No!
Olah, help me.
Guide me.
Bring me back to him.
Wearily, I stumble to my feet and walk to my tent, where I step inside and crumble to my blankets. I would do anything for a comfortable bed right now, and Hector asleep next to me.
No. I want Hector fully awake and on top of me.
ChapterTwenty
“Wake up!” The angry voice cuts through the fogginess of sleep and jolts me awake. As I jerk to a sitting position, an intense wall of heat hits me like a wave, scorching my skin and stinging my eyes.
I rush to the tent flap and step into an inferno. Flames circle the camp. Red, hot, angry flames that stand as tall as a cottage. The rest of the tents are nothing more than ash. Ash dotting the landscape. Ash destroying the people we had rescued. I don’t need anyone to tell me what burning flesh smells like.
I jerk my eyes to the center of the camp, where Jerrod stands with a dagger to Everly’s throat.
My pulse thunders in my ears as I stumble forward. “Let her go.”
The chieftain smirks, and Red Beard lifts his hand, and those flames soar higher, doubling to climb as high as the nearby cliffs.
Please, no!
This cannot be happening.
I glare at both men, hating them and their cruelty. The runes on Red Beard’s armor glow as he continues wielding his fire magic.
“Bring me the relic, or you’ll never see Everly again,” Jerrod says.
Frantically, I reach for the bag Tersah gave me, but it’s not there. I pat my body, desperately seeking bloodstone, but I have nothing. Nothing to save Everly! Nothing to save myself!
Panic and horror thump against my chest as I try to bargain with Jerrod. “I will bring you the relic, but you must free Everly first.”
He laughs, the sound chilling me to my bones. “Do you think I’m a fool? If I give her to you, you’ll have no reason to obey my order.”
With those words, he raises his hand, and Red Beard allows his wall of flames to recede, revealing Hematite archers—hundreds of them with their arrows aimed right at me.
Terror races down my spine as I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. I have nothing to fight with. No way to stop any of this.
I whip my gaze around, desperately searching for Tersah among the Hematites, but I do not find her.
She’s dead.
A man steps from behind the archers, leading two horses. Jerrod mounts one of the horses with Everly in front of him. Her wide, fearful eyes meet mine, and my heart dives to the ground.
I have no marbles left. No flowers. No sword capable of defeating hundreds of archers. They ride away, their treachery pounding against my chest.
“No!” I scream, but there is nobody around to hear me. Nobody around to help me change any of this.
I hurry to the charred remains of the tents, but there’s only ash and bones. Bones of the men I had rescued. Bones of despair and anguish.
My hair lashes against my cheeks as I rush into Tersah’s tent and whip my eyes around, needing to see her. I find nothing. No proof she was ever there.
I stumble out of the tent, crumble to my knees, and raise my face to the sky.
It is over.
