn’s lifeless body. I just froze, letting fat tears fall onto my bloodied hands.

Gerarda and Elaran ran to Gwyn, pulling her onto Elaran’s lap. From the sideline of my vision, I saw Elaran press her ear to Gwyn’s chest while Gerarda felt for a pulse along her neck.

“She’s alive, Keera,” Gerarda shouted over the storm that my magic had stoked. Lightning flashed in the clouds and a thunderous boom followed a moment later.

My arms collapsed, and my face smacked into the ground with relief. I pushed myself onto my feet, needing to see Gwyn for myself. I slid across the ice and pulled her body onto my lap.

I cupped her cheek in my hand. “Gwyn, I’m so sorry.” I sobbed. “Gwyn, can you hear me? Let me heal you.”

Her hand lifted to mine and I gasped. Her palms were worn and blistered as they had been before, but now her long fingers were radiating with bright light. She tapped the back of my hand and a thin line carved through the air, like a rock marking glass. It lingered for a moment and then faded into nothing, like leaves blowing away on the wind.

“Gwyn?” I turned to Gerarda and Elaran to make sure they were seeing this too.

Gwyn shifted on my lap, and Elaran stepped back in shock.

I turned and saw that Gwyn was already looking up at me.

Her eyes were no longer blue.

They were amber.