Page 25 of Lies That Blemish (The Ember War #3)

Aisling

When the steel ball dropped into the trees, based on what Kohen said, I’d expected an explosion in the distance and a crater, but I hadn’t been prepared for the carnage that followed.

The force of the blast instantly blew the steel doors open, and everyone standing in front of them was knocked backward. Including me.

My elbow hit the ground first, a sharp pain shooting up my arm, and I cried out. Maxim half fell on top of me, worsening the force put on my arm. My ears rang as the blast reached us; the force of its power was like I’d been slapped in the face.

That far off? How? Nothing I’d seen in my life was that powerful. Not even the explosive we dropped on the Red Palace. I peered around the room in a daze, and my gaze landed on Whitney. She was staring out at the massive crater that had formed in the woods, the size of a city. Broken trees formed concentric circles around it all the way to the building we were in. A huge mushroom cloud of dust rose up from where the weapon had been dropped.

Tears fell down her face. Her words came back to haunt me now.

Having a weapon of this level of destruction is contrary to the ongoing survival of humanity.

Whitney was right. One of these bombs could wipe out hundreds of thousands in a highly populated city. Of my city. Riverine . My gaze then flicked to Maxim, who was staring out at the carnage with pure joy, and my stomach dropped. He looked like a proud father watching his child take their first few steps.

Bile rose in my throat; my elbow pinged with fresh pain. Some of the soldiers began clapping and whooping, and Maxim stood. He faced each one, chin high and proud as I struggled to sit up. Something was wrong with my elbow, and my ears were still ringing.

Maxim finally realized I hadn’t gotten up and peered down at me. “Are you injured, little pet?” he called down to me in a demeaning tone.

I glared up at him, holding my probably broken elbow to my chest. “I’m fine,” I growled, standing and swaying on my feet a little.

“She’s in pain,” Ricov said, and I glared at the giant oaf.

“Medic!” Maxim snapped his fingers, and someone ran to my side. Then Maxim and Ricov went over to speak to the professor who’d levitated the ball.

A female medic came over to me and set a bag down. “Can you straighten your arm?”

There was still chaos everywhere, people getting up and trying to lift fallen furniture. Ricov stood beside Maxim and the professor and Whitney… I noticed Whitney was scribbling feverishly on a piece of paper and glancing at Ricov and Maxim. With one hand, she wrote, and with the other, she dug into a cut that had opened on her arm.

What was she writing? I tried to extend my elbow, and a fresh wave of pain came over me, causing me to cry out.

Maxim peered back at me, and I gave him a little wave of apology, letting him know I was okay and hopefully keeping his attention away from Whitney.

Maxim went back to speaking to Ricov, and then Whitney stood, limping as she made her way over to me.

“Can you look at my ankle after you are done with her?” Whitney asked the medic, slipping something into my pocket.

I stayed eerily still, wanting so badly to read the note, but it wasn’t safe right now.

“Bone healer!” the female medic cried out loudly. A man who had a cut above his eyebrow ran over to me, and the female medic moved on to Whitney.

“Your elbow is broken.” The man’s accent was so thick I barely understood him.

I nodded. “Cast it. I’ll be fine.”

He shook his head. “I’ll fix.” He snapped his fingers, and a large red dragon appeared outside the blasted-open doors.

I wasn’t used to seeing so many Talanagi. They had them everywhere, and I was just now realizing it meant the Luskin people had way more powerful gifts than we did.

He was clearly a “bone healer,” which was so incredibly rare in Amersea. But people here didn’t seem fazed by it.

He guided me outside, and when I got within ten feet of Maxim, he broke away from the people he’d been talking to and came to stand at my side. “Don’t want you getting lost, little pet,” he told me with a grin.

I wondered if there was a physical proximity element to his magic, but my thoughts didn’t linger there too long.

I watched as the bone healer and his accompanying dragon creature healed my wound and noted it was very similar to Valor’s magic.

When he was done, he left, and then Maxim was there staring at the giant hole in the earth, far more destruction than anything I’d ever seen.

He turned to face me with absolute glee on his face. “With this, I can conquer not only Amersea but Imbria too.”

My greatest fear was that one day Luska would rule the world. And he was right: with this, he could.

“Let’s get home. We have a wedding to attend tomorrow,” Maxim told me and then began to walk. My legs moved against my will to follow him.

A wedding. Tomorrow. To Maxim Vlek. I could think of nothing worse.