Page 27 of Scorched Earth

“Lydia, no!” He broke into a run, but Agrippa was closer. Was faster.

Horror stole the breath from Killian’s chest as the other man swung his blade, the steel slicing through Lydia’s spine. “No!”

She fell, and Killian howled, wordlessly skidding to his knees before her. He’d lost her. He’d lost her.

“Get back!” Hands caught hold of his shoulders and tried to pull him backward. Killian lashed out at Agrippa, clipping the other man’s jaw.

“She’s not gods-damned dead, you fool! Get out of reach!”

Killian’s hackles rose, and he slowly turned his head. Lydia was reaching for him. Reaching, and dragging herself toward him as her severed spine slowly knit together.

“Kill her!” Agrippa shouted. “You don’t have much longer until she heals!”

He couldn’t.

He wouldn’t.

“Fight it,” he pleaded. “Please, Lydia. You know you can fight this.”

“She can’t.” Agrippa froze as Killian pointed his sword tip in the legionnaire’s direction. “I’ve seen them like this. They can’t control themselves. She’s lost!”

“She’s not!”

“If you let her recover, she’s going to kill you! And then I’m going to gods-damned kill her!”

Killian ignored Agrippa, locking eyes with Lydia. “You can control this. You’ve done it before.”With the help of all the Six.“You can do it again.”

She went still.

“You have beat back agod,” he whispered. “Who else in the world can claim such a thing? The answer is no one because no one else isyou.” Killian swallowed hard. “So many people love and depend on you. Teriana. Finn. Sonia.” Were the flames around her irises fading or was it just his wishful thinking? “Me, most of all.”

Her leg twitched. Behind him, Agrippa said, “Malahi, get on the horse. Baird, take her and run. I’ll deal with this.”

“Go with them, Agrippa!” Killian snarled over Malahi’s protest that she wouldn’t leave.

“No. I’m not leaving one of the corrupted to hunt at my heels. Some things are too dangerous to be left alive.”

Killian opened his mouth to tell the other man that if he tried to harm Lydia, he’d find himself run through with Killian’s sword, but then Lydia spoke. “By that logic, he should putyoudown, legionnaire. Soldier of the Empire. Soldier of the Corrupter. How much death have you left inyourwake?”

“Numbers beyond count,” Agrippa answered. “But I’m not about to fall on my own blade over it and leave Malahi, who alone in this company has killedno one, to be murdered because her sworn bodyguard is too damn lovesick to do his job!”

Killian clenched his teeth, the barb stabbing through panic and fear, and he fought the urge to look over his shoulder at the queen in question.

“Better she be protected by someone like you, Agrippa?” Lydia crooned. “The man who has always chosen to be the villain?”

Agrippa tensed, and Lydia smiled. “Who was she? Who was the Bardenese girl? How much worth were your promises to protectherwhen the Thirty-Seventh laid siege to Hydrilla? Or does her corpse rot beneath Bardenese redwoods?”

Names and nations that meant nothing to Killian, but he could feel the anger seething from Agrippa as he snapped, “Silvara? I hate to disappoint, but hers was the last face I saw before I was whisked to this side of the world, and she wasvery muchalive. Knowing her as I once did, she’s likely grown up to be a thorn in the Empire’s ass and in little need of anyone’s protection, least of all mine.”

“Whereas helpless little Malahi makes you feel relevant?”

Agrippa’s scowl darkened.

“I wouldn’t count on him too much, Your Majesty,” Lydia said with a soft laugh. “Once he learns the Thirty-Seventh is on the Southern Continent, I suspect he’ll go scampering back to them.” She pressed fingers to her smirk. “And now he knows.”

Agrippa was silent. Killian risked a backward glance over his shoulder to find all the color drained from the other man’s face, his blade tip lowering. “The Thirty-Seventh is in the West?”

Killian’s instincts flared, warning him, but not fast enough. Lydia regained her feet in a flash, lunging at Agrippa, but as she did, rootsexploded from the ground beneath her, wrapping around her body in a thick net and pinning her to the ground. Killian staggered, struggling to keep his own footing on the shaking ground, the horses shrieking in panic.