Page 83 of Crown of Darkness
Thiago takes a step toward me, and the sharpness of his features assures me he knows exactly what I’m talking about. Every inch of him becomes alert. “Eris?”
“Fan out,” Eris snaps, and she takes the point as Finn and Baylor both draw their swords.
“What is that?” Finn mutters.
There’s no immediate threat. No sign of impending doom.
But I can feel it spiraling out beneath me as though magic is being breathed to life in the world nearby. Animmense, dangerous sort of magic.
Somewhere nearby, the earth is screaming.
A frown furrows between Thiago’s brows. “Baylor, take Vi back to the castle. I need to—”
“Not without you.” Our eyes meet, and then he gives a curt nod as if he recognizes I’m not merely going to tuck tail and run.
“Then take these.” He flips a pair of daggers into his fingers and offers me the hilts.
“Why doyouget the sword?” I joke, trying to swallow my sudden nerves. My skinitches.
“Didn’t you know? Size matters to all males.”
“Yes, but as all females know, you can still feel a little prick.”
An incredulous laugh escapes him, before he starts to scan the skies. “Later. You’ll pay for that later.”
“I’m trying to concentrate here,” Finn says, making a gagging sound.
A horrible rumbling sound ruptures the world, but there’s a distance to it that makes me uncertain. So deep I can’t quite pinpoint where it’s coming from. It feels like a leviathan is crawling up from the world’s magma core, and slowly, slowly bring the force of its propulsion with it.
Up. It’s coming from— “The dam,” I whisper.
Pebbles rain down the cliff face.
Fae stagger out of their shops, all of them looking about.
“What in Maia’s name?” My whisper dies as the beast finally emerges.
An explosion of stone detonates far above us.
I scream as rock bursts into shards, flinging my arms over my head. And then Thiago is there, sweeping me under the overhang of a shop as enormous chunks of stone slam into the streets.
Seconds later a ward forms above us, quietening some of the noise.
“Vi!”
“I’m all right! I’m fine!”
“Where are the others?”
I catch a glimpse of Eris and Finn ducking under an overhang across the street. Baylor simply stands in the middle of the street and slowly looks up.
There’s a rushing noise, like the sound of—
“Water,” I breath.
It was never a storm.
Thiago scans the cliff as that rushing noise begins to grow louder. And then his face suddenly whitens as a sluice of water pours toward us, trickling through a crack in the dam walls. “The dam. They’ve set charges on the dam.”
