The Heart Forger (The Bone Witch #2)(121)

I could feel Aenah increasing her hold, using me as a gateway into the azi, who was already struggling, alarmed, as my thoughts crumbled away. I could feel its fear as the strings between us unraveled.

“Tea,” Kalen said quietly. The Heartshare rune spun on his hand; he had always been a quick study.

He released the spell, and I felt it fill me up. The knife dropped from my hand, and Aenah’s gloating expression changed to one of consternation as she clawed at my thoughts but found nothing as Kalen stole me away from her reach. Come to me, I heard, and then I was running, throwing myself into his arms.

That brief second was all it took. In her desperation, knowing that the tide of battle had turned against her, Aenah lashed out at the one other mind she still had control over. The azi screeched in pain, its three heads weaving in agony as the Faceless all but tore into its thoughts, brutal in her quest for dominance. The daeva thrashed wildly, and its tail lifted, the deadly spike whipping through the air straight at Mykaela.

One second was all it took. One second for Polaire’s Shield runes to flicker to life, one second too late for Mykaela to delve into the azi’s mind to pacify its rage. One second for Aenah to beat her there, the azi’s thoughts disappearing into darkness, away from mine.

The daeva’s tail pierced through Polaire’s shield. Trembling, the dark-haired asha’s spell wavered and disappeared, leaving her stock-still, eyes wide in surprise, as blood spread through the front of her shirt where the spike had torn through.

“No!” Mykaela sank to her knees as Polaire toppled, catching her best friend before she could hit the ground. Althy ran to them, heedless of the still-writhing azi. Under Kalen’s control, I watched in dazed disbelief as the healer fell to her knees beside the unmoving Polaire, Mykaela’s hands over the wound to staunch the flowing blood.

Aenah was panting, the exertion of controlling the azi sapping her strength, though she began to smile. Telemaine had snatched an underling’s sword and held it against Khalad’s throat, a warning not to intervene.

“So much for the vaunted…Polaire…” Aenah wheezed, still drunk on power.

“Tea,” Fox whispered.

But I was moving, my mind working from someplace far away, my thoughts scattered into the void. It was a sensation not unfamiliar to me from back when I had taken in darkrot at Daanoris and watched Usij die. But this felt different; I was quiet, filled with the cold detachment of fury and a horrible eagerness. Althy looked back at us, her own face tearstained, and slowly shook her head.

And then I could hear the sound of my mind snapping.





The princess’s regiment waited a couple of miles away, far enough to evoke a deceptive feeling of safety. I feared that the Heartforger and I would be regarded as prisoners of war, but Lord Fox had commanded the soldiers to treat us like honored guests.

Princess Inessa sprang to her feet, flinging her arms around her consort with a sob. “Why are they fighting?” She wept into his chest. “Where is Tea? Lady Mykaela?”

“Most of the elders have been blighted,” he told her soberly, and she recoiled in shock. “If Mykaela and the others fall, we must be ready.”

“If they fall…” she choked out, staring at him in horror.

“If I die, you and the empress are to return to Kion without delay. Take your honor guards and ride as hard as you can for the ships. I sent word for preparations to begin.”

“No!” She clutched at his arms. “I won’t leave you, Fox!”

“I have no choice, Inessa. But I will die in peace if your face is the last vision I see.”

She cried harder and refused to let go. The bone witch’s brother made no protest. The Heartforger paced the tent, but I remained seated, finding little reason to move. If Fox died, then it meant the Dark asha had fallen too and the battle was lost.

But an hour passed and then two. The sounds of battle faded, and lightning no longer leaped across the horizon. The princess clung to her lover the whole time.

The end did not come. Mistress Parmina approached us, but there was none of the spitfire arrogance she displayed in the Daanorian throne room. Her shoulders were slumped, as if in defeat. “The scouts have returned, Fox. It is done.”

“Then Tea is alive.” Hope returned to the man’s face, and the princess broke into fresh happy tears.

“But not without a price,” Mistress Parmina said. To my surprise, she lowered her head and, unabashedly, began to weep.





31


I didn’t know what to do. Hope had disappeared with the deadly swipe of that spiked tail that ended Polaire’s life. My world had shrunk until there was nothing but her dead body, the sounds of Mykaela and Althy’s crying, and both Fox and Kalen’s voices in my head, asking, worrying. Tea. Tea. Tea!

Kalen’s control faded; I took over. I could feel nothing but minds all around me: Mykaela and Althy’s grief, Zoya and Khalad’s horror, Fox’s anger and hatred. And Kalen, anguished and stunned and loving.

But the heartbreaking, wrenching silence of Polaire’s mind was the loudest noise of all.

From somewhere nearby, I watched myself scream, and the world screamed with me. The azi screamed at my anguish, and Aenah too screamed as I punched brutally into her mind. The Dark surrounded me, filling me in ways I had never imagined before, filling me to the brim until I overflowed with Darkness. I welcomed the power, desperate to feel more than the heartache I could not prevent.