Fear.
My knees almost buckled under sudden cold certainty I would die here painfully, screaming the names of my family as we perished. I should simply give in and meet my fate in the flames. Sweat broke out on my forehead, and not only from the strain of working unfamiliar magic.
Hold,Darkan said.Alittle longer.His voice sounded stronger, clearer. . .deeper?
I was going to burn out. The flames would eat me from the inside. Unworthy, foulhalfling. Fit only to lick the boot of my betters.
“Don't struggle against the fear,”Édouardgrowled. “It's in your mind. The more you fight, the more it controls you. Aerinne, hold the Bridge.”
Of course. He was impervious to mental manipulation. His Skill. And somehow, he knew I was linking our personal shields.
Instead of fighting the fear, I let it wash through me, beginning to think clearly again. But gods, the pain. It felt like carrying a horse on my back while hamstrung. I fell to one knee, the Bridge between us crumbling.
A warrior buckled, and the flames consumed him, breaking through our combined shield. I shoved aside the grief and guilt, focusing ruthlessly asNumairyanked me to my feet and the rest of us shifted to fill the gap.Édouardsignaled to advance; it was that or stand still.
We moved slowly, relying on me to maintain the weakening shield. I faltered then rallied, picking up the brittle links and rehooking them to each other. I tasted the power of each of my people.
Exhaustion crept in. Too close to burn out. A hand slapped onto my shoulder and a flood of energy filled me.
“Take what you need,” Juliette said.
I did, renewed.
We marched forward.
The male mage met us, steps unhurried. His gaze touched mine briefly. His eyebrow flickered up, then down.
“A Bridge, how rare,” he said. “Pity.”
So everyone but me knew what this affinity was. I should have known too but, well. . .my tutors gave up on me by the time I was seventeen. I wasn't what one might callwell educated, despite a few years at state university in New York. Occasionally I toyed with the idea of doing something about that, but really, what for? I could kill, I could manage a business.
Good enough.
Not even you can be that simplistic,Darkan said.
Do you care to wager on that?
Focus, girl!he growled as my shield broke.
Power hit us.
A female three people over from me was lifted in the air and thrown right as the same power barreled into me.
A telekinetic.
The male HighFae methodically flung us all over the place. Thenit was my turn. The experience about what I expected.
His power slowly crushed my internal organs as I lay on the ground, winded and barely conscious from having been hurled into a tree, then picked up and dumped back in the clearing. Darkan’s presence vanished, leaving an internal void that momentarily paralyzed me.
Quiet. Not even birdsong or the groaning of my injured warriors. The quiet of a graveyard. I blinked, shoving aside despair. I wouldn't die grief-stricken.
The flame-thrower stepped closer, and I remained slumped over in pain. Blackness crept up my hand, disappearing under my cuff. The pain was nothing I'd ever felt. I clung to consciousness. What form of Skill was this. Poison? Rot?
“You fought well, child,” she said. “But you're young, and your human blood makes you unfit, ultimately. If our people are to thrive in this realm, we must cull the weak. Thank you for your sacrifice.”
“Stop toying with her,” the male said. He stared through the tree line. “Kill her quickly.”
“I'd rather you did it,” I croaked. “As a favor to me.” He wouldn't bother making it hurt. Not that physical pain mattered, not with the emotional pain crushing my chest.
