Perhaps Manon would lose herself in blood and gore instead.
“You’re carrion,” Manon said, and lunged.
Only to slam face-first into an invisible wall.
And then freeze entirely.
“Run,” Aelin breathed, s.n.a.t.c.hing up Goldryn and bolting for the trees. The Wing Leader was frozen in place, her sentinels wide-eyed as they rushed to her.
Chaol’s human blood wouldn’t hold the spell for long.
“The ravine,” Aedion said, not looking back from where he sprinted ahead with Chaol toward the temple.
They hurtled through the trees, the witches still in the meadow, still trying to break the spell that had trapped their Wing Leader.
“You,” Rowan said as he ran beside her, “are one very lucky woman.”
“Tell me that again when we’re out of here,” she panted, leaping over a fallen tree.
A roar of fury set the birds scattering from the trees, and Aelin ran faster. Oh, the Wing Leader was p.i.s.sed. Really, really p.i.s.sed.
Aelin hadn’t believed for one moment that the witch would have let them walk away without a fight. She had needed to buy whatever time they could get.
The trees cleared, revealing a barren stretch of land jutting toward the deep ravine and the temple perched on the spit of rock in the center. On the other side, Oakwald sprawled onward.
Connected only by two chain-and-wood bridges, it was the sole way across the ravine for miles. And with the dense foliage of Oakwald blocking the wyverns, it was the only way to escape the witches, who would no doubt pursue on foot.
“Hurry,” Rowan shouted as they made for the crumbling temple ruins.
The temple was small enough that not even the priestesses had dwelled here. The only decorations on the stone island were five weather-stained pillars and a crumbling, domed roof. Not even an altar—or at least one that had survived the centuries.
Apparently, people had given up on Temis long before the King of Adarlan came along.
She just prayed that the bridges on either side—
Aedion hurled himself to a stop before the first footbridge, Chaol thirty paces behind, Aelin and Rowan following. “Secure,” Aedion said. Before she could bark a warning, he thundered across.
The bridge bounced and swayed, but held—held even as her d.a.m.n heart stopped. Then Aedion was at the temple island, the single, thin pillar of rock carved out by the rushing river flowing far, far below. He waved Chaol on. “One at a time,” he ordered. Beyond him the second bridge waited.
Chaol hurried through the stone pillars that flanked the entrance to the first bridge, the thin iron chains on the sides writhing as the bridge bounced. He kept upright, flying toward the temple, faster than she’d ever seen him run during all those morning exercises through the castle grounds.
Then Aelin and Rowan were at the columns, and— “Don’t even try to argue,” Rowan hissed, shoving her ahead of him.
G.o.ds above, that was a wicked drop beneath them. The roar of the river was barely a whisper.
But she ran—ran because Rowan was waiting, and there were the witches breaking through the trees with Fae swiftness. The bridge bucked and swayed as she shot over the aging wooden planks. Ahead, Aedion had cleared the second bridge to the other side, and Chaol was now sprinting across it. Faster—she had to go faster. She leaped the final few feet onto the temple rock.
Ahead, Chaol exited the second bridge and drew his blade as he joined Aedion on the gra.s.sy cliff beyond, an arrow nocked in her cousin’s bow—aimed at the trees behind her. Aelin lunged up the few stairs onto the bald temple platform. The entire circular s.p.a.ce was barely more than thirty feet across, bordered on all sides by a sheer plunge—and death.
Temis, apparently, was not the forgiving sort.
She twisted to look behind. Rowan was running across the bridge, so fast that the bridge hardly moved, but—
Aelin swore. The Wing Leader had reached the posts, flinging herself over and jumping through the air to land a third of the way down the bridge. Even Aedion’s warning shot went long, the arrow imbedding where any mortal should have landed. But not a witch. Holy burning h.e.l.l.
“Go,” Rowan roared at Aelin, but she palmed her fighting knives, bending her knees as—
As an arrow fired by the golden-haired lieutenant shot for Aelin from the other side of the ravine.
Aelin twisted to avoid it, only to find a second arrow from the witch already there, antic.i.p.ating her maneuver.
A wall of muscle slammed into her, shielding her and shoving her to the stones.
And the witch’s arrow went clean through Rowan’s shoulder.
60
For a moment, the world stopped.
Rowan slammed onto the temple stones, his blood spraying on the aging rock.
Aelin’s scream echoed down the ravine.
But then he was up again, running and bellowing at her to go. Beneath the dark arrow protruding through his shoulder, blood already soaked his tunic, his skin.
If he had been one inch farther behind, it would have hit his heart.
Not forty paces down the bridge, the Wing Leader closed in on them. Aedion rained arrows on her sentinels with preternatural precision, keeping them at bay by the tree line.
Aelin wrapped an arm around Rowan and they raced across the temple stones, his face paling as the wound gushed blood. She might have still been screaming, or sobbing—there was such a roaring silence in her.
Her heart—it had been meant for her heart.
And he had taken that arrow for her.
The killing calm spread through her like h.o.a.rfrost. She’d kill them all. Slowly.
They reached the second bridge just as Aedion’s barrage of arrows halted, his quiver no doubt emptied. She shoved Rowan onto the planks. “Run,” she said.
“No—”
“Run.”
It was a voice that she’d never heard herself use—a queen’s voice—that came out, along with the blind yank she made on the blood oath that bound them together.
His eyes flashed with fury, but his body moved as though she’d compelled him. He staggered across the bridge, just as—
Aelin whirled, drawing Goldryn and ducking just as the Wing Leader’s sword swiped for her head.
It hit stone, the pillar groaning, but Aelin was already moving—not toward the second bridge but back toward the first one, on the witches’ side.
Where the other witches, without Aedion’s arrows to block them, were now racing from the cover of the woods.
“You,” the Wing Leader growled, attacking again. Aelin rolled—right through Rowan’s blood—again dodging the fatal blow. She uncurled to her feet right in front of the first bridge, and two swings of Goldryn had the chains snapping.
The witches skidded to a stop at the lip of the ravine as the bridge collapsed, cutting them off.
The air behind her shifted, and Aelin moved—but not fast enough.
Cloth and flesh tore in her upper arm, and she barked out a cry as the witch’s blade sliced her.
She whirled, bringing Goldryn up for the second blow.
Steel met steel and sparked.
Rowan’s blood was at her feet, smeared across the temple stones.
Aelin Galathynius looked at Manon Blackbeak over their crossed swords and let out a low, vicious snarl.
Queen, savior, enemy, Manon didn’t give a s.h.i.t.
She was going to kill the woman.
Their laws demanded it; honor demanded it.
Even if she hadn’t slaughtered Baba Yellowlegs, Manon would have killed her just for that spell she’d used to freeze her in place.
That was what she’d been doing with her feet. Etching some foul spell with the man’s blood.
And now she was going to die.
Wind-Cleaver pressed against the queen’s blade. But Aelin held her ground and hissed, “I’m going to rip you to shreds.”
Behind them, the Thirteen gathered on the ravine’s edge, cut off. One whistle from Manon had half of them scrambling for the wyverns. She didn’t get to sound the second whistle.
Faster than a human had a right to be, the queen swept out a leg, sending Manon tripping back. Aelin didn’t hesitate; she flipped the sword in her hand and lunged.
Manon deflected the blow, but Aelin got past her guard and pinned her, slamming her head against stones that were damp with the Fae warrior’s blood. Splotches of dark bloomed in her vision.
Manon drew in breath for the second whistle—the one to call off Asterin and her arrows.
She was interrupted by the queen slamming her fist into Manon’s face.
Black splintered further across her vision—but she twisted, twisted with every bit of her immortal strength, and they went flipping across the temple floor. The drop loomed, and then—
An arrow whizzed right for the queen’s exposed back as she landed atop Manon.
Manon twisted again, and the arrow bounced off the pillar instead. She threw Aelin from her, but the queen was instantly on her feet again, nimble as a cat.
“She’s mine,” Manon barked across the ravine to Asterin.
The queen laughed, hoa.r.s.e and cold, circling as Manon got to her feet.
Across the other side of the ravine, the two males were helping the wounded Fae warrior off the bridge, and the golden-haired warrior charged—
“Don’t you dare, Aedion,” Aelin said, throwing out a hand in the male’s direction.
He froze halfway across the bridge. Impressive, Manon admitted, to have them under her command so thoroughly.