Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 93948 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93948 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
A fiery dollop of pain splats my forehead and my eyes fly open, my concentration faltering. “Damn it!” Overhead, the sky is even uglier than it was earlier, orange and purple having blossomed in the midst of the green. I curse hard. “I can’t stop it. I didn’t do anything but let him know that we’re here.” I fucked up. Truly fucked up.
And now the people of Kanghri and all of First Sister will pay the price.
Except Bowen is slowing and turning back. He deposits Dia in front of us. “Bastian will take you if you need to run.”
Bastian looks a little green. “I will.”
Bowen pivots to face the way we came. “I can hold it off.”
Siobhan tenses, but I’m already speaking. “Absolutely fucking not. If I can’t pull it apart, there’s no way you can.”
He shakes his head, expression distant. “I’m not going to dispel the storm. I’m going to shield the city.”
My eyes go wide as shock grips me. What he’s suggesting…The sheer amount of power that kind of feat would require…“Impossible.” I struggle to get out of Siobhan’s arms, failing spectacularly. “Even if you could manage it for a beat, the burnout will kill you. I won’t allow it.”
“You don’t have a choice. And it’s not impossible—not with an amplification circle.” He looks over me into Evelyn’s eyes. “I know this is dangerous, but you understand that I have to do it.”
She appears absolutely miserable, but she slides off Siobhan’s back and nods. “You have to try to save them.” She swallows hard. “Don’t you dare die.”
“I would never leave you willingly.”
She pulls a piece of chalk from an inside pocket. “I need a flat surface to work with.”
The words are barely out of her mouth before the rocks beneath our feet disintegrate and are swept away, revealing a mostly flat dirt surface. And he did it with a simple thought, faster than I could fully come up with a plan to give her that flat surface.
I wriggle in Siobhan’s arms. “Put me down.”
Instead of obeying, Siobhan gives me a severe look. “I’ll put you down the moment you promise me that you aren’t going to do anything foolish like try to fight Bull with wind when he’s drawing forth a storm that’s not even elemental.”
“We’re heroes, Siobhan. Noble sacrifice is what heroes do.” I use her huff of outrage to slide free and come to my feet next to Evelyn. She’s already got half the circle drawn, Bowen’s shield above us, keeping the increasing acid rain from peppering us with holes. She glances at me. “I’ll need an extra second to create a shield for us and Bowen so he can concentrate on the city. Don’t let him start until I’m ready.”
Impossible words, an impossible promise. The only person who can stop Bowen is Evelyn, and even then, she’s not always successful. It’s that damn fucking honor again. It makes even the smartest people into fools. “I’ll try.”
I move to Bowen, only pausing long enough to ensure that Siobhan is keeping an eye on Dia and Bastian. “This will be a battle of stamina. Can you hold him? Because if you can’t, we’re better off running now and getting ourselves far from here while he unloads his fury.”
“Unloads his fury on the unsuspecting and innocent people of Kanghri.” His dark eyes are steely. His jaw set. “You would know that’s unacceptable if you weren’t so distracted.”
I rear back as if he reached out and slapped me. “Forgive the fuck out of me if I prioritize the people I care about over strangers.”
Bowen shakes his head. “That might be what you tell yourself, but it’s not the truth. You help strangers all the damn time, Nox. That’s what the rebellion is, and you realized it long before I did. That’s why you just risked killing yourself to save Kanghri. I can do no less.”
It feels like he just stripped away all my defenses in a few sentences. Damn him for seeing me so clearly. Damn him for being a good man who is part of my crew. “You should know better than to fight against impossible odds.”
He gives a thin smile. “I learned it from my captain.”
Gods, I hope he can pull this off. Fear is a live thing inside me, but this big bastard is right. We have to try, to keep trying, even if it means we burn ourselves to ash in the process. I find myself grinning back at Bowen, just as fiercely. “This captain of yours must be brilliant and inspiring.”
“They certainly think so.”
“Done.” Evelyn turns fully around and, without hesitation, creates a secondary circle next to the amplification one. In less stressful times, I enjoy watching her put these together. Her chalk becomes an extension of her arm, her wrist fluid as she draws out the symbols that will wrestle the magic into following her will. Right now, though, it’s everything I can do not to tell her to hurry. She knows. She is. And yet we’re still running out of time.