Page 23 of A Queen This Fierce and Deadly

Blank eyes met mine, right as the screams became louder.

They turned and ran.

Near the edge of camp, three children clutched at one another, trembling with fear. Sprinting toward them, I grabbed the hand of the eldest. She immediately latched on to me.

“Parents?”

“Father went to fight.” Her lower lip trembled, and she shuddered, pale with shock. “I don’t know where Mother is.”

Already, several people had been crushed, unconscious and bleeding from the chaos. There was a chance her mother was one of them. “Take your sisters and follow that woman.” I pointed. “Go.”

The children were moving too slowly. “Faster,” I hissed. “Sprint!” I felt like a monster as they glanced back at me, wide-eyed, but they picked up the pace.

There were still too many people here.

An old woman stood in the middle of the camp, her hand raised.

“What are you doing?” I called, grabbing several people and directing them west. They sprinted, lifting whoever they could carry.

“I have an attack power, child.”

“You need to run.”

Her lips trembled, her white hair parting with the wind. “This is the natural order of things. The old die first, protecting the young. Now, go.”

My heart clenched, but I left the main clearing, sprinting into the tree line. The hybrids had been pushed back within a hundred footspans of the enemy. A group of guards were advancing on some of the hybrids who’d gone in the wrong direction, backing them against a thicket of trees. My power thrummed through me, and I snarled, aiming it at the guards close enough for me to reach. Some of them were too well warded for my fire to break through. But several burst into flames, the commotionproviding distraction for our people to escape.

The hybrids were still losing. A young hybrid, no older than sixteen winters, lay crumpled against a tree, his hand still gripping his sword. His eyes, wide open, seemed to be seeking help from the gods. Nearby, an older woman screamed for someone over and over, eyes frantic. When she spotted the boy, she dropped to her knees and shook him, wailing.

A lump formed in my throat, but I couldn’t let myself feel it. Forcing myself to go cold, I reached for the woman and hauled her to her feet, ignoring her weak slaps.

“Run,” I hissed. “Or die with him.”

She hiccupped, eyes wild. So I physically turned her with my hands until she was facing west, pushing her back until she stumbled away.

“Help!”

I darted back toward the guards. Hybrids with attack powers were using them, but it wasn’t just Regner’s usual guards here. I spotted several iron guards through the trees, their armor glinting in the dappled light. Gifted with an abundant supply of stolen power, they’d also been trained in death from the time they were old enough to pick up a sword.

I picked off as many as I could while making my way toward the meeting point in the clearing behind camp, in case there was anyone left. Stillcrest met me, her hands trembling, mouth a thin line. “Thank the gods,” she said, clutching at me. “There are a group of hybrids trapped.”

I tripped twice on tree roots and undergrowth, cursing viciously. Smoke curled toward us, thick, choking my lungs. Hybrids were screaming, gathered in groupsas they backed away from the approaching iron guards less than a hundred footspans away, while flames roared toward them from the other direction.

Lifting my hands, I sucked the fire into me, starving it of the oxygen it needed. The hybrids didn’t hesitate, sprinting toward the main clearing as soon as the flames were banked. “Kill the corrupt!” someone roared, and three iron guards barreled toward us, their black iron armor making them appear even larger than they were.

That iron was a good protection against my fire. But I aimed sparks at the spaces where their eyes were unprotected. They clawed at their faces, and Stillcrest stepped up next to me. She waved her hand.

Vicer hadn’t told me what her power was, but several tree branches lifted from the ground, sweeping beneath the guards’ feet and sending them crashing to the ground.

“Go,” she said. “Get my people to safety.”

“Where’s Vicer?”

Something that might have been regret flickered across her face. “I don’t know.”

We stared at each other for one moment. If he was dead, it was this woman’s fault. She knew it, I knew it, and there was nothing else to be said.

My gut twisted as I turned, running after the hybrids. A small boy was toddling hand in hand with an older girl, and I lifted him, holding him beneath one arm as I barked at her to run.

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