Page 229 of Fourth Wing

I watch in horror as a venin with a staff as tall as he is strides out of the darkness, his menacing gaze locked on Xaden.

“To the left!”I scream at Xaden.

Sgaeyl spins and blasts fire at the venin, but he doesn’t so much as pause.

Garrick leans from his seat and flings a dagger, but before it can reach the venin, the robed figure slams his staff into the ground and disappears like he was never there in the first place.

He moved. But to where?

“The hell?” I shout into the wind.

“A general can recognize another general, and that’s their leader,”Tairn says.

The Sage?

“I can’t hold them back much longer!”Xaden yells, his arms shaking so hard, it looks like his body is tearing itself apart at the very seams as we rush toward the mouth of the valley.

“New plan,”I tell Xaden as Tairn pushes himself to the max.“I need you to let the shadows fall.”

“WHAT?” He’s already wavering; I can see it by the straining shapes against his shadows, wyvern desperate to push their way through.

“So much suffering.”The hurt in Andarna’s voice jars me.

I whip my head back toward the trading post and catch the glint of gold. My heart seizes.“No! It’s not safe for you here!”

“You need me!”she yells.

“Please hide. One of us has to survive this,”I tell her as Tairn flies past Xaden and Sgaeyl.

“Xaden, you have to drop the shadows. It’s the only way.”

“Tairn!”Sgaeyl shouts, fear edging her tone in a way I’ve never heard.

“Don’t ask that of me.”Even Xaden’svoiceshakes. Those shadows are coming down whether or not he wants them to. He’s approaching burnout.

“If you’ve ever trusted me, Xaden, I need you to do it now,”I use his earlier words, barely breathing through the searing pain in my side. He’ll lose himself to burnout if he doesn’t trust me.

“Fuck!”In a blink, the wall of shadow falls, and the wyvern fly toward us with terrifying speed. If I can’t do this, no one will survive. There are too many of them.

“Spot the more powerful rider, Tairn.”It’s the best bet. The only bet.

We’re a minute away from a collision.

“Once I’ve taken the rider out, that only leaves one, Xaden. Just kill that one and the rest of the wyvern will fall.”

“I’m coming.”

But I’ll get there first. Tairn is faster than Sgaeyl.“You saved us by holding them back this long.”

When he starts to respond, I slam my shield down, blocking him out to concentrate.

Tairn’s head swivels left and right, searching, and I break apart the last of my Archives walls, keeping one foot firmly on that marble floor.

“There,”Tairn says, his head turned to the right.“That one.”

At the corner of the flying horde is a seated venin, crimson veins streaking his temples and traveling down his cheeks.

“You’re sure?”I ask.

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