Page 101 of Scorched Earth

Whatever she’d been about to say was cut off as the vine wrapped around her throat, strangling her.

Killian’s skin crawled as though a million spiders danced across it, instincts screaming. This was wrong. This was a mistake. One he’d made before and wouldn’t make again. “Malahi, stop! Don’t kill her!”

She ignored him. Her eyes were on Baird, who’d reached Agrippa’s side. The giant pulled his friend into his arms, tears streaming down his face, and Malahi howled with grief.

“Malahi!” Killian grabbed her shoulders, but a vine wrapped around his leg, jerking him off his feet.

Snatching up a sword one of Xadrian’s men had dropped, Killian chopped at the vine, but more rushed to replace it. “Malahi, don’t kill her!”

But Mudamora’s queen was lost to grief and deaf to his words.

Ceenah was purpling as she clawed at her throat, but Killian couldn’t get loose. Every time he cut a vine, another wrapped around him. Through the chaos, he saw Lydia edging toward Agrippa.

You cannot heal the dead. Death to the healer who tries.“Lydia!” he screamed. “Don’t do it!”

The masses of vines were starting to take on a familiar shape, cocooning around Malahi like the corrupted tenders in Deadground, and through them, he saw Malahi’s amber eyes had pooled black as voids.

“Malahi, stop!” He slashed at vine after vine but more kept coming. Pinning him down, smothering him. “Lydia!”

She didn’t answer, and Killian didn’t know if it was because she hadn’t heard him over the noise, or if…

The vines abruptly went still.

Timeseemed to stand still.

In the silence, Killian heard Agrippa say, “This is not who you are. You aren’t a killer.”

Agrippa was alive.

But at what cost?

The vines trembled, and then as one, began to retreat. Escaping out the doors and windows, back into the earth. Leaving behind a fractured mess of sandstone. Wide-eyed Anuk soldiers. A gasping Ceenah. And Malahi, shoulders shaking with sobs as she clung to Agrippa. Who looked not a day older than he ever had.

Which was impossible.

Killian’s eyes skipped to where Lydia knelt next to Baird on the floor, pale-faced but very much alive.

What had happened?

Ceenah was the first to react. She pushed herself onto her hands and knees, eyes fixed on Malahi. “You’re marked by Yara. A tender.”

When Malahi didn’t answer, the Queen of Anukastre said, “I think we need to set aside old grievances. There’s something you must see.”

36LYDIA

Lydia’s knees shook beneath her as Baird helped her to her feet, the giant’s eyes wide as he asked, “What did you do?”

“Later,” she replied, though the real answer was,I don’t know.

“I don’t want to see anything that you have to show me!” Malahi snarled at Ceenah. “I want you to allow me and my companions to leave with the supplies we need to cross the desert.”

“So you can fight the blight.”

“Yes,” Malahi said from between her teeth. “It was created by corrupted tenders, so it stands to reason that a tender can drive it back.”

“You’re right,” Ceenah said. “That’s what I wish to show you. Come.”

With seemingly no regard for the fact they’d nearly all killed each other or that Malahi had torn apart Ceenah’s throne room, the Queen of Anukastre guided them through the palace to a wide set of stairs that led down into darkness.