Total pages in book: 248
Estimated words: 236909 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1185(@200wpm)___ 948(@250wpm)___ 790(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236909 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1185(@200wpm)___ 948(@250wpm)___ 790(@300wpm)
Picking up on what Saion was feeling, Ash inhaled sharply, his skin thinning even further. Energy charged the air, and the embers in my chest hummed and shook.
Ash started walking toward the west courtyard. I followed, my unease amplifying and growing.
Saion caught my arm as I passed him. “Don’t,” he rasped. “You don’t want to see this.”
I stilled, my chest rising and falling in short, shallow breaths. A part of me wanted to listen to his warning because I knew that something had happened. Something bad. An act that Saion wished he hadn’t seen.
But I couldn’t.
Because Ash wouldn’t.
I slipped my arm free. Saion’s curse got lost in the order for another barrage of arrows. I hurried, catching up to Ash as I scanned the skies for the draken, seeing no sign of him.
The air smelled different here. It carried a…a hint of damp metal. A recognizable scent. Blood. Death.
Oh, gods.
Suddenly, I was in Saion’s place, wanting to stop Ash from discovering what awaited. “Ash,” I called out.
He didn’t stop.
Not until he rounded the corner of the palace. Then he did. He jerked, stumbling back a step. I’d never seen him stumble. Fear of what he’d seen seized me as I crossed the short distance between us, seeing dark red across the gray, cracked soil and discarded swords. Streams of red. Splatters of crimson. Puddles of blood.
Ash threw his arm out, blocking me, but it was too late.
I saw…
I saw them.
On pikes, drilled into the ground. Hands and arms bound. Their mangled skin and torn-open chests empty of hearts. Throats slashed to the bone. Others were cut so deeply that their heads were no longer on their shoulders but the ground.
The embers hummed in response to the death. To the utter lack of life as I dragged my gaze over faces I didn’t recognize, lifeless eyes of those I’d passed in the courtyard or saw training with Ash. I looked down.
Fair hair. Sharp, bloodless features. Lifeless, dull amber eyes.
That was his…that was his head.
Ector.
I staggered, my throat sealing as I clapped a hand over my mouth, and a softer red snagged my attention.
The color of wine.
The flash of a silver chain around a throat, soaked in blood.
“No,” I whispered, skin flashing hot and then going numb. “No.”
“She came outside to help,” Saion said raggedly from behind us. “I told her to get back, but Kyn saw her. And Ector—fucking Ector tried to stop him.”
I swayed, chest throbbing as the embers responded to me—to the storm of emotions roaring through me. My blood heated, filling my veins with fire.
“Bele doesn’t know,” Saion rasped. “She was already on the way to Lethe. She doesn’t know—fuck, you’re starting to glow.”
He wasn’t talking about Ash, who had gone completely silent and still.
It was me.
A distant rumble echoed in the sky. Davon was near. That was a problem, one we needed to figure out how to handle, but I couldn’t think beyond Aios and Ector and the dozens of lives lost on these pikes.
I couldn’t understand why.
What had any of them done?
The embers throbbed as I started toward Aios—toward them—but I forced myself back. Using the embers had caused this. If I were to do it again, it would lead to more attacks.
My hands curled into fists as fury clashed with grief. I could do something. I could fix this, but who would pay for it?
Not the one who should.
Kolis.
“Is Kyn still here?” Ash demanded, his voice cold and flat as the temperature suddenly dropped several degrees.
“The last I saw him, he was outside the Rise,” Saion answered. “Behind the line of dakkais. He had Cimmerian—” Saion turned to the sky. “That fucker is coming back.”
Ash turned from the pikes, away from the carnage. “Summon the armies.” Eather sparked from his whirling flesh as his lips peeled back over his fangs. Power poured into the air. Shadows spilled into the space around him, spinning and whirling, and when his eyes met mine, they were pure orbs of silver. The rumble of Davon’s roar was closer as Ash tipped his head to the sky.
Then Ash rose.
Straight up like a launched arrow. Streaks of silver light radiated from him, hissing and snapping. The hazy outline of wings appeared as his hands splayed open. Outside the rise, the dakkais howled as Saion ran toward a guard on horseback, giving her orders. She took off for the gates facing the Undying Woods. I could only hope that she and the armies were quick.
“Fire! Fire!” I heard—thank the gods—Rhain shout from the Rise. “Now!”
The air around Ash crackled, flashing a lighter gray as the eather built inside him, turning his skin the shade of mottled shadowstone. His wings looked almost solid as clouds darkened the sky—actual dark clouds that gathered and thickened.
Ash became a storm.
Davon appeared over the palace, jaws open and scales vibrating. Flames sparked from inside his throat.