Page 48

Forty-Eight

Myron

“They are moving.” Kaira notes it first, even though I see it at the same time. The prisoners are moving.

At first, I believe it is merely to relieve discomfort from remaining in one position in the cold for too long, but then the guard comes in, a tall, bulky man who could be a Flame, judging by his build.

I don’t get to think on it more, because one of the prisoners shoots up, knocking the man out with a shove punch to the sternum, the force of which could stop hearts.

“Herinor.” Both Kaira and I think at the same time, and I’ve never been happier to see the morally questionable warrior.

“If he’s here, Silas should be here, too.” I don’t care if speaking my hope is foolish. Something is happening over there, and we need to help them before they are discovered.

The twigs slide along my shield as we sneak closer to the edge of the camp, observing the slow movements of Herinor as he frees his legs, then one of the other prisoners. By the time we make it to the thicket behind them, Herinor is carrying a prisoner who looks very much like an unconscious Silas, the other three beside him, and they are making for the near-invisible barrier of magic around the camp. The fear in my stomach spreads into my entire body at the thought that they are mere feet away from the magic and that we need to prepare for anything between a mild zing and a flesh-and-bone-splitting explosion of power.

“The shield could kill them,” I speak my concern into the mind link, leaving out the details. I have no idea how to prevent it, my powers not having recovered enough to tear through the shield, and if I touch it, I might alert whoever cast it, and I’m not sure any of us are in a condition to fight right now.

“I’m surprised none of the soldiers have noticed their man hasn’t returned from his check-in,” Kaira mumbles, her gaze darting back and forth between the fleeing prisoners and the soldiers lining up to get lunch.

“Perhaps they’re simply hungry.” It would be such a human thing to succumb to one’s appetite. When Ayna was still human, before the curse was broken, she’d needed food a lot more regularly, or she’d be even more easily provoked by my mere presence.

A pang of despair attempts to fill my chest, but I lock it down before I can spiral down it like a black feather on a stream of ink. I can’t go there—not until we’ve saved what’s left of my court—of our court, whether Ayna is here to lead it at my side or not.

The glance Kaira gives me speaks volumes about how she believes Crows are no different when it comes to food. “How do we get them out?”

I hold my breath, watching the prisoners’ slow approach until a foot’s worth of branches is all that’s left separating us—that, and the shield they need to get through.

My gaze locks on Herinor’s as he halts to assess the barrier, and something like hope flickers across his dirt-and-blood-smeared features as he recognizes it’s not an enemy waiting in the shadows.

Myron, his lips form my name, but his gaze scans the thicket until he finds Kaira crouched at the base of a young fir. The expression forming on Herinor’s face is one I wish every person experiences once in their lives to understand the depths of feeling living within even the most enigmatic of creatures among us. Herinor’s lips twitch upward at the corners, completely ignoring the three humans to his left and right as he lifts his hand, reaching for the female I know he cares more deeply about than I’d ever believed him capable of.

“No!” Kaira’s shout rings through the mind link as she leaps to her feet, throwing out her hands to stop Herinor from carelessly touching the shield.

Too late.

A trickle of crimson runs down the shield where he’s pulling back his hand with a wince, examining the tips of his fingers while he’s struggling to balance Silas’s weight on his back.

“It will shred them to pieces,” Kaira squeaks in my head. “They’re trapped.”

The blood suspended midair is all the proof we need, yet, I refuse to accept it. “I’ve already lost my mate; I won’t lose anyone else.”

The humans’ mouths are moving, their eyes wide with fear as they watch the blood slowly slide toward the ground along the invisible wall. Apparently, the shield soundproofs the camp as much as it prevents people from passing through without permission.

Ignoring the cautioning voices screaming in my head, I pluck a pebble from the frozen earth and throw it at the shield—to find it crumble at the impact.

“Impenetrable from the inside and out,” I narrate, not even close to giving up while Herinor’s features set into a hard mask. The one of resignation I’ve seen so many times on him when he couldn’t take action due to the bargain with Ephegos.

“Perhaps for stone and flesh.” Kaira braces her feet apart, careful not to lose the cover of branches as she opens the mind link beyond the two of us, her entire body shaking as she throws her power beyond the barrier. “Herinor?”

Her voice is decimated to a whisper by the effort it takes to get through, but she does get through.

“Get the fuck out of here, Kaira, ” is all Herinor spits at her even when his features soften for a beat before fear distorts them once more.

“Not a chance.”

While the part-Flame waves at the humans, the two men and one woman wait impatiently for something to happen that will get them out of there.

“No need to piss yourselves,” Herinor’s bodily voice slides through the mind link as he reassures what must be the last of the rebels in his own unique, charming way. “That’s my king and the female who likes to torment me with her hot and cold attitude.”

I don’t think I’ve ever heard him make such a specific statement about how he views Kaira, but the longing in his eyes as they lock on hers says more than words ever could.

“We don’t have much time,” I interrupt the moment before the humans can come up with questions. “If Kaira’s magic made it through the shield unharmed, chances are I could create a passage using my own powers.”

“You’re too weak, Myron .” Kaira grabs her daggers more tightly.

“I’m the only one in possession of a power that could block out a piece of the shield,” I remind her because, with one look at Herinor and Silas, I know they are in possession of neither their magic nor their physical strength, or they would have long blazed through this shield, carrying the humans along. “And I’m not leaving them behind.”

Gaze cutting to mine with more upset than I’d expected, Kaira takes a deep, steadying breath. “Neither am I.”

Before I send out my power, there’s only one thing I need to know. “How many magic wielders are in the camp?”

Herinor doesn’t need to say anything for me to know that the answer is ‘too many’ , but he does anyway. “The guards who’ve checked on us were all human, but the shield is too strong to be cast by only one Crow.” He sways on his feet, the woman with the green cloak bracing him as much as she can manage. Beside me, Kaira makes an unintelligible sound that could have been worry or disapproval.

For a moment, I think she’ll leap right into the barrier at the sight of the woman so close to the warrior Crow, but she merely reaches into the pocket of her jacket, withdrawing the vial we plucked from a soldier’s corpse in the clearing before.

“This could melt a hole into the shield.” She doesn’t wait for a response as she uncorks it, ready to splash it onto the wall separating us from the last of my court.

“It could also draw the attention of whoever cast the shield,” I warn her, though we all know whatever we do to break the shield will eventually draw the camp toward us. So I nod, an unnecessary approval when there is little else we can do without wrecking ourselves to shredded, bloody ribbons.

Holding her breath, Kaira takes aim and splashes, the clear liquid colliding with the near-invisible shield with a slick, wet sound.

I don’t know what we all expected, but most certainly not the smoke rising from the spot where the liquid evaporates like ice in the desert.

Leaning closer, Kaira and I inspect the shield, looking for any sign the liquid has left a hole, but all we find is a small spot where the wall of magic has thinned, the view a bit clearer, less laced with glimmering silver.

The shield must be too strong to break apart at a mere vial of the drug.

It doesn’t change anything, and I’m not trying to figure it out when rallying my power is taking everything out of me. The disappointment on Kaira’s face is enough to make me tap into the shallow depths of what’s returned of my magic. If this is the only way, so be it.

A thin silver glow appears in my free palm while I keep the other one firmly wrapped around the hilt of my sword. The humans stumble a step back on instinct.

“Prepare to run.” Not giving myself a moment to doubt whether this will work, I send the power collecting in my hand at the shield, willing it to burn through the protective layer. For a moment, nothing happens, and I wonder if I’m doing it right or if the amount of magic at my disposal is so minuscule the barrier will simply ignore it like a crow does a slight breeze. Then, silver light flares, and shouts erupt from the center of the camp as we draw the soldiers’ attention.

Not long and they will figure out what’s going on, and I really don’t want to test our luck after the past hours. If they get us before we can get the prisoners out, there won’t be an escape. There will be only pain and death, with death being the more merciful option.

“Hurry, Myron,” Herinor grits out, his teeth bared even though he’s using the mind link.

I don’t pause to inform him I’m not planning on drawing this out. Footsteps approach. Fast. And from the side of the camp, two men come running, their swords drawn. At least, they aren’t wielding bows and arrows, or we’d be fucked.

“Faster.” From the way Kaira shifts on her feet, I should wonder if she’s ready to leap into the shield and risk being grated like cheese, then her hand locks around my wrist, fingers digging in with painful force. Before I can wince—or demand what she’s doing—she drops the empty vial still in her other hand and opens it toward the shield. “This is magic the way fireballs thrown by Flames are magic,” she merely says as if that’s an explanation, but when tendrils of silver peel away from the shield, turning soft orange as they creep and coil into her open hand, I understand.

“You’re siphoning from the shield.”

Her victorious smile is almost worth the blast of power erupting and throwing us all to the ground as the shield collapses a few heartbeats before the two guards would have made it to the prisoners.

“Kaira?” Ignoring the searing pain lashing down my side, I collect my limbs and roll over, preparing to fight.

Kaira is right there with me, blood dribbling down her chin and bracing her hand against a tree a few feet back where the explosion delivered us.

“Crow magic and Flame fire,” I muse into the mind link, thinking back to all the theories we’ve had over the combination of those two.

Kaira huffs a dark chuckle, already limping toward Herinor, who groans as he pushes off the ground, Silas still on his back. A glance at the blasted tents confirms nothing is moving there, the soldiers who were shouting now silenced, perhaps forever.

“Can you walk?” the male asks the older man struggling to get into an upright position. The ugly wound on his leg is spewing blood, and his complexion is so black and blue from old injuries I can’t tell if any new ones were added in the explosion.

The man hobbles a step, staggering into the younger one, who is more stable. The woman crawls toward them from a few feet away, shaking her head as she takes in the destruction behind her: Torn tents flap in the wind like banners of doom, the stench of blood and pain laces the air, and where a cauldron had been sitting on a fire, ready to feed a company of soldiers, the flames are eating up whatever they can get their scorching tongues on as they spill into the icy land.

“How are we alive?” The woman stumbles to her feet, almost tripping over her cloak. Unharmed.

They are all unharmed—at least by our magic. As if on instinct, it destroyed everything surrounding us, but not us . Not the court we are trying to save or the allies they brought along.

Holding out an arm to help the older man across the debris of trees and ashes, I give Kaira a clipped smile.

We did it. We found them. Now we only need to make sure they survive the escape.