Page 89 of The Curse of Gods (The Curse of Saints #3)

The muscles in Aidon’s back screamed as he hauled himself another inch. His arrow must have killed the Diaforaté who’d sent his section of the Wall crumbling. It was the only explanation as to why Aidon was still alive as he hung there, exposed.

He yelled through gritted teeth as he tried to claw another inch. His nails had cracked through, but the pain in his fingers was nothing compared to the fear that he barely held at bay.

He closed his eyes, his chest heaving, sweat dripping down his face. He could not believe this was how he was going to die. Even now, he could hear Dauphine’s voice calling to him, clear and wonderful over the sounds of the battle.

“Open your fucking eyes, Aidon!”

He obeyed. There was Dauphine, leaning over the edge of the wall, her hand extended toward his.

Oh. He wasn’t quite dead then.

Aidon clawed another inch, trying to get close enough to grab her hand.

“I can’t reach,” he gritted out.

“Yes you can,” she snarled, eyes flashing, just daring him to try to die in front of her.

Aidon tugged, his hand stretching toward hers. He let out a desperate, relieved laugh at the first brush of her skin against his.

Dauphine gripped his hand tightly, pulling with all her might. Slowly, she tugged Aidon over the lip of the Wall until he was safely in the grass behind it.

Aidon sprawled on his back next to her, his heart hammering against his rib cage. “Thank you,” he panted.

Dauphine pushed herself up to a sitting position, her gaze raking over him as she checked for injuries. Apparently satisfied, she smacked him in the chest, hard.

“Ow!” Aidon exclaimed as he sat up. “The hells was that for?”

“I can’t believe you sent a bloody wolf to babysit me,” Dauphine snapped. Aidon looked past her to where Aster was standing, her head held proudly.

“Seven hells, I was worried about you.”

Dauphine grumbled something that sounded suspiciously like, wasn’t hanging from the fucking Wall , before she pressed her lips to his.

“Are you okay?” she asked as she pulled away.

“Nothing a tonic for pain won’t fix,” Aidon assured her, helping her up as they stood. He looked back toward the battle, dread pooling in his gut as he saw how the Kakos soldiers had driven them back toward the Wall.

“We need to—” His words were cut off as a deafening crack exploded across the sky. His arms went instinctively to shield Dauphine, his body ducking as if the entire realm was exploding.

It certainly sounded like it.

“What the hells was that?” she asked, fear coating her voice as they looked up.

The entire battle seemed to pause as the sky lit up, a layer of shimmering something sparkling above their heads.

Flecks of it began to fall, like shooting stars dying on their way to the ground.

“My gods,” Aidon breathed. “I think that’s the veil.” He watched as it continued to disintegrate, a million little pieces fading into nothing. “It’s falling.”

***

Josie could smell the blood. The blood, and the fear. Iron and sweat were thick in her nose, clouding her senses until all she could focus on was the way it burned.

Just keep moving.

They’d had a plan. Release the tonic. Attack the front lines. Get a stronghold.

They’d had a plan, but hells, it didn’t seem to be working, because Kakos just kept coming, forcing them further back toward the Wall.

“Take to the Wall!” Liam shouted. “Protect the palace gates! Do not let them fall!”

Josie let out a grunt as she swung her sword, her arm heavy. It cut into an approaching Kakos soldier with a thud, but she didn’t have time to see where she’d hit her or if it was fatal.

She had to keep moving.

Keep moving.

Just keep moving.

Josie stumbled, her boot snagging on a tree root. Strange, she hadn’t seen a tree, just—

She gagged as she caught sight of the bloodied arm beneath her boot.

Someone grabbed the back of her fighting leathers and forced her upwards, their grip firm as they tugged her forward.

“Keep moving!” Cole hollered.

Josie blinked against the sweat in her eyes. Or perhaps they were tears. “We’re going to lose,” she breathed, fear strangling her. “We’re going to lose.”

“We are not going to lose,” Cole argued. She thought it might have been the first lie he’d ever dared to tell her. But then he pointed a finger toward the town, the hand still twisted in her leathers shaking her gently. “See!”

For a moment, all Josie could see was death. But then…

There. Cresting the hill that led from the port, some on horseback, others in a dead sprint, was a unit of soldiers.

No. Not soldiers. Those were citizens—citizens fitted with spare armor and waving the Trahirian flag of war, the spear and sword like a beacon in the midst of this hells. And at the head, their swords raised as they flung themselves into the fray, were Zuri and Enzo.

They’d come. Her parents had come, and they had brought the citizens from the farmlands with them, and perhaps even further, because more and more kept spilling onto the battlefield, their shouts echoing across the mountains.

Hope unfurled in Josie’s chest as her voice rose to meet them, a vicious battle cry leaving her lips as she raised her sword for her people. For all of Eteryium.

She turned back to Cole, her eyes flaring wide as she took in the Kakos soldier coming for his back.

She reached for him, but Cole whirled, his hand snatching the knife at his hip and flinging it into the dead center of the warrior’s forehead.

The man’s lips parted in a scream that cut itself short as he fell to the ground, dead.

Cole glanced back over her shoulder at Josie. “That’s twice,” he teased, a smug smile tugging on his lips.

It was that expression that lingered in Josie’s mind as a deafening sound exploded across sky—across the realm —the world shaking so violently that Josie wondered if it would ever be still again.

She slammed to the ground, her knees giving out as the grass seemed to ripple beneath her.

It took her a moment to get her bearings, to separate the screams of the soldiers from the howling of the wind that suddenly roared through the Malas.

Josie rolled, her feet struggling to get beneath her, but she heaved herself up, her hands steadying herself against the Wall. Except…

The Wall was shaking, the ancient granite no match for whatever hells had been unleashed on Eteryium. Terror seized her as her gaze darted up, her muscles locking despite the rocks she could see shifting against the mortar.

Move. Move.

She couldn’t.

Something slammed into her, hard—a body, sending her careening sideways just as one of those larger rocks broke free.

The world tilted as Josie fell, becoming a blur of wind and screams and debris.

The force of her fall knocked her breath from her chest, her lungs spasming as she tried to suck in air.

She forced herself up on her palms, the pandemonium around her fading into a distant hum as her eyes fell on the figure beside her.

Cole was an arm’s reach away, his hand still outstretched toward her. Blood oozed from his temple, the rock he’d saved Josie from covering the bulk of his spine.

“No.”

Josie scrambled toward him, but something held her back—an arm, hooking around her waist and lifting her up until her feet were planted on the ground.

“No!”

The word ripped from her throat, lost in the sound of Eteryium falling to pieces around her.

“He’s gone, Josie.” Aleissande’s voice was steady in her ear.

“ No! ” Josie cried again. Cole couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t be dead, because he was Cole , and he had defied the odds so many times, and she needed him, dammit. She needed him.

But Cole did not move from his position on the ground, even with the ghost of a smile still lingering on his face, as if he’d known he would go by saving Josie, and that was alright with him.

Josie screamed as she fought against Aleissande’s hold, her heart cracking in her chest.

“We have to move,” Aleissande urged. “Josie, we have to move!”

Because chaos was still unfolding around them, as if nature was echoing Josie’s grief and pain.

“Please, Josie,” Aleissande begged, her voice wet in her desperation.

Josie went limp in Aleissande’s arms, a sob ripping from her throat despite the way she tried to swallow it. She allowed herself one last look at Cole before she nodded, her hand slick with sweat as she gripped her sword.

She would not let Cole’s sacrifice go in vain.

Her eyes flicked upward, taking in the dark clouds and the cracks of light webbing across them. She couldn’t make out what was falling, not with the wind and her tears, but it almost looked like pieces of the sky itself.

She sucked in a trembling breath of resolve, her grief making room for her rage.

She would keep fighting until they won this battle or the realm ended.

Whichever came first.