Page 54 of A War of Three Kings

A scream tears from my lips and my heart pounds rapidly. Aldrin reaches behind him and places a hand on my hip, steadying me.

“This shield isn’t going to protect us!” I gasp. “It failed last time.”

“Last time we were going up against your father, a fae I didn’t know was more powerful than me,” Aldrin growls. “These are humans.”

Distant shouts cut through the night, and I spot the silhouettes of archers moving in the woods. There are so many of them. Branches expand rapidly from the trees and collect soldiers in woody prisons with overlapping limbs. Roots burst from the soil and wrap around them like they are spun in spider’s silk. Still, more humans lurk in the forest’s darkness.

I spin around to our campsite, and cold dread runs through me at its stillness. “Rise! We are under attack!” I screech,wielding air to amplify my voice tenfold. “Rise! We are under attack!”

Soldiers rip out of their tents, half-dressed and clutching the weapons they slept with. They are too far away to help us. The camp descends into chaos as they search for their enemy. They cannot see the archers in the forest.

I recognize the pounding of galloping hoofbeats moments before enemy warriors on horseback explode out of the brush. They lean low in their saddles and hold their swords at the ready to cut us down. There are four of them, but more reverberate the ground in the near distance.

“I’ll take the two on the left,” I yell to Aldrin, stepping out from behind him and standing by his side. He grunts at me.

I explode the scrub beneath the riders’ hooves, grinding my teeth as I try to get the timing right. The earth shatters into a plume of dust around them, leaving behind localized ruts deep enough to break an ankle, but my aim is off.

They are moving too fast, and my magic either strikes behind them, or far enough in front that they can leap over it. Sweat drips down my face as arrows fly past us, constantly making me jolt.

I am running out of time. The horsemen are gaining on us too quickly.

My breaths choke out of me in rough pants. I focus all my attention on one horse, ignoring the rest of the battle, and it stumbles straight into a pothole a heartbeat after I create it, its leg twisting and crunching. The stallion pitches to its side at high speed, tumbling on top of its rider, and both roll away.

I glance up to see the second warhorse almost on top of us. The blade of the warrior’s sword glints in the moonlight, and the steam rolling off the horse is clearly visible. The rider’s gaze is locked on Aldrin.

I cannot lose him. I will not allow him to be harmed by my people again.

In a moment of sheer desperation, I reach for my fire magic, the power I have always been too afraid to touch. I grab the edge of it and tug and tug and tug, like unraveling a spool of yarn. I throw everything I have into a defense before Aldrin. A wall of fire rears up as tall as I am, the flames instantly red hot and dancing as they lick up toward the sky.

The galloping horse rears before the flames, kicking its legs in the air and screeching. The rider tumbles from its back.

I bend over with my hands on my knees and heave in air while my head spins from the amount of power I just used. I glance at Aldrin to make sure he is safe, then at his handiwork. A huge fissure has opened up in the ground between us and the woods, and the underground water is slowly gurgling into it. The other two horseback warriors float within it.

Concentration lines Aldrin’s face as he lengthens that moat. It is too wide at its middle for even a horse to leap, but a dozen foot soldiers swarm around either side of it. More riders break through the tree cover and arc toward the edges of the fissure.

The soldiers of the Appleshield Protectorate funnel past us with swords drawn to meet the oncoming enemy. Fireballs arc over our heads. I risk a glance back to find my father running for me with desperation flickering in his wide eyes. A halo of flames surrounds him as he drags his attention from me long enough to fire at the enemy again.

The sound of Silvan’s roar rips away my attention. He fights four humans at the edge of the camp, swinging his sword to catch the blow of one enemy while another takes a swipe at his exposed back. My heart clenches in a vise in fear for him, but he turns with lightning speed to fend off the next enemy.

Roots rip out of the ground around Silvan and snag the ankles of the men he battles. Some move fast enough to snapthem, but they manage to climb up the limbs of one human, wrapping around his torso and smashing him to the ground. Another slips around our forces to take his place.

We become surrounded by enemies. I have no weapon. Not even a throwing knife, and I am almost out of magic.I shoot puffs of fire at them anyway, enough to make a person rear back, but not to kill.

Aldrin is magnificent. He blocks me with his body from most of the advancing enemies, twirling twin swords of pure, hardened air, slicing at any who get close enough to us while snaring many in cages of roots.

“Air projectiles, Keira,” he growls at me. “Just like I trained you.”

I force the panic from my mind to form the wields, tossing long needles of air. My stomach sickens with each impact on an enemy body. Blood sprays and people scream in pain. It feels like we are being charged from all directions, but many of them are friendly soldiers trying to get past us to the main battle.

From the corner of my eye, I notice Silvan being swarmed by enemies. I grab Aldrin’s arm and dig my nails into his flesh, but I am too slow. A long, deep gash blooms across Silvan’s bare chest as a sword finds its mark. Blood flows down his skin, coating him in red. He staggers back, suddenly unstable on his feet. Another’s blade flies toward his throat and my heart freezes in my chest, but it stops a hair’s width from his jugular.

The man twitches as he tries to bring his blade home, but Aldrin has seized up his muscles, forcing it back down. “I will fucking kill him!” the man screams. “Let the Lord Protector’s daughter go, or we will kill this fae scum!”

“Where have you locked her away? We will scour this entire protectorate to free her!” another human yells, bound in roots among the many on the ground.

I am standing right here, free and fighting against them, and they don’t recognize me. They claim to fight in my name, but they don’t truly care for me.

Silvan sways where he stands, clutching his wound and panting. He looks Aldrin dead in the eye, then pointedly shifts his gaze over his shoulder. We both glance behind us in time to see the enemy force breaking and fleeing from the Protector Guard before the lines of warriors even meet.

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