Chapter 49

The crushing wave took the straw-roofed hut out first, then the low rock wall, sending stones tumbling down over us, one of them cracking against my skull so hard I saw stars. I hurled my body over Finnian and Kael, hoping to take the brunt of the magic.

I was immortal, was wearing armor, and they weren't.

I was also the godsdamned commander of the Solarys army, and I should have gotten us to Ravenswood in time.

That was my rational, anyway, before the wave of power flattened me, Finnian grunting, Kael letting out a foul curse. "Hang on," I warned them, "and whatever you do, don't try to escape. You can't outrun this, and the magic will kill you."

Or worse.

So, so much worse.

The roaring blew out my eardrums, the sheer force of the collapsing wall turning the edges of my vision black, punishing my body with enough pressure to drive the air out of my lungs. We were being crushed between a giant's boot heel and a rock.

This wasn't the heated wind of unleashed power; this was a cold, vicious kiss.

Cruel and cunning like winter's breath.

Carried along on that freezing gale's caress was a hint of jasmine and amber, of all the gentle things so at odds with that bitter, keening cold.

And yet, there was something familiar in the keening scream of the wind howling overhead, reminding me of…

"Gods, we are going to die," Finnian gasped. "This is how we meet our end? Like dogs in the dirt?"

"Not if we stay put," I grunted, though I was less sure the words were truth than I would have been five minutes ago. The magic had shredded through my armor, my shirt, and was seconds away from peeling my newly healed skin off my back in sheets.

My entire body spasmed beneath the pressure, magic-coated air stinging my lungs with every hard-fought breath. But it was my back muscles that took the brunt of the assault, magic slithering over my sensitive skin as if I'd never been healed.

Finnian began chanting an ancient prayer to the gods, one I hadn't heard in an age. Despite knowing that pleading to them for help was bullshite, I almost joined him, on principle.

"Stay down," I warned instead.

As luck would have it, we were half covered by the fallen wall, the rocks piled on us protecting my left side from the brunt of the storm. Then the world went quiet, not so much as a whisper left behind.

"I think…we survived," I muttered with no small amount of wonder. "Perhaps your prayers worked, Finnian."

That was when the dust began to fall.

My next inhale was like breathing fire, my back felt like I'd been doused in lamp oil and set ablaze. Finnian and Kael squirmed beneath me. I couldn't move. Something was wrong with my back, something had…

"What is that? My skin is burning," Finnian howled, scrubbing at his arms when I rolled off him. "Get this shite off me."

I lurched to my feet.

All around us ash fell from the sky, black as coal, reeking of decay.

I didn't know how Corvus had gotten here so fast, but I knew what this was.

Blight.

Fucking gods. I had the other piece of the only weapon capable of stopping him.

If I died out here in the middle of nowhere, then Anaria would never be able to kill that bastard and save this realm. I would have failed my queen. A-fucking-gain.

I grabbed both males by the collar and hauled them up. "Now we run," I ordered, even though my legs were shaking, my exhausted body spent. "Fast as we can, we have to get under roof."

"Where is that?" Finnian asked, searching the destruction around us for any structure still intact.

"Ahead." I shoved him forward. "We keep going, hope we reach the castle soon."

All around us the ground darkened, veins of black snaking over loose soil and upturned tree roots, over lichen-covered rocks as we ran—limped was more like it—in the direction of Ravenswood Castle. At least I hoped we were heading in the right direction.

Because if the castle wasn't around this next bend, we were all dead.