Page 145 of Merciless Is My Crown

That magic was pure, undiluted Anaria.

“Don’t run. Keep your heads down,” I ordered the soldiers closest to me. “There will be another wave, then this entire place will come alive.”

“What is this?” someone moaned pitifully. “The end of the world?”

“No.” I shook my head and laced my fingers behind my head as I flattened myself down until I tasted dirt. “The beginning.”

A flock of birds raced across the darkening sky, a tangle of different species hurtling toward the shoreline in a desperate race for survival. We didn’t have the same luxury.

The thundering wave hit us a minute later, blinding me, crushing me beneath a torrent of sensation—warm, humid air, dark and light magic woven together, and something so ancient I could only huddle down in fear and hope I survived the onslaught.

Battle-hardened soldiers were screaming, praying, some lurching to their feet only to be knocked down, necks snapped.

When the wave had passed, blood trickled from my nose and coated the inside of my mouth, then beneath me the ground heaved. Once. Twice, tossing me onto my back then my side, rolling me around like a child’s toy.

Trees burst from the dirt, and I hauled the nearest soldiers away, over to a rocky flat spot where we remained as a great forest rose around us.

Somehow, Raziel found us on that little untouched spot of ground, where it seemed as if the forest had spared us out of simple kindness.

My oldest friend gripped my arms, his mouth working, face coated in sweat and dirt, trails of dried blood crusting his ears and his nose. What little remained of his shirt was in tatters, but beneath those he looked untouched.

“Anaria.” I searched his face. “Is she…?” Gods, I couldn’t even get the rest of it out.

“She’s fine. Exhausted, drained of magic, but fine.”

I went to my knees, head hanging, tears burning my eyes, breaths coming fast. “Fuck.”

“Where’s Tristan?” Raz scrutinized the terrified soldiers, faces coated in a layer of blood and dirt. “We’d hoped…Anaria sent me to find you. She hoped Tristan would be with you.”

“I haven’t seen him since last night. I thought he was at the Keep?”

Raziel shook his head. “Zeph flew to us the minute the wave passed, him and Simon both. Said Tristan never showed.”

We surveyed what stood between us and where the wall had been. Trees shot up from the rumbling ground, a forest expanding all around us, crushing broken wagons and shredded tents beneath the mighty roots.

“He set off the explosion.” Raziel fixed his eyes on Blackcastle, little more than a distant smudge through the trees.

“Which means he reached the artillery wagons. They were parked close enough to the front gates he should have gotten to the Keep.” Raziel started breathing hard. “He should have been there.”

“That was hours ago,” I said quietly, mopping blood from my face. Raz pressed his warm palm to my forehead, heat blooming, and the flow stopped.

“Make your way back to the Keep,” I told the soldiers. “Tell everyone you meet to head that way. This forest will continue to grow, and you don’t want to be caught in here after dark, so get moving.”

I watched them turn and disappear through the trees in a daze.

“You’re sure Anaria’s safe?”

“She’s with Tavion at the Keep. Zeph and Cosimo are with them. She’s as safe as can be.”

“Then let’s go find Tristan.”

We landed in the wreckage of the main encampment, a snarl of upended wagons, stunned, vacant-eyed soldiers wandering aimlessly, campfires still smoking between groves of freshly sprouted saplings, and a newborn stream flowing directly through what had once been the main barracks.

“There.” Raziel pointed to a blackened crater that even the forest seemed to avoid. “Those were the artillery wagons filled with dragonfire. Tristan would have shot his arrow from…” He craned his neck, trying to see through the trees. “From over there.”

We picked our way through the wreckage until we finally found what we were searching for.

Raziel stared down at what lay untouched in the blood-splattered dirt. “His bow and quiver. All the arrows are here.”

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