Page 57

Chapter

Forty-Two

Liv

I used to lay on the forest floor for hours, waiting for one of my traps to spring and watching the sky between the long boughs of the cedars.

I would make shapes out of the trees, count the clouds that passed, and I would pretend someone would come find me lying there and save me.

The only thing that ever found me in that forest, after twenty-five years of lying still, was the Light.

B astane levelled his sword, and the movement triggered the winged man into action. He became a black blur, and the next thing I knew, Bastane’s sword was clanging on the ground as he clawed at the hand now cutting off his air supply.

The man flapped his wings once, twice, and was in the air with a single jump, dangling the Guard ten feet off the ground. Bas’s feet swung as he fought, but the winged man hovered as if he weren’t holding a full-grown man in midair.

I didn’t know what to do. The Guards had always been the most fierce—there was no one their equal. But this man lifted Bastane like a toy as his powerful body moved and rippled with each beat of his wings. He was sculpted with one thing in mind—power.

“None pass through my lands and live!” His voice echoed, and the canyon full of Aethar quieted to hear him speak.

Held by the neck with a single clawed hand, Bastane’s eyes went wide with shock, his face turning blue as the claws of the Eagle sunk into his flesh, drawing blood. It ran down his neck, soaking into his black clothing.

He was going to kill him. Despite everything that had happened between Bas and me, the harsh words, the betrayal, I knew at that moment I didn’t want him dead.

Kazhi ran past me. “Eagle! Don’t drop him. He is with me.”

“Kazhi, you know him?” Nuo asked, bewildered as I felt.

The Eagle’s intense, amber stare levelled Kazhi, but he didn’t let Bastane go as he struggled for air, holding on to the Eagle’s arm. “Kazhi. You’re aware that anyone who passes through my canyons uninvited forfeits their life. Why have you brought them here?”

“I thought he saved people,” Maev whispered behind me. “It can’t be him.”

Kazhi put her knives away so that she could point back at me.

“The two women need to cross safely to the other side. The Guards stay with me. I will return them to Guardian lands. You can handle the rest as you usually do. This is a misunderstanding, is all.”

This was the shadow killing everything in sight.

“Are you making demands of me?” His nostrils flared, glaring down his hooked nose at the female Guard— not friends then .

“A request. A favour if you must.”

“And why are the lives of these two women worth me risking them on my lands?” His wings beat like a drum, dust kicking up from the ground with every pulse, as he held onto Bastane, who was turning dark purple.

“One is the Ikhor, and the other is her guide.”

The Eagle slammed to the ground, releasing Bas, who landed on his knees, coughing. Kazhi ran to him, lifting him to his feet as the Eagle watched them, expressionless.

There had been so many bones littering the canyons. None pass through my lands and live. Luckily, the Aethar were no longer attacking, knowing they now faced a bigger threat.

The Eagle turned his eyes on me, taking me in, seeing the signs of the magic weakening me. “Five lives may leave my canyon. The rest are mine. I am owed a favour, Kazhi. And I can think of a few to torture you with,” the Eagle commanded in a voice not deep, not loud, but controlled.

“Why are you helping me?” I asked Kazhi.

“I want to see what happens next, Bones. What you can make of this world.” She peered at me with her black eyes, and I knew she had more secrets she was hiding from us all.

Bastane stumbled, holding a bloodied hand to his neck, and he stopped before me. He grabbed my shoulder and swallowed before he spoke, his voice like gravel. “I didn’t trust my instincts before, and I’m sorry. But I am trusting my instincts now. You two get out of here. We won’t follow.”

“You’re apologizing? You believe me.”

His hand squeezed my shoulder, and I could feel Nuo’s stare damning us all.

“You still need to train with those swords. If you’re heading into Aethar lands,”—his focus shifted to Maev, suspicious—“you’ll need to keep yourself safe.

Practice what I showed you. Every morning.

But don’t forget that you are better with your fists.

Stop trying to use sharp blades when you have a keener sense of your own defences. ”

I hesitated. “I want to hate you for what you did.”

“And you should,” he said, and I heard the remorse. “I’m sorry for thinking I knew what was right. I won’t make that mistake again. Perhaps someday, I can earn your forgiveness.”

The Eagle made us all jump as he burst into the air and aimed for the horde.

“The Eagle will finish the Aethar off,” Kazhi said, standing next to me, holding her knives as the horde prepared to attack again. “We cannot follow you past the canyons, Bones.”

“We still obey the Aspis,” Nuo said. He turned from Kazhi to Bastane, searching for an ally. “Our mission is to stop the Ikhor.”

Screams tore through the sky as the Eagle laid waste to the Aethar.

“I’m not attacking again until I know for certain Liv isn’t inside there,” Bastane said, studying my face for a hint of a lie.

Even with all the changes in my appearance, it was Bastane who saw through to me.

The air left my lungs in disbelief. “I’m inside here, Bas.”

He was skeptical, I could tell, but it gave me a small amount of hope.

Nuo, however, seemed outraged.

“I don’t know what to believe.” Bastane turned toward the horde. “Just go. We will make sure your path is clear.”

“No!” Nuo stood in front of me, blocking our way.

“Nuo, we can’t get through the canyons anyway. We will be stopped.” Kazhi nodded to the Eagle, who was taking Aethar down with ease.

He didn’t even have weapons. He used his wings and sliced his enemies in half. He carried them into the air and dropped them. It was horrifying. Efficient. Dizzying.

“Wait.” Maev had something in her hand, and she jumped when the Guards of the Aspis spun on her. She hesitated, then skirted a wide circle around Nuo, stopping beside Bastane and passing him a book.

“This is information I have been collecting on the Governor’s daughter’s texts.

She hides important information in the ancient language of Day.

” Maev glanced to Kazhi, who had been the one to ask us to collect this information.

“If what you say is true, and pirates came upon the downed airship, they likely took all the books on board.”

Kazhi dipped her head in confirmation, and Bas took the book carefully, as if expecting it to be poisoned.

“Maev, we need that,” I said.

“No, we don’t. I have it memorized.” Maev let go of the book, now in Bastane’s care.

“The Council is planning on attacking my people. Innocent villages along the coasts. They want to tempt us into war to gain access to our city. They’re stealing ships and crystals from our shores to use them on us so they can then steal our more useful supplies in Avenmae.

You need to decide if you’re going to support them—if you’re going to fight against us—citizens who don’t know how to fight. ”

“Who is us?” Bastane thought she was talking of the scarred hordes. “You’re not with them?” He nodded his head to the dead Aethar around us.

Maev made a face. “No. I am not like the Aethar you know.”

Bastane was deep in thought, inspecting the journal. “Is this why we have been ordered to stop you before crossing over? Is there something over there we are not allowed to see?”

Maev shrugged, blushing when Bastane held her stare.

“It’s not so different than here. There are villages, cities, and legacies like anywhere else.

I don’t know what you’ve been told or ordered.

But that book says the Council has planned attacks and has been there in the past. If you don’t know what you’re fighting, they do, and they are hiding it from you. ”

“Bas, come on,” Nuo groaned. “We can’t take their word for it. They have everything to gain by keeping us at arm’s length.”

Bastane continued to regard Maev with curiosity. “And what do you plan to do with the Ikhor? If we let her live.”

“Liv is fighting her own battle.” Maev’s voice shook. “Finding a way to return the magic to the gods. She will get those answers by going to the shrines in Rydavas.”

“Rydavas?”

Everyone went silent, making it possible to hear Nuo mutter, “I’m surrounded by idiots.”

Maev went rigid, but she didn’t turn her irritation on Nuo. Instead, she drew up to her full height. “My brother was on the ship you shot down. I don’t need to be helping my enemy. I could easily ask Liv to turn her magic on you. I am helping because things need to change.”

Bastane’s jaw clenched. Swallowing, he bowed his head in apology. “I’m sorry.”

Maev didn’t back down. “My brother never harmed your people. But he will if they come to our lands—know that. Even though we have been hated, attacked and ridiculed ,” Maev sneered in Nuo’s direction, “Ollo has been helping Liv in hopes of saving everyone. Including the Shadow Guard, his enemy.”

“Brekt?” Bastane grabbed Maev’s shoulder, making her flinch. “You know something about Brekt? This isn’t a lie?”

“I saw him, as did my brother. He’s still a part of the Aspis.” Maev stepped away from Bastane. “You have the truth in your hands. It’s up to you what you do with it.”

My heart swelled. Maev, who was never as brave as Ollo, was more like her twin than she realized. I was proud they were my friends. She was no fighter, but she was brilliant, and she would help her people with her mind.

“Guards!” The Eagle shouted.

We all turned to where he was taking off into the sky, an Aethar in each hand.

I put my hand over my mouth as he dropped them from an impossible height. Their screams lasted an eternity as they fell from the sky, and I looked away before they hit the ground with a sickening thud.

The Eagle came down for two more as the Aethar scattered, some running, others now coming for us.

He had ordered us to leave his lands, and I wasn’t about to linger. His brutality was something I hadn’t seen even in the Aethar.

“Get out of here.” Bastane pointed toward the other side of the canyon.

“But—”

“We’ll distract the Aethar on the ground.” Kazhi pushed away from us, following Eagle’s lead.

Nuo joined the Guards, giving me one last scathing look.

Maev stepped back. “I’m sorry to say Liv, they’re much scarier than I thought. Worse now that I’ve met them. And the Interrogator is a horrible man.”

“Let’s go.” I ignored her comment, nodding to the edge of the clearing where we could skirt around the battle. I was beginning to think she was right.

The Eagle continued dropping Aethar from the air, and the Guards were blurs of black clothing fighting through sand coated with blood.

My steps were unsteady. I was growing used to being afraid, but new fears continued to pile up. Maev and I were halfway across the open space, almost past the horde, when the Aspis joined the fight. It landed on the hard ground, slithering over dust and bones, aiming right for me.

The next scream to tear through the canyons was my own.

The canyons had provided safety before—too narrow for the beast to descend, too winding to keep track of our movements. That was not the case in the open, flat span of rock.

The Aspis moved like a snake, lowering its head, blocking our way out.

The temperature plummeted. I would never get used to how terrifying the beast was. It was carved by a cruel hand, menacing and lethal.

Maev and I skidded to a halt. She grabbed my shirt, pulling me back.

I used magic when the Aethar arrived .

Its citrine eyes held me captive, pinning me in place.

My breath misted the air, blending with Maev’s as we stared at our death.

The Aethar were stuck between the Aspis and the Eagle, each blocking one end of the pass, and the Aethar chose to risk facing the Eagle.

Kazhi shouted at the sky, and the Desert Eagle took to finishing off the remaining enemies.

The Aspis’s head hovered a dozen feet above the ground, nearly as large as Ollo’s airship. Smoke churned around its body, and the talons it tried to slice me with hid in the churning black depths. It shot forward, slithering across sand and rock, fangs at the ready.

I stumbled back, crashing into Maev, and held onto her to keep myself up.

We were going to die.

The Aspis slowed when we stood twenty feet apart.

What would it do next? I had no choice but to battle it, to get it away from here so Maev and I could escape. I still had my swords, though Bastane was right—I could hardly use them in a fight.

The Aspis roared, sending my braids flying back as I reached for my twin blades.

I pulled them from their casings, shaking as I lifted them, my right hand aching.

I slammed them together, sending a shockwave at the Aspis.

It turned its head in irritation, but the energy coming out of my swords was weak, the crystals in the blades going dull. I had run out of magic.

Maev screamed as the Aspis came at me, snapping its jaw. Its fangs reflected the sunlight, shining from the saliva running off the curved teeth. The scar over its eye, where I had first attacked it over two months ago, had faded to a dark pink.

Our only chance of escaping was through my magic. I had to use it, even if it drained me. I dropped my swords. They clanked together, powerless, on the ground as I lifted my hands to the beast. I pushed my hands forward, screaming as I sent a wave of ice-cold fear toward it.

But when the magic left my hands, it didn’t transform into ice.

“What the?—”

There was no fire, no vines—nothing like what I had done before.

What left my palms, what leaked from every inch of my body, was pure magic—golden, glowing, vibrating.

The Aspis opened its mouth, not to roar, but to breathe my magic in.

It’s sucking the magic out of me …

It hadn’t been waiting all these weeks to be stronger for the fight. Instead, it had been waiting to take the magic for itself.

It’s sucking the magic out of me!

The gods sent the Aspis to kill the Ikhor and reclaim what was stolen.