Page 16 of Empire of Flame and Thorns

My mind balks at the very idea. But I’m out of options.

So I steel myself and close the final distance to the wall. Then I reach out and grip the first spike.

A hiss rips from my lungs, and I snatch my hand back.

“Fuck,” I growl, shaking my hand to relieve the pain.

Then I grit my teeth and try again. This time, I don’t give myself time to react. I grab a spike with both hands and start climbing.

My magic is immediately suffocated.

Pain sears through my palms as the iron meets my skin. It doesn’t cause physical damage, but it burns cold, like gripping a frozen block of ice. And it completely blocks off my ability to channel magic.

I keep climbing, as fast as I can manage.

Burning pain spreads from my palms and shoots up through my arms.

A whimper slips from my lips.

My body is already weakening, and I haven’t even made it halfway up the wall yet.

I climb faster.

My boot slips from the spike.

Throwing my hand up, I desperately grip one of the spikes hard to stop myself from falling. Freezing, burning pain spears through my arm and up to my collarbones.

I cry out in pain as I heave myself up until I can get my foot on another spike.

Energy is draining from my body like a rapid flood.

I need to make it over the wall. Right now. Or I won’t make it at all.

Black spots dance before my eyes as I throw everything I have into a burst of speed.

Pain and exhaustion tear through my whole body, but my hand finally reaches the top of the wall. With a scream of pure desperation, I haul myself up and roll over the edge. Icy pain streaks through my back as my bare skin meets the iron. But I don’t have enough energy left to reach up and yank my shirt back down to cover my skin. I don’t even have enough energy left to sit up. Let alone climb back down the wall.

So I do the only thing I can.

I roll over the edge and simply plummet down to the ground.

My body hits the grass with a loud thud.

More pain pulses through my body, but I can barely feel it. The prolonged contact with iron from something as massive as a wall has left me completely drained. I know that the fall from the wall won’t be enough to break any bones. And I can survive the bruises. So I just lie there on my side, staring at the soft grass before me. It smells of damp soil.

Everything hurts. I don’t have even a smidgen of energy left inside my body right now. But I made it.

Without my magic, it would never have been possible.

The fae who don’t have magic would never have been able to climb this wall, because the iron would go straight for their energy. And the strength of the iron is in direct proportion to its size. Something as small as a bracelet would steal much less energy than something as massive as this gigantic wall around the entire palace grounds. So climbing this without any magic would leave people catatonic.

But if you have magic, the iron feeds off that first. It blocks our ability to channel magic and it also leaves us weakened, but not nearly as much as those without magic.

Except if the iron happens to be this gigantic fucking wall. Then I would argue that I feel damn close to being catatonic too even though the wall fed on my magic first.

Rolling over on my back, I draw in a few shuddering breaths. It’s going to be at least half an hour before I’ve recovered enough energy to stand up.

But it doesn’t matter.

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