Page 167 of Vicious Is My Throne

The creature tangled itself around Zor’s wings, both of them hurtling straight toward that roaring plume of black. Stop him. Somebody stop him. I might have thought the words, might have screamed them, but then Raz was gone.

But Zor was gone, too, vanishing, leaving the twisted creature free-falling until it was sucked into the falling river. Rock rained down over our heads and I shored up my shield, blocking out the choking mist, but I was too late. We were covered in blight, my skin burning as tendrils crawled all over us.

There was no sign of Raz, no sign of Zorander.

We have to keep moving. They can handle themselves. Tavion grasped my wrist, Tristan pushing behind me. Only one of us had wings, and if we all fell…I calculated the time it would take us to hit the ground. Not enough time for Tristan to transform.

Faster. Tavion panted. Come on, Anaria, faster.

Rock pelted down from overhead, my boots slipping off the narrow ledge more than once, saved only by Tavion’s strong grip, by Tristan’s hand twisted into the collar of my jacket, shoving me along.

Then Zor was right there, flapping beside me, wings stirring up so much blighted, contaminated air I didn’t know how he could stand breathing. We passed the place where we’d entered the trail, heading further to the right until we reached an outcropping.

No, not an outcropping.

An opening.

Raz was already there, sending sharpened spears of magic through attacker after attacker, bodies piling up at the entrance.

This wasn’t a gaping cave entrance. This opening was more of a tall, narrow crack in the side of the mountain, like an enormous claw had carved out a slash. I heard roaring water echoing down that long, dark hole and the slithering of some great beast.

But no rot flowed from that narrow crack, no choking mist, as if Corvus was concentrating his attack on that main opening.

Or had forgotten about this one.

“Stand back.” I staggered forward, my muscles stiff and aching from climbing and balancing and flying. Well, being carried whilst flying which was almost as bad. I sent a blast of raw power into the crack, igniting scrambling forms that decayed into ash, and melting rot-slicked walls, returning them to smooth, untouched stone.

I gazed at my hands.

No sign of blight, and my skin had stopped burning.

Zor landed beside us, doubled over, panting. Without hesitation, I set my hands on his shoulders and sent a pulse of light over him, turning the black, writhing flecks to gray, harmless ash.

One by one, I un-blighted the entire party.

Well, that’s fucking useful. Tavion waggled his eyebrows. How are you doing, princess? Holding up?

I could have done without the frightening ledge of death. That sucked.

“Right.” Raziel squared his shoulders. “This is our way inside. Any idea where this ends up?”

I re-created the layout of the cave in my head. “Close to a pile of fallen rock. If he hasn’t cleaned it up, we’ll have some cover if we stay low.”

“Does Corvus seem like the cleaning type to you?” Tavion cocked his eyebrow at me, and I could have kissed him right then and there for trying to lighten the mood.

“No, he does not. More like a bachelor determined to live in squalor.” I mustered up a smile, focused on that hideously dark hole, rallying my magic.

“I need to go first,” I said, bracing myself for the inevitable argument.

“What if”—Raz held up both hands in mock surrender—“and hear me out, what if I went first, in case something gets through your magic. My guess is we haven’t seen all of Corvus’s evil minions yet, and now isn’t the time for surprises. Not when we’re so close.”

“That’s a good plan, Raz. Lead the way.”

“She never agrees with me like that,” Zor grumbled. “She never agrees with any of us like that.”

“Well, maybe you should take notes.” Raziel winked.

“Maybe I don’t like dark, scary caves crawling with bugs. Did you ever think of that?” I whispered, stepping through the opening which was every bit as damp and claustrophobic as I’d expected.

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