Unlit (Kingdoms of Earth & Air #1)

For freedom’s sake, I need more help than this! If you wish to help me save Winterborne, then tell me where Hedra is!

For an instant, I thought the mental plea went unheard. Then the wind hit me, pushing me to the left. In the shadows near the box that normally held the guard who monitored day-to-day entry into the upper areas stood Hedra.

Unfortunately, the same wind that showed her to me also revealed my approach to her.

She clenched her fist, but instead of throwing me backward with a tumultuous blast of air, as I half expected, she ripped her hand back, as if the air was a rope attached to something very real and very solid.

I felt the shudder in the stone first, and then heard a strange, almost metallic groaning; immediately after this, metal began to pierce the air—metal that was thick and heavy and smelled of machinery oil.

And it was coming straight at me.

I cursed and hit the ground, my hands over my head in a rather useless act of protection. The wind shifted its force just enough for the deadly projectiles to smash into the inner wall above me rather than into my body, but I was nevertheless covered in a rain of metal, cogs, and freedom only knew what else. Pain shuddered through my body, but it was minor compared to the fear.

Because the metal projectiles were nothing other than the remains of the apparatus that operated the gates. Without it, there were only the two steel girders that were automatically dropped into place to provide additional support to the gates in the event of a mass attack.

But those girders were shuddering and shaking in position as the wind tore at them with increasing force.

Stop, I silently screamed at the air. You have to stop it. You can’t open the gates.

Can’t stop, the wind whispered. It is not a matter of will, but rather control.

And Hedra was the far stronger air witch here, even if she wasn’t from one of the ruling houses.

I cursed and pushed upright. The wind swung around me, battering me, hindering me, but not, I knew, with the force Hedra wanted. Still, it was enough to snatch the mask from my face and rip the lines free from the small air cylinder. As it was sent tumbling, twisting up into the air and out of reach, Hedra screamed. Not in fear, but in fury. I could hear her now—she wanted the wind to grab my body as it had grabbed the mask, to send me flying, to smash me against the wall the machinery had hit.

Wanted it to rip her free of this place, to take her well beyond the walls and the Adlin where she would meet the Queen’s forces and be safe.

The wind tore at me, sending sections of skirt flying but leaving me otherwise intact. And it left her on the ground.

I staggered forward, my knuckles white with the force of my grip on my knife. I had one chance—just one chance—to stop this madness. The temptation to throw my knife and end her life here and now was fierce, but the wind whispered against it. It was still bound to obey Hedra, if only partially, and would divert the blade if I did so.

If she saw me coming, she gave no sign of it. Her concentration now seemed to be solely on the gates. I didn’t dare look at how close she was to succeeding in her aim of opening them; my goal was to stop her, and every inch of concentration and energy was now being poured into that.

Inch by inch, I drew closer. But every step felt like a goddamn mile; my lungs burned, and my heart pounded so rapidly I swore it was about to tear out of my chest.

Then the inevitable happened. The crossbeams were flung free of the latches holding them in place, and the two extremely heavy gates that protected Winterborne opened with a crash that reverberated through every inch of the outer bailey.

“No!” I screamed, and lunged at Hedra.

She saw me, but far too late. She raised a hand as if to batter me away physically as well as magically, but my knife punched through her chest and sliced into her heart. Her eyes went wide as the realization of death hit and the wind died. The silence that briefly followed was eerie. If the wind mourned her passing, then she did not speak of it.

As her body crumpled to the ground, I swung around, sucking the returning air into my burning lungs as I prayed that the Adlin hadn’t noticed the gates were open.

It was a forlorn hope at best, and one that died very quickly.

A sea of thickset, hairy beings scrambled in through the opening. Nightwatch officers were pouring down from the walkways, and it was literally raining metal as they fired everything they had at the incoming Adlin. But there were far too many Adlin and far too few soldiers armed with nitrate rifles to do too much damage.

I bent and pressed my hand against the stone. Bury her deep. Keep the bracelets safe and out of sight. Tell no one about her presence or where she lies.

The earth didn’t speak to me, but after a moment, a rumble ran through the ground, and the stone split asunder. Hedra’s body dropped without ceremony into that gash. It swiftly closed again, leaving no trace of the woman who had betrayed us all.

But the stones under my feet continued to shake. Power surged through it, through me, a force that was both masculine and familiar. The rumbling increased as the ground began to heave and rise, becoming a wave of almost molten rock that raced toward the doorway, sweeping the Adlin before it, forcing them back. As this first wave pushed them beyond the gateway, a second wave began to form. At the same time, thick gray fingers of stone crept up the gatehouse walls and began pushing at the doors. They shifted, slowly at first, but with increasing speed. More Adlin appeared, scrambling over the still-moving wave of earth and then throwing themselves through the rapidly closing gap. Some didn’t make it, becoming little more than a smear of blood and hair as the doors slammed shut. The second wave then crashed upon them, quickly forming a retaining wall and providing extra weight to hold the doors closed.

But there were at least two sleuths now locked within the outer bailey walls. And while some of them were attacking the defenseless men and women who lay on the ground, most were running to the right, to the stairs that led up to the bunkhouses.

Why? What on earth did they hope to achieve by fleeing there rather than attacking? They wouldn’t find much in the way of protection, especially given the lack of maneuvering space on the narrow walkways and within the small rooms….

A throaty roar caught my attention. I glanced around sharply and saw an Adlin coming straight at me, his eyes filled with rage and his teeth bared and bloody. I swore, flung some air his way to slow his steps, then spun and ran. I wasn’t about to face even one of those damn creatures armed with just a short-bladed knife.

But the creature was faster than I’d ever be, and was gaining on me far too rapidly. As the shuddering earth warned me of the creature’s closeness, I scooped up a couple of blasters and then spun around, firing them nonstop even as I continued to run backward, my steps guided by the whispering of the wind. The Adlin’s body shook and shuddered under the barrage of the blaster’s bullets, but it wasn’t stopped. Nothing except a nitrate rifle could do that, and there certainly weren’t any of those lying about in the near vicinity.

“Duck!” a familiar voice screamed.

I did so without question and, a second later, the Adlin’s head was blown apart. As his body lost momentum and fell to the ground near my feet, I twisted around. Ava strode toward me, a fierce grin on her face and a bloody wound stretching down her left arm from above her elbow to her knuckles.

“That,” I said, accepting her help up, “was a very nice piece of timing.”

She gave me a quick hug, and then shoved a rifle in my hands. “Let’s go get the rest of these bastards.”

“Where’s April?” I said, as we strode forward.

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