Page 75 of The Blade in the Ashes
“Iris, don’t!” He barked, pulling on the reins of his horse
But it was already too late. I kicked my heel into the side of my mare, urging her into a sprint to the top of the ridge. Hooves pounded behind me as Nikolai raced to keep up.
Dirt exploded into the air as I pulled my horse to a skidding halt at the top of the ridge, a heaviness bearing down onto my chest even as white fury streaked through me with such burning intensity that I had to cling to my control over my physical form.
There was smoke in the air. Plumes of black smoke rose out of the now-burning library. Soldiers wearing new dark onyx armor fed the flames with books stolen out of the archives, all while dragging injured and dying librarians from the flames. Those who were already dead were piled atop one another. Discarded. Disregarded.
Nikolai wrapped a hand around my forearm with an iron grasp, stopping me before I could even think of leaving.
“Don’t.”
“Those people need help!” I hissed, whipping my head around to face him.
He sighed, not daring to look away from me even as those eyes, now not showing a hint of their typical green flecks, flashed with remorse. “I know, little bird, but if we run down there now, we’re just as dead as they are. We can’t fight them all.”
Breaking away from his stare, I turned back to watch the scene unfolding below us, my heart aching as I resigned myself to it.
One of the first lessons I’d learned in the Order was to know when a fight was already lost.
Knowing that didn’t make it any less painful as Nikolai took hold of my reins and guided our horses away from the ridge so we could wait out the attack. He tied them off to a nearby tree, squeezing my shoulder briefly before stepping away to allow me a moment to myself.
Because usually I would prefer not to let someone else see me cry.
But I grasped onto that hand, locking it in mine and closing my eyes against the relentless sounds of screaming from below.
Chapter Twenty-One
Rankor
“Ow!” Kent flinched as the palm of my hand connected with his cheek in an unforgiving slap that left a sting against the tip of my fingers. “What the fuck?”
I grinned, shrugging innocently. “I saw a bug.”
Lie.
But I was bored. And Kent was still moping.
So, it seemed necessary to bring some levity to our little group.
We’d been traveling for a couple of days now, through the brisk winter air. The scenery had all started to bleed together, and I was miserably tired of seeing nothing but dirt roads and dying forests covered in patches of still-melting ice.
Kressida’s high-pitched giggles behind us assured me that at leastoneof my companions had found the humor in my little prank.
Kent, however, looked less than impressed. His glare was deadly as he reached over and shoved me so hard that my horse gave an unhappy snort as I struggled to maintain my balance.
“Don’t do that again,” he warned, jabbing a finger towards me.
“Please do it again,” Kreyana begged.
I sent her an encouraging grin over my shoulder when Kent turned his attention back to the road in front of us.
I would most definitely be doing it again.
Kreyana’s laughter was joined by a few chuckles from the band of soldiers we’d gathered during our travels. Initially, we had planned to send all of the eager men we gathered ahead of us to Nikolai’s estate, but at some point, we had decided to allow a few to ride with us as we made our way towards my brother and the princesses.
That decision had been easy to make after we’d faced the first of those undead monsters from the Underworld.
A group of the freakish creatures had attacked us a few nights ago while we were camping, and damn, Istillcouldn’t get the rotten smell of them out of my nose. I’d faced plenty of Ciclopia’s beasts during my life, but these were something else entirely. It was as if they had been rotting from the inside out. Some had barely had any skin covering their faces, and they were practically impossible to kill.
