Page 112 of Ruin of Revenants

“Mama?”

Chapter Fifty-Four

Archer

“Help!” Lily’s ragged scream was like a blade to my heart. I scanned the shadows for my friend, slicing at them as I ran. “Someone, help us!”

Where is Owen? Cliff?

Were they all right?

A revenant lurched for a soldier as I ran past, and I leapt between them to intervene, slicing at the creature’s leg and downing it. Before it could rise again or retaliate now that I’d drawn its attention, I arced my blade downward, removing its head from its neck.

The male I’d helped didn’t have a chance to thank me before I was gone, charging toward the sound of Lily’s cries.

At last, I drew near enough to find her in the shadows. She knelt, cradling General Starblood in her lap. Tears tracked down her cheeks as she lifted her eyes to mine. “We need a healer.”

One look told me it was too late for Lily’s father. The gash in his side was too deep, and the growing pool of blood beneath him was too large. His complexion was already a deathly sheen of grey, his glazed eyes turning distant even as he tried to speak to Lily. “I love you. Be strong, Lily.”

“Stop talking like that!” Lily’s voice cracked. There was blood coating her hands and a frantic look the likes of which I’d never seen in her eyes.

“Lily.” I tried to inject enough somber warning into my tone to snap her out of her grief, to remind her that she was in imminent danger.

The general took a final, strangled breath, and I didn’t see his chest rise again.

“Father, please.” Lily’s shoulders shook as she sobbed, but General Starblood was still. Silent. His eyes stared at nothing.

I stepped closer, prepared to wrench my friend away from the body. “Lily, you need to get up.”

“No!” Lily shrieked. “Where are the healers?”

“Lily,” I repeated, lunging toward her.

I wasn’t fast enough. General Starblood stirred, and my friend, still overwhelmed and confused in her shock and grief, brightened like she thought he was still alive after all.

The soulless look in his gaze sent a bolt of ice through my chest as I lifted my sword, but the general was faster, his shadows consuming Lily like a physical force. She screamed in agony, their tendrils binding her as the creature that had once been her father snarled and turned.

Another revenant slammed into my side, blindsiding me and tackling me to the earth. Stars sparked before my eyes as we crashed in a tangle and it sank its teeth into my shoulder. Pain shot through my arm, hot blood slick against my skin. Grunting, I shoved against the creature, fighting to reach my sword from where it had landed on the ground, beyond my reach.

Another shock of pain tore through my shoulder, and I cursed, slamming my free first against the revenant’s face before twisting my body. At last, I reached the dagger I kept tucked in my boot, sliding it out and burying it in my attacker’s eye.

I couldn’t hurt or kill what was already dead, but the distraction was enough to give me the opportunity to shove it away. Right shoulder burning, I groped with my left hand for my sword. My movements were less graceful with my non-dominant hand as I swung, but my blade was sharp, cutting through the revenant’s neck easily enough.

All of this had happened in mere moments, but it had been enough for General Starblood to rise and turn on his daughter, thrusting his sword into her side. She screamed in pain as his shadows tightened around her, until they swirled over her mouth and stifled her cries.

A roar and a breath of cool air—not icy cold like the writhing shadows—was my only warning before a wall of water crashed over us. I ducked, but it coursed around me, avoiding me as it pressed for its target: the undead general. It swept him backward, snapping his hold on his foul magic and freeing Lily. She fell forward, gasping for breath, her hand pressed to her bleeding side.

And then Owen was there, dropping to his knees and catching Lily before she fell.

“Owen. You came,” Lily gasped. “I thought you were lost too.”

“I’m here,” he said, his voice uncharacteristically gentle. “I’ve got you.” He pulled back enough to scan her body and take in her injury. “Archer, where’s Cliff? Can he send his jaguars to fetch a healer?” he asked, glancing over his shoulder as I staggered to them. His eyes snapped briefly to my ruined shoulder, but he didn’t ask. There was a feverish light in his gaze I’d never seen before, a possessive, frantic nature to his hold on Lily.

I cast a glance back toward the shadows into which Owen’s wave had shoved Lily’s father. “General Starblood is still—”

“I’ll take care of him,” Owen interrupted. “Find a healer.”

Isoria