Page 25 of Scorched Earth

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Pulling her horse to a stop next to Killian’s, Lydia stared at the wall. It shuddered as the blighters slammed into it, and she held her breath, half expecting for men and women to tear their way through it.

But it held.

Killian rounded on the remaining Derin soldiers. “I suggest you run.”

The men appeared ready to take that advice when deimos screamed overhead, three descending, including the one that bore Rufina.

“Baird!” Agrippa shouted. “Kill them!”

“I’ve told you, little man,” the giant shouted back, shaved head gleaming with sweat, “my aim isn’t that accurate!”

The deimos landed with heavy thuds. One screamed, wings stretching out wide, and Lydia’s terrified mount reared. She toppled backward and landed in the dirt.

“An interesting display.” Rufina drew her sword, which she used to gesture at Malahi, who had roused. “This is why you’re so precious to me, Your Grace. Not all of the marked are equal, and with your power, the blight will stretch across even the Endless Seas.”

“I’ll die first,” Malahi hissed as Agrippa helped her upright.

Rufina laughed. “Brave words from the girl who hid from me beneath her bed. I remember how you screamed when I dragged you out by your ankles, Malahi. I remember how you wept when I cut open your face, and every time after when we’d look at your ruined beauty in the mirror.”

“Do you remember the moment I gave in?” Malahi lifted her chin. “I will never bend to your master. Never.”

A wave of shame washed over Lydia, but she shoved it away, because Rufina was only buying time. Malahi’s wall was impressive, but it was only a matter of the blighters circling around the edges. The dead could run forever and not falter.

They needed to escape, and quickly.

Killian must have come to the same conclusion, because without warning, he galloped straight at Rufina.

What happened next, Lydia couldn’t have said, for the other deimos and its corrupted rider flew directly at her.

She flung herself out of the way. Scrambling for her fallen sword, she caught a glimpse of Agrippa and Baird exchanging blows with the soldiers while Rufina’s mount prowled up behind Killian from the rear.

“Look out!” she screamed, but the moment of distraction cost her as the corrupted who’d attacked her struck again.

The impact of the woman hitting her was akin to being struck by a battering ram, driving the wind from her lungs and sending Lydia’s sword flying from her grip.

They rolled across the ground, the corrupted ending up on top ofher, and Lydia had no chance to react before the woman’s hands were on her throat. Choking.

Taking.

Lydia’s scream cut off as the corrupted squeezed her throat. She couldn’t see Killian beyond the deimos and didn’t know if he was alive.

You’re weak,the voice that plagued her whispered.You love him, but you’re too weak to fight for him.

Lydia clawed at the woman’s hands, but the corrupted only laughed, breath hot as she leaned down, her eyes infernos. An inhuman voice poured from her lips: “You’re mine, Kitaryia.”

Lydia’s blood turned to ice. She knew the Corrupter’s voice all too well because it was the voice that spoke every fear in her heart.

I’m not,she tried to scream, but no sound came from her lips.

The corrupted smiled, revealing stained teeth. “I will make you strong. I won’t leave you to stand alone as Hegeria did. I will make you the queen you were destined to be.”

No no no!

The pain in her throat was excruciating, life pouring from her into the other woman. In the distance, Killian roared her name.

“He stands alone,” the disembodied voice said through the corrupted woman’s lips. “The Six have left him to die. Look.”

Killian fought both Rufina and her deimos, each taking turns attacking.