A dozen more arrows followed the first from unseen archers in the trees around us, but this time they bounced off Sharmaine’s shield. The men wielding swords and spears charged across the stream, their boots churning the previously pristine water into a morass of mud and uprooted moss.
Raidyn vaulted onto Naiki’s back, his veins lit with power. It gathered in his hand and he launched the fireball at the oncoming soldiers. It exploded into the first few, blasting them off their feet, toppling over several men behind them. Another blast from my father took out at least a dozen more.
“Take off! Take off now!” Father shouted, digging his heels into Taavi’s side, even as he sent another blast at the garrison.
“But Halvor!” I screamed, my eyes going to where he lay on the ground in a puddle of blood, his eyes only half-open.
Sharmaine still sat on Keko, her arms shaking from the effort of holding her shield up against the continued onslaught of arrows. Raidyn sent another blast of Paladin fire at the seemingly endless tide of men, barely keeping them from reaching us as they clambered over their fallen comrades, heedless of the danger. I stared at the carnage in horror, the scent of burnt flesh caustic in my nose.
Though I knew it would mean even more death, I also knew this had to end—and now—or else Halvor and possibly the rest of us would all die.
The gut-wrenching truth was I would rather all these men died than any of us.
“Stop them. Stop all of them!” I cried, as I reached out and clamped my hands onto Raidyn’s arm.
My body filled with fire, my veins exploded with the heat and power of it. Dimly I realized my back had arched, my mouth falling open in a silent scream. Unlike the other times when I’d enhanced his ability to heal, I didn’t see any flashes of Raidyn’s life. There was only endless, all-encompassing fire consuming every cell of my body. Even my vision was full of blue flame, the world washed cobalt.
And then it was sucked out of me, rushing down my arms, out my hands, and into Raidyn. He bellowed, a nearly inhuman sound, as the entirety of it surged into his body. My vision returned to normal, but I still panted, my power continuing to fuel his as it gathered in his hands, so bright, it was nearly blinding. When it exploded out, it erupted not as a fireball, but a continuous stream of blue flames that he aimed at the men. It blasted through the onslaught of soldiers like they were nothing more than kindling. One second they were running at us, weapons lifted, and the next instant they were gone, incinerated into ash.
Though the flames came from Raidyn, it felt as though I were the one being ravaged, my muscles and veins liquefied by fire and then draining, draining, draining out of me into him and on to destroy an entire battalion of men—until I was nothing more than a dried-out husk, barely aware of anything beyond all-consuming, devouring, death-delivering fire.
Within moments, they were all gone. Dozens and dozens of men made of flesh and bone and life obliterated by our combined power. Those far enough away to avoid the blast finally turned and fled.
There were a few shouts from the trees above, but no more arrows came.
Raidyn finally cut the fire off. My fingers unclamped, but remained curled like claws, sliding limply off his arm; the outlines remained on his skin—burns in the shape of my hands. Darkness hedged the outer edges of my sight, tunneling in faster and faster as my entire body began to shake violently.
“Zuhra?” Raidyn’s soft voice sounded as if he were far, far away, not sitting right next to me.
“Don’t ever let Barloc see you do that, unless it’s two seconds before you do it to him.”
I couldn’t even tell who had said it, as the darkness closed in on me, swallowing up my desiccated body.
The darkness was sweet, and so, so soft. It was rest, and it was release. It was temptation and ease. It was a gentle drifting away. But there was something … a tug … just beneath my ribcage, as though there were a hook lodged in the tender flesh of my heart, attached to a cord that kept tug, tug, tugging with just enough force to send a twinge of pain through the lovely dark, refusing to let me entirely submerge and lose myself in it. Each sharp pull was accompanied by a glimpse of something other than the neverending blackness surrounding me.
Tug.
A shock of blond hair falling forward into devastatingly blue eyes.
Tug.
A rare, cherished smile on a girl’s face whose name I should know.
Tug.
A tiny woman who somehow reminded me of a mountain made flesh.
Tug.
A mouth lined by grief and eyes that were permanently crinkled by laughter, who should have been dear to me but had been taken away for far too long.
Tug.
A hand, reaching out to me in the darkness—the key to unlock the only true home I’d ever known.
Part of me wanted to reach for it, but I was tired. So very, very tired.
And the darkness was so sweet and gentle.
Tug, tug, tug.
Lips that taught my mouth to love without words, eyes that burned into my soul when they met mine, a heart that had already broken into too many pieces and would shatter completely if I stayed here.
Something else entered the darkness, a flickering of light that I recognized, but only vaguely. It beckoned to me, trying to coax me out of the shadows.
Who or what was it? I wasn’t sure I wanted to find out. But something inside me told me I needed to reach out to it … or it would be too late.
Though I didn’t truly want to, I forced myself to stretch toward the light … reaching and reaching as the pain intensified, until my entire body burned with it, as though I were the one incinerated by fire, not those men.
All those men …
Lives snuffed out in an instant because of me.
The flames scorched. I burned, but there was no relief; I writhed, but I couldn’t move; I screamed, but there was no sound.
Until the darkness, ever caring, ever gentle, swooped in and soothed away the pain, the struggle, the scream. It swallowed up the light, and the tug, until there was nothing but velvety night and oblivion.