The sounds outside are growing louder. “And why would I want that?”
“Because I can unleash your powers and teach you control on a level Eogan can’t. And because if you don’t leave the Keep alone and let the war take its course, my men and I will gut you and your Terrene friend fassster than yo—”
I lunge for him, but he touches my side, sending immediate images from his fingertips through my veins of Eogan being burned alive at Adora’s house. In disgusting, excruciating detail. I whimper and grab his wrist. And abruptly, the pictures fizzle out as his body goes rigid and begins to shake.
The energy transferring from my hand wrapped around his arm begins to spark and flare, lighting up his skin like a torch. He screams and drops the knife, jerking violently. He thrusts his other hand to mine, sending fresh pictures dancing through my eyes of Breck lying dead and Eogan being ambushed and me splayed out cold and pale three feet in the ground while dirt is shoveled on top of me.
I press harder. Until the heat in my hand turns to cold and a wave emits from my palms, spreading a film of ice from my fingertips out over his clothes, his skin, his gasping face. It crackles and stings. And I know it will kill him. I will kill him to keep him from hurting them.
Use death as a last resort, Nym. Eogan’s words slip into mind.
Myles drops his hand from my skin with a gurgle.
I stop.
Abruptly, everything stops.
The lord protectorate falls, skin smoking like icy breath, just as the ground beneath us starts quaking. Cries erupt and the commotion grows as the earth keeps rumbling. Inside the cave, the ceiling is throwing down dust and rocks the size of my fist. The horses bolt out beside me, barely missing running us over. I cough on the filth, then grab Lord Myles by the arm and drag him out while my muscles and burning leg beg me to leave him.
Then Colin’s behind me. He has grabbed the horses and is yelling about Breck in words too fast for me to understand.
“Where is she?” I ask.
“I don’t know! An’ why in hulls is Lord Windbag here tryin’ to kill us, and why in kracken did you drag ’im out with you?”
I drop Myles’s arms and head for Colin. “Where’d you last see Breck?”
“She was gone when I got out here.”
“What about the other men?”
“They fled into the forest after their hor—”
A crashing along the tree line cuts him off. It’s followed by Breck’s cry and a bolcrane scream.
CHAPTER 30
BRECK APPEARS LIKE A LAUGHING MADWOMAN from the forest, legs racing and hair sticking straight up. A half terrameter behind her, the tops of snow-frosted trees are shaking and bowing to the accompaniment of cracking limbs and uprooting trunks. The ground trembles.
An adult bolcrane.
Colin’s eyes grow melon-size. He shoves Haven’s reins at me and jumps onto his mount, spurring it toward Breck.
“Nym, let’s go!” he’s yelling. “Breck, what in hulls?”
I reach for a stirrup as the bloodcurdling cry of a grown man explodes from somewhere close in the forest. Colin races for Breck. The assassins’ heat drew the monster right to us. Fools.
I strain to get my aching leg up on Haven, but before I do, Colin’s already reached his sister. He leans down and yanks Breck up behind him, and I’m at once relieved and terrified as the forest screams grow louder. I’m also suddenly aware of Lord Myles lying beside me in a faint.
I look from Colin and Breck to Myles and back.
“Nym, what’re you waitin’ for? We ’ave to go!” Colin hollers.
I bend down to feel Myles’s pulse as my legs quiver and threaten to give way.
“You can’t be serious!” Colin dashes up to me while Breck’s hanging on to him for dear life.
“We can’t just leave him!”
“That thing’s comin’, and if you bring Lord Myles, he’ll probably just try to kill you when he wakes!”
The shuddering in my thighs moves up my body, making my head feel dizzy and my skin cold. I slip out the medicine box and swallow the final two tablets, then tuck it away and yank up my hood. He’s right of course. I can’t bring Myles.
I look at the cave, which, while still bellowing smoke and debris, is miraculously still intact. “He betrayed Faelen to Bron, but we can’t just let him die.” I lift the man’s arm again and, clamping my lips shut, try to drag him back into the cave, while my own leg and gut revolt.
Colin just glares as he jumps down to help. “You want to save all them too?” He dumps Myles’s body inside before batting a hand back at the forest where more cries are erupting.