We dove.
Wind bit at my skin and snapped at my hair, barreling past quicker and quicker. As the earth grew closer, I squeezed my knees, and Res’s wings shot out, carrying us fast along the ground.
The soldiers had yet to recover from the sudden sound. The exploding glass had cut them and Valis, who held his side. He pulled his bloody hand free, and a rush of fire enveloped it. Shouts rose, swords being drawn. Lightning gathered at the tip of Res’s open beak.
Bring it down.
The bolt struck the mausoleum, folding it in on itself. A third strike collapsed it in a rush of molten metal. As we circled back around for a final assault, Res formed more lightning, his exhaustion thundering alongside it. He was scraping the wells of his power. This was all he had left.
We dove low. Res prepared to strike. Then, between one breath and the next, something thudded into him.
His wings snapped into his body and we plummeted.
My stomach dropped, the world twisting and flipping. Then pain, resounding through me like a quake. We slid across the earth, stone tearing at my skin, and rolled to a stop.
I lay still. Every inch of my body radiated pain. My head pounded, shattering each coherent thought I tried to process.
We’d fallen.
We’d fallen.
“Res.” I barely heard my own voice through the pounding in my head.
He didn’t respond.
I lashed out along the cord, pulling sharply. What came flooding back was wild and hot, an avalanche of fear and pain and unbridled fury. I gasped, bolting upright, and found Res struggling to right himself.
An arrow shaft stuck out of his leg.
“No!” I screamed, clawing at dirt and rocks, scrambling to his side. He forced himself to his feet, his injured leg pulled tight to his body.
I was at his side in a heartbeat, my scrapes and bruises forgotten. Res crooned, the sound ragged with pain.
“You’re okay,” I told him, hands hovering uselessly over the protruding shaft. I traced the line of his leg, seeking the tendons and muscles I’d once memorized, and let out a heavy breath.
The arrow had missed tendon, artery, and bone. It was a flesh wound.
“Thank the Saints,” I breathed even as I questioned where the arrow had come from. Caylus’s machine had destroyed the glass arrows… I stopped as my eyes took in the plain wood of the shaft. It was a normal arrow. We’d been too focused on the glass.
I gave Res no warning before I snapped the shaft, sliding both ends free.
He screamed, the sound shattering my eardrums and my heart in one.
“I’m sorry.” I forced back the tears that burned at my eyes. I’m sorry, I’m sorry.
Res panted heavily and tried to move his leg, but contracting the muscle sent a shuddering ripple through him. Fear trembled along the bond, and I sent back reassuring pulse after reassuring pulse.
“Can you heal it?” I asked, though I knew the answer.
Golden light wisped around him, then flickered and died. My heart went with it. He was too weak—his magic had run dry.
A twig snapped. I froze. We’d crashed in a small copse of trees off the edge of the forest, something the Illucian soldiers weren’t likely to have missed. But when I unslung my bow and nocked an arrow, ducking around Res’s side, it wasn’t a Vykryn I found coming for me.
It was Valis.
* * *
I loosed the arrow before I could think. He incinerated it with a flick of his hand.
I’d nocked another before he even lowered it, but he lashed out. A whip of flame shot from his hand. I dove, rolling aside as it struck the ground inches from where I’d been. The wet ground smoked and hissed.
Another fire had started on the grounds. Between it and the nearly full moon, I could see Valis clearly as he advanced, languid and unhurried as a jungle cat approaching its kill.
He was beautiful, in a cruel way. With white-gold hair and amber eyes like a lion’s, he prowled ever closer, his movements lithe in a predatory way. With the flames at his back setting his tawny skin aglow, it was easy to see how people had once worshipped his kind as gods.
A graceful smile spread across his lips. “Little crow queen,” he said in a voice of warm honey.
Res let out a shrill cry and tried to move in front of me. Pain flared down the line between us, and I sucked in a breath, placing a hand against his chest. Stay still. I’ve got this.
Valis’s golden eyes washed over Res, his smile unfaltering. There was something slightly unhinged about the look, about the way that smile didn’t break.
“I’ve waited a very long time for this,” he hissed. “For what your family did to me.” He drew a sword from his back. It erupted with pale orange flame. “I’m going to enjoy watching you burn.”
He lunged. I shot forward, swinging low and dragging my hand through the earth. I came up with a handful of dirt and thrust it into his eyes. He snarled, swinging wildly, but I slid beneath it and came up behind him, striking for his kidneys with the limb of my bow.
He moved faster than I thought possible. He turned, sword coming down in a swift arc. It never struck. The next moment, Valis hit the ground hard from the impact of Res’s body, his blade skittering out of reach. Valis rolled, springing lithely to his feet. Res cawed, wings flaring as lightning crackled around his body. It faltered, then died.
Valis thrust out a hand, and fire gathered at his palm. I loosed an arrow, stealing his attention as he was forced to burn it. Then I was on him, my knife in one hand, my bow in the other. He moved so fast. It was everything I could do to match pace with him as my attack quickly turned to defense.
Then all at once, his body erupted with flames.
I stumbled back with a cry, tripping over a root in my haste to escape the fire. Valis drove his flaming sword down—and straight into another blade.
Elkona deflected the sword with a slash of her moonblade. Quick as a wingbeat, she’d drawn a red line across Valis’s stomach. He reared back, but her blade came around, slicing clean through his right wrist.
Valis screamed, his flames extinguishing.
I found my feet, nocking an arrow. The bowstring snapped. The arrow took Valis in the chest. He fell back a step, snarling, and then Elko was there, cutting a deep wound across his thigh. As she leapt away, I took her place, my dagger biting into his stomach.
Then with a final turn, Elko slashed her blade through his throat.
Valis coughed, blood coating his lips. He fell back against a tree as Elko pulled her blade free, slick with crimson.
I stared at the Sella’s lifeless body a moment, breathing hard. Then I looked to Elko. Blood speckled her face, turning the grin she gave me almost vicious. She held out her hand, and I took it.
“Let’s end this,” she said.