Page 30 of Lies That Blemish (The Ember War #3)

Valor

We’d flown all day, and now the sun was setting, and I could see the Luskin peninsula coming into view. Tetra had a shield around the twelve of us, flying in a close circle. The two we’d chosen to pretend to be Luskin soldiers, Charlene and Colt, had gone ahead of us. I hoped Kohen had made it into the Wilds by now and was ready to make his way to the Luskin capital. He would be able to fly and make good time with Onyx once we drew their forces west. Right as we’d been about to leave, Liana had received a message from Aisling that Victory was on her way back with some Luskin defectors. I told the admirals, but I wasn’t able to stay and make sure she was okay. We had to keep to our schedule, and it was all converging at this moment. Liana held the payload between her claws as we moved from being over the water to Luskin land. I saw a building up ahead with a large wall that could be a military base, but it was hard to say because we were too far.

Ahead of us, Charlene and Colt were dots. Two other dots wearing Luskin red were racing up from the ground to meet them in the air.

This is it!

“Get ready!” I called out to everyone.

There was an exchange of fire in the air, and then two bodies sank from their creatures like stones. I squinted, relieved to see that it wasn’t Charlene or Colt.

“Fly fast now!” I told our group, and their creatures flapped their wings like mad. Much closer now, I was able to confirm that it was indeed their western base, and over two dozen soldiers with flying Talanagi were now rising on their creatures to meet us.

“I’ve got you!” Tetra said, and I could see a shimmery shield in front of us as Charlene and Colt were flying back to get into her protection. Once they were inside, it was mayhem. The soldiers threw wind, fire, and arrows at Tetra’s shield as we made our way towards their base. I knew we didn’t need to send the bomb directly over their base, but it would be nice.

Tetra’s shield wobbled. She’d warned us that she was still refining her gift and that she might, at some point, lose it. We were ready for that.

“Positions!” I cried.

We were almost directly over their base! The truth was, I wanted to blow their base sky high for what they did to my sisters.

Our fire throwers got in front of our group, and we all raised our bolt shooters.

“It’s going!” Tetra cried out just as her shield dropped.

The moment it was gone, we pummeled them with what fire and arrows and wind we could, blowing riders off of their creatures, and I peered down to see we were over their base.

“Now, Liana!” I cried in joy as she let go of the payload. I watched as it fell to the earth. Hundreds of soldiers scrambled like scattering ants, but they were too slow. The bomb exploded, taking out anyone in the vicinity on the ground. Everyone in our group whooped and hollered as the other Luskin soldiers left us to return to base and help. I thought I would feel a triumphant joy as I looked down on the carnage of a job well done—of Luskins killed. But instead, I felt numb inside. They killed us. We killed them. Back and forth until the end of time. Would this war ever end?

I sat back, dropping a little as Tetra leaned into my ear. “What’s wrong, Val? We did it!”

“We did what? We killed hundreds of people.”

Tetra’s face grew serious. “They have your sister. Doing stars-knows-what with her. We had to do this.”

I nodded. Maybe this time we did. But the others? The decades of war… did we have to do that? I felt sick the entire race home. All I could do was pray we’d given Kohen time to get in and get my sister unnoticed. I was ready for Aisling to be in charge, for her to be the one who was responsible for all the deaths. I wasn’t cut out for this, I realized. Leading people felt great, but killing them wasn’t something I wanted to do ever again. I knew it was very un-Everhart of me to say, but I was done with war and killing. I wanted peace.