Page 107

She shoved the smaller children behind her, tugging a little dagger from her belt and holding it up defensively.

I sneered at the insinuation that I might butcher a trio of fleeing children but Bastian’s shout of warning shattered the thoughts from my skull.

“They’re going to take out the dam!” he cried. “It will fail at the next blow.”

His words fell over me in the company of another great crash and I sucked in a horrified breath as his prediction came to pass. The dam splintered and split apart beneath a barrage of water magic and a wave of deathly force came crashing down upon the city to the sonnet of its peoples’ screams.

Bastian lurched to his feet but my gaze had snapped back to those little children standing in the street ahead of us, the mighty wave rushing for them so fast that I knew they’d be swallowed within moments.

I broke into a run, Bastian right behind me, the two of us racing towards the wave instead of away from it, the roar of water deafening me as it swallowed the city whole.

The children screamed as I collided with them, my arms banding around the group and knocking the little dagger out of the girl’s hand.

Bastian’s embrace closed around me a heartbeat later and I choked back a scream as the enormous wave rushed for us with deadly precision.

Magic exploded from me and we shot for the sky, the shrieks of the Flamebringers surrounding us as the water engulfed them and the Cascadian fleet sped into their city at a ferocious speed.

Water peppered our skin, drenching our clothes, but we shot above it a mere second before the wave could engulf us.

The children clung to me in fear, Bastian’s hearty laughter at complete contrast to the panic which had just threatened to consume me. Death had very nearly taken us there and I had so very much left to set right before I could let that happen.

I hurled us away from the flood and the Cascadian ships, aiming for the rocky hill which led to the top of the basin where the city was contained and deposited us on a narrow ledge high enough up to be safe from the water.

I released my hold on the children and Bastian released me in turn, the five of us gazing out at the destruction which had been caused by that devastating tidal wave.

Cinder Vale was destroyed in every way that counted and despite me knowing that I should have been relishing this victory, I couldn’t help but feel a sourness to it as so many of the houses of its citizens were destroyed so callously.

To either side of the basin where the land rose up in a curving valley the buildings had been safer but the wave of destruction had torn through the lower ground destroying everything in its path on its way to the palace at its heart.

I watched with bated breath as the water collided with the walls of the citadel and miraculously, they held, the Cascadian fleet spreading out around the walls and continuing their attack on them from there.

I turned my focus back to the three children I’d just snatched from the jaws of death.

“Are you alright?” I demanded and they all nodded mutely, the biggest among them stepping forward and holding the hands of her companions. Or maybe they were siblings. They certainly shared the same brown eyes and heart-shaped jawline. “Good.”

“You saved us,” the oldest girl accused and I frowned.

“You did,” Bastian agreed, amusement colouring his words while water swept through the city below us and battle still raged on.

“No one would ever believe such a thing,” I spat. “So don’t go telling anyone.”

The girl arched a brow at me and the youngest boy tiptoed up to whisper in her ear.

“He says you’re not as mean as you pretend to be. He says you should listen to your heart more often.”

“That child is all of two summers old. He said no such thing,” I barked.

“He thought it,” the middle girl replied defiantly before shrinking back behind her older sister as my focus flicked to her.

I huffed out a breath, uncertain if I was amused or annoyed. “Where are your parents?”

“Fighting. Where are yours?”

“Dead,” I snarled because whoever the Fae who had sired me were, I would never find out their names anyway, so it had always seemed most honest to claim they were dead. They might as well have been so far as I was concerned.

The little boy tiptoed up to his big sister again and I scowled, awaiting his damning judgement.

“He says that figures. It’s why you’re so grumpy.”

Bastian chuckled and I threw him a look that threatened violence.

“Death makes tyrants of us all,” I agreed. “Now go scram somewhere safe.”

“We’re clinging to a rock face beside a river of doom,” the girl deadpanned, gesturing to the deep canal water which now took the place of the streets we’d just escaped from. “Where would you suggest?”

I huffed angrily, tilting my head back to look at the rocky incline ahead of us. The sound of battle from beyond that ridge was even more intense than down here, so clearly they didn’t want to head that way.

“Where’s your house?” I asked irritably.

“There,” the middle girl said, pointing to a row of buildings on the far side of the raging flood, set on higher ground, making it safe from the water at least. The fight with Cascada had moved deeper into the city, focused now on the citadel.

Ironwraith was still hovering over the palace and the plain to the north, its warriors attacking from both sides.

The citizens who had survived the breaking of the dam were all scrambling out of the remaining houses now, forgotten by the fighters at least for the moment.

“Gee-ma is there,” the little boy said.

“We’re all supposed to be vacuating,” the oldest girl said knowledgably.

“You mean e vacuating. And yeah, you should do that. Fast. You got some secret way out of this city?” I asked and the little boy nodded excitedly while the other two shushed him.

“Nope,” said the oldest of them firmly. “There is no secret steam engine hiding anywhere and no way for us to sneak away and nowhere in the mountains for us to run to.”

“’Specially not a magic cave with an oasis where nargalumps swim,” the middle girl agreed firmly.

“Good.” I glanced at Bastian who seemed content to watch me struggle with this moral dilemma, but they were just fucking kids.

I wasn’t a monster, despite the rumours which circulated to the contrary.

“Hold on to each other. I’m gonna fly you back to your Gee-ma and you’re gonna run with her to that non-existent steam engine as fast as you can go. Got it?”

They huddled together, the two girls hugging the little boy between them, and I glanced around to make sure there were no Raincarvers nearby before wrapping them in a cocoon of air magic.

“Thanks, witch lady,” the middle girl said, her little brother peeking out at me from beneath her arm with a grin.

“You know, you’re not even very scary actually,” the oldest girl said. “I’ll tell my momma not to chop your head off like she always said she wanted to. Kay?”

“Gee, thanks,” I said, lifting them into the air with my magic. “Now get the fuck out of here.”

I launched them across the water at speed, their shrieks breaking into laughter as they found themselves flying for what I supposed was the first time in their lives.

Bastian moved to stand at my shoulder as I set them down outside the distant house they’d pointed out to me and I released a heavy breath when an elderly lady burst from the door and swept them all into her arms with a cry of relief.

She looked up as the children all started to speak, her gaze snapping to us, and I knew what they were telling her, a lump forming in my throat as recognition sparked in her gaze. She saw me and she knew me.

“This is going to come back to bite me in the ass,” I cursed as the family turned and hurried away into the house together at last.

Bastian opened his mouth to say something but I snatched the air from his lungs.

“Not a fucking word,” I warned him before turning my focus back to the climb ahead of us and sending out a silent prayer to Libra to watch over those infuriating little beasties.

Because if the symbol of justice held any real power in this world, then surely he would only think it fair to let them live.

They hadn’t asked for this war after all.

I allowed Bastian to breathe again and we started on our ascent. The cries of battle rang out at the top of the hill we climbed and adrenaline trickled into my veins in anticipation of what awaited us at the summit.

“We’re going to have to fight our way out of here,” Bastian commented.

“Nothing new about that,” I muttered, reaching for another handhold and heaving myself higher.

“I suppose not,” he agreed.

We finally made it to the top of the rocky cliff and I hauled myself up just high enough to take in the raging battle beyond it.

“Well, shit, Avanis came to play too,” I said, staring out at the Stonebreakers who littered the lava field ahead of us, a group of Flamebringers battling to hold them back.

“Maybe my great, great, great grandkid is out there?” Bastian mused and I cut him a glance.

“You had kids before you were trapped in that cave?” I asked.

“Well, no. But some kind of distant descendant could be there.”

“You have no descendants if you didn’t have kids.”

“I could have grand-nieces.”

“So your siblings had kids?”

“I didn’t have any siblings.”

I resisted the urge to keep playing this nonsensical game with him and turned my focus back to the battle. It didn’t make sense. The Stonebreakers had the numbers five to one, so why hadn’t they overrun these Flamebringers already?

As the thought burned through me, my gaze fell on a pair of Fae standing closest to us, the two of them dressed in Flamebringer garb but the wild hair of the one on the left was definitely familiar to me.

“Everest?” I murmured, watching as the Fury yanked her around to face a group of advancing Stonebreakers before seemingly forcing her to do something which made her cry out in pain.

Whatever he was doing worked because the Stonebreakers’ magic stuttered out and he struck at them with brutality, blasting them with fire while they did nothing but scream their deaths to the wind.

“Ever what?” Bastian asked, his gaze following mine to the pair.

“That girl,” I said, pointing to her. “I made her a promise and I intend to keep it.”

“It’s a violent promise, isn’t it?” he sighed, sounding all kinds of exasperated.

“Aren’t they the best kind?” I purred.

“I suppose they are,” Bastian agreed. “So how are you fulfilling said promise?”

“By killing that big motherfucker beside her.”

Bastian eyed Kaiser with intrigue. “What is he?”

“Fury.”

“Nasty bastards,” Bastian mused. “Better to do it quick.”

“Oh, but where’s the fun in that?” I flashed him a smile then heaved myself over the edge of the cliff before darting to the charred corpse of a Stonebreaker and taking up his sword.

It was a little longer and heavier than I was used to but it would sever a head from its neck surely enough.

“I’m here, kitty cat,” I purred as I stalked up behind them. “Now watch me play.”