Page 22 of The Eye of the Fifth
All of them, dead. She couldfeeltheir mangled corpses in the earth, Cristian included.
A sudden tremor ripped through Kyra’s body, so intense she almost toppled into the open mouth before her. The sun shone from every pore on her body, and she watched in horror as the veins in her arms became stark against the brightness, like roots of a tree sprouting sporadically beneath her skin.
‘No…’she breathed.
That ethereal voice began to sing again, an ode from a memory, some faraway dream, the words curling and twisting in that long lost language she hadn’t understood before.
Now, the words made sense. Even if the phrasing was fragmented and distorted, as though a higher force was stopping the voice from singing clearly:
‘…rage blinds… takes… is known…
…her power… forth and… throne…
…bonded must earth… be…
…and dark… eternally…’
The blinding light dimmed, the vines disappearing with it. ‘No… it can’t…’ she whispered to no one. ‘I can’t be…’
For though she couldn’t decipher the meaning of the voice's song, she knew now who it belonged to. She knew what the monster was now, knew its purpose, where it had come from.
It wasn’t possible. How could it be possible? How could she not have known?
She forced herself to stand but staggered back against the alley wall that hadn’t been destroyed, her strength spent, all energy depleted. Her gaze rested on the creviceshe’dmade. The mercenaries' bodies were out of sight, but she could smell their blood. She couldfeeltheir deaths, more profoundly than any kill she’d ever made. She’d known what she was doing, every second of it, but it somehow felt as though a deadly haze had been lifted now-
AndCristian…Goddess. She’d destroyed him without a second thought. She was glad of it but-
Had that been her… or the monster?
Hands shook her shoulders. They cupped her cheeks. ‘Kyra!Kyra, look at me!’She blinked into Rosary’s face. Rain dripped from her slim nose. ‘The Union are coming for you, Ky! You have to go, you have to run!’
‘Rose,’ Kyra croaked. ‘Rosary, I’m… I’m the-’
‘I know,’Rosary said desperately. She peeled Kyra away from the wall and shoved her away. ‘Please, Kyra! Run!NOW!’
The words had barely left her mouth when a throng of Union soldiers hurtled around the corner and careened down the alley toward Kyra, their commander bellowing orders from his position at the front.
‘Go!’Rosary cried.
With the shred of energy she had left, Kyra kicked off from the wall behind, catapulting herself to the other side, her fingers gripping the top of the worn bricks. She grunted with the effort of pulling herself up onto the slanted roof of the townhouses, then broke into a desperate run, feet unsteady and struggling to find grip on the wet tiles.
A Union commander’s voice barked orders from the street below.
Still she ran, mentally readying herself for the jump at the end of the row of houses to the next.
So close now… just a few more paces-
A tile came loose under her feet and then she was tumbling down, rolling from the roof and landing with a splash on the hard cobblestones.
Her frozen bones ached as she forced herself to stand, trying and failing to catch the breath that had been knocked out of her. Soon enough, rough hands were pulling her arms behind her back, forcing her face-down in the wet, dirty street as they attempted to bind her wrists with iron shackles.
She fought against them, kicking and screaming, until something sticky and unyielding slithered over her very bones. It locked them in place so she couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything but watch as they fused the iron around her wrists.
The shackles clicked into place and they yanked her to her feet. The immobilising spell lifted. ‘Walk,’ a harsh voice behind her commanded, his hand grasping her shackled wrists.
‘Fuck off,’ Kyra snarled, refusing to move.
‘Walk, or I’ll make you.’
