Page 119 of Vicious Is My Throne

“Not if we stay put,” I grunted, though I was less sure the words were truth than I would have been five minutes ago. The magic had shredded through my armor, my shirt, and was seconds away from peeling my newly healed skin off my back in sheets.

My entire body spasmed beneath the pressure, magic-coated air stinging my lungs with every hard-fought breath. But it was my back muscles that took the brunt of the assault, magic slithering over my sensitive skin as if I’d never been healed.

Finnian began chanting an ancient prayer to the gods, one I hadn’t heard in an age. Despite knowing that pleading to them for help was bullshite, I almost joined him, on principle.

“Stay down,” I warned instead.

As luck would have it, we were half covered by the fallen wall, the rocks piled on us protecting my left side from the brunt of the storm. Then the world went quiet, not so much as a whisper left behind.

“I think…we survived,” I muttered with no small amount of wonder. “Perhaps your prayers worked, Finnian.”

That was when the dust began to fall.

My next inhale was like breathing fire, my back felt like I’d been doused in lamp oil and set ablaze. Finnian and Kael squirmed beneath me. I couldn’t move. Something was wrong with my back, something had…

“What is that? My skin is burning,” Finnian howled, scrubbing at his arms when I rolled off him. “Get this shite off me.”

I lurched to my feet.

All around us ash fell from the sky, black as coal, reeking of decay.

I didn’t know how Corvus had gotten here so fast, but I knew what this was.

Blight.

Fucking gods. I had the other piece of the only weapon capable of stopping him.

If I died out here in the middle of nowhere, then Anaria would never be able to kill that bastard and save this realm. I would have failed my queen. A-fucking-gain.

I grabbed both males by the collar and hauled them up. “Now we run,” I ordered, even though my legs were shaking, my exhausted body spent. “Fast as we can, we have to get under roof.”

“Where is that?” Finnian asked, searching the destruction around us for any structure still intact.

“Ahead.” I shoved him forward. “We keep going, hope we reach the castle soon.”

All around us the ground darkened, veins of black snaking over loose soil and upturned tree roots, over lichen-covered rocks as we ran—limped was more like it—in the direction of Ravenswood Castle. At least I hoped we were heading in the right direction.

Because if the castle wasn’t around this next bend, we were all dead.

50

ANARIA

Tristan’s body undulated beneath me as we shot into the sky while I kept the worst of the black ash off us, trying not to slide off his back and plummet to my death.

Raz had left a minute ago carrying Tavion and Bex. I’d used my magic to protect them until they’d vanished, but if Ravenswood was destroyed when they arrived, they’d be hard-pressed to find cover until we got there.

In any case, we’d be lucky to escape Varitus unscathed.

From up here, the destruction knocked the air from my lungs.

Black ash swirled around us, filling the air so it was hard to see even a short distance. I didn’t know where this came from. Whether I’d churned up the blight by dropping the ward or if Corvus had been lying in wait for just this opportunity.

However this disaster occurred, now the blight was carried on the wind, faster than Corvus could have ever hoped to spread it himself. Varitus would be lost in a matter of days, not weeks, and once the wind changed and began blowing east into Caladrius, we could write off that entire realm as well.

As far as I could see, the earth was ruined, like giant claws had ripped and shredded at the ground. Bloodwood Forest was a splintered wreck of ancient trees, the road leading to Ravenswood blocked by fallen debris.

Even from up here, I watched three tiny figures fleeing north, heading straight toward the castle.

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