Page 184 of Curse of Darkness
And then suddenly, my lungs expand.
“Vi!” Thiago yells, finally coming into focus on his knees in front of me. Hands flip me upright. “Vi!”
I surface with a gasp, sound imploding in upon me as if the shock of falling has finally sloughed away. Somewhere nearby, a horse screams.
Panting and gasping, I cling to Thiago as he checks me over. Steel rings on steel nearby, but the smoke is so thick I can barely see what’s happening. Another enormous fireball launches into our flanks, and fae scream.
“Are you okay?” Thiago asks desperately, stroking his thumbs across my cheeks.
“Depends on if we’re still… alive,” I gasp, and then nod when his face pales. “I’m fine. I think. What happened?”
“Catapult.” He shoots a dark look toward Angharad’s forces.
My ribs ache. The ward stopped my horse from crushing me when she—
My horse.
Suddenly, the sound of equine screaming has an identity.
Snowbell kicks on her side, her back legs thrashing endlessly as if she’s trying to escape the pain. Her hair is charred on one side, and the blood on her chest—
Pushing Thiago aside, I scramble toward her.
“Here, girl.” She stops thrashing as I kneel by her neck, resting one hand on her heaving flank. “I’m here.”
But the look she gives me—the one that says that even through the pain she knows she’s safe with me—almost slays me.
“Vi.” Thiago’s hand closes over mine. “Vi, we have to get moving if we’re to have any chance.”
Tears blur my eyes. “I’m not leaving her here. Not like this.”
“Vi.” His voice comes softly. “Vi, she’s—”
“No.” I bare my teeth at him. “No. I will not leave her here.”
It’s such a little thing. One soul in an entire battle of them, but she never hesitated to carry me into this fight. I can do no less for her.
I send threads of healing through the mare, but it’s not enough. There’s somuchdamage. It’s power I don’t have the resources to waste, and yet I can’t leave her like this. If I can do this, if I can save her, then I can save them all….
“Here,” Thiago murmurs, sliding his fingers through mine.
Instantly, Snowbell subsides with a gasp. Mangled flesh reknits before my eyes. I can feel that shiver through me as our powers meld.
Our eyes meet.
Together, we can do wondrous things.
Snowbell shudders, then pushes to her feet. There’s blood on her coat, but no sign of those gaping wounds. She bolts through the ring of warriors, galloping after Thiago’s stallion. And something in my heart soars at the sight of it.
“We’re going to win,” I tell him fiercely.
The words take him aback. I can see him trying to work out how to answer them as he offers me his hand to draw me to my feet. “Vi—”
“We’re going to win.”
There is no other option.
I’m not fighting to destroy my mother or her allies. Thirteen years ago, Thiago rescued me from a life without love or hope. He showed me a world I could live in. A world I could thrive in. A world for those of us who never fit—perhaps our bloodlines were the wrong sort, perhaps we hid demons deep inside us, perhaps we were a threat to those who considered themselves the gatekeepers of power—and now I can see it, shining brightly in my heart.
