Page 93 of Shadows and Flames
“We can’t get through!” Tana shouted as we neared, standing before nothing but unable to pass all the same. Like the unseen barrier between the flying Folk outside and the throne room, I wagered another guess and crossed the barrier with the Prince.
“Keep contact with him, and we will cross.”
Quickly, we did just that, ears popping as we crossed a similar magic to the one that skirted around the Shadow Well. To keep intruders out of the palace grounds.
Another shriek cut through the land, now louder, closer, and we wasted no time, legs pumping as we circumvented the city. Her lights shone through the trees as pinpricks of white, but we kept our focus on the bridge. The howl of wind, in the valley between Pyrestan and the wood housing the entrance to our world.
A wall like rocks and pearls awaited us when we finally broke through onto the cliffside, a few yards away from the bridge. The guards in armor of grays and whites leveled their weapons, and I heard the drawing of bowstrings, arrows aimed at us. I could not hold another weapon with the Prince still in my grip, our only means of bargaining out of this place, but the others were ready.
As a trained fighter, Tom’s shamshir reflected the light of the gargantuan moon above as he started cutting down those who charged. My brother immediately pushed himself into battle, cutting through armor and flesh as fluidly as air.
Tana, who balanced her staff between both her hands, moved with expert quickness, whipping away weapons and batting down guards for Tomás to finish them off. And Fenix, with no formal training but speed and strength on his side, carried Francie between them, avoiding blows and keeping her safe.
My queen and I fought, back to back with our weapons and nothing else. The prince did not try to escape me, too shocked by the shredding of his wings to flee, but his howls of pain and outrage joined the battle cries. The clanging of steel against steel.
But we were four fighters amongst an army of immortals just as strong, just as equipped. The scent of Lylithan blood began to mix with that of Folk’s, but I had not the time to worry which of us was injured. We tried to press closer to the bridge, to avoidthe arrows raining down, but as one grazed my side and a sword nicked my arm, I had the clear, sobering thought that we may not make out of this alive. With no access to my Flames, Tana without her magic, and my queen?—
I had looked to her—to help, to savor—and I witnessed Meline take a pointed breath, just one. In the space of time, between inhale and exhale, our eyes said more than we ever could with words.We will fight. We will get Francie to her mate. I’ve got you.
A third, final shriek sounded above the treetops, and my queen and I broke our stare to find a?—
A monster. One with wings impossibly large, flying with Queen Sarya grinning wildly on its back.
I may have been imagining the Queen’s laughter, but what was assuredly real was the bird larger than what should have been possible. Its wings were extended, broad and straight and faintly blue under the black sky.
We did not wait for it to move any closer. We’d no choice but to continue fighting the guards, to try our best to cross the bridge, and to retreat under the cover of trees on the other side. The only advantage, it seemed, was that this bird seemed no faster than its more natural counterparts.
A pained yelp reached my awareness, one in Tana’s voice, and after sinking my blade into the throat of a guard, just between helmet and breastplate, the hair on the back of my neck quivered. Chilled.
Again, I glanced to Meline, but now, my queen had stopped fighting. I watched, terrified, as she lowered her blades and cast a disdainful glare to the sky. With flicks of her wrists, she sheathed her daggers at her belt, raised her arms, andscreamed.
She did not have enough, she couldnot have, but somehow, she scraped the bottom of her well of power, sending out snaking ivy of Death, a tangle that smelled of cool, quieting decay.
She parted the guards, as if stroking expertly through an ocean wave. And more strands of her power shot behind us, upward to the archers tasked with taking us down from above. Bodies thudded as they fell to the ground, some flying over the edge of the cliff into the pure darkness awaiting.
The others reacted immediately. Fenix, as inexperienced as he was, took his task to heart, darting fearlessly with Francie in his arms, making it over the bridge with Tana behind to protect them. Tomás and me took the opening my queen provided, and I tried my best to not think of the swaying wood beneath my boots.
I looked over my shoulder when Tom made it to the other side where Fenix and Tana waited for my queen and I to cross. Not leaving us.
I’d no time to celebrate my own reunion with steady ground, turning already to ensure Meline was truly behind me.
And she was, but.
She was stopped, less than ten paces from me and facing the white bird, large enough to carry the giant elephants of Banfas in its talons. The Queen cackled, hair flying behind her with no regard for her fallen guards. Her attention was on my queen.
“Meline!” I bellowed. Why was she not coming? Why was she not running with us?
Tana shouted her name as well, begging her to come, but my queen. My queen, she risked one look over her shoulder. Her curls shifted with the breeze, calm like the sigh of the Mother, content in the cycle of lives beginning and ending. As they always had.
Blood trailed from her nostrils, painting her lips a bright red, and my heart stopped. It stopped as Meline looked at me, wordlessly telling me—us—to go.
And my heart shattered as she turned away, black shadows churning around her hands she was now raising toward Queen Sarya diving for her.
No.
The giant bird of prey flexed its talons, opened its beak to reveal rows and rows of sharpened teeth, and I ran away from the forest. I ran toward my queen, and my brother’s familiar presence at my side assured me he was here. We did not speak, we had no plan, and yet, we moved fluidly.
Shoving away his fear of my queen and her power, Tomás grabbed Meline by the waist in the same moment I threw the Prince over the bridge.
