Air

by Rosie Scott

  With Azazel and Jakan's help, Nyx slipped out of the giant's hand, falling on her butt in the midst of a puddle from my earlier water magic. Jakan helped her to stand, and we stampeded toward the now-widened opening into the rest of the cavern, dodging falling stone.

  Cerin and Anto were running toward us when we turned the corner, though the two men quickly skidded to a stop as they noticed our direction.

  “Run!” Jakan screamed. “The whole cave is collapsing!”

  We rushed past the rooms we'd looked into earlier, each of them now crumbling from the walls upward, intent on erasing any evidence that gods had lived here at all. A crash echoed out from far behind us, sending waves of vibrations through the stone, numbing our legs and further enticing the ceilings to crumble. As we finally reached the incline to the surface, Maggie appeared at halfway down from the exit, in the midst of coming after us. Even farther ahead at the cave's entrance were the Sentinels, peering in and calling for us to hurry.

  A thick chunk of stone fell just feet before Jakan, covering the front of his armor with dust as he ran into it. The thief diverted his course and rushed around. My own pace was slowing. Out of all of us here, I was the least physically fit, so I was the last in our group.

  Chink!

  My head rattled. I felt cold stone on the palms of my hands even before I knew I'd fallen. An intense, piercing pain shot through my head from behind my right ear. Through blurry vision, I saw a piece of crumbled rock lying on the ground, a corner of it covered in my blood.

  My name echoed through the tunnel, though it sounded like it was at a distance. It was Jakan's voice, distressed. I stared through moist eyes at the mouth of the cave, finding that all of my friends had made it to the exit. One of them ran back into the tunnel, however, rushing to me.

  Two periwinkle hands grabbed my arms, pulling me to a stand. “Come on, Kai!” Azazel encouraged, urging me forward from behind with a hand on my back. Cerin showed up in front of me a few moments later, taking my arm and tugging me with him. My lover and I hurried out of the tunnel for good, my headache compounding when I heard it collapse behind me.

  “No!” Cyrus's voice shattered into my already pained head. As Jakan gave me an illusion spell to dull the wound's protests, I looked through tears to see the Sentinel tugging at rocks. What once had been the large, open entrance of a cave was merely a pile of rubble. I found Uriel standing nearby, and felt confused as to why Cyrus thought someone had been left behind.

  Cerin started to heal my head wound as our other friends rushed forward, grasping and tugging at rocks and boulders.

  “He...he had a shield!” Jakan insisted, through tears. “That's enough, right?”

  I pushed Cerin off of me, panicking. “What? Who?”

  Anto glanced up at me, his normally calm eyes full of anxiety. “Azazel.”

  “He was making sure you were okay, Kai,” Jakan rambled, his voice trembling with mourning. “The ceiling started to cave, and he just put his hands before his face to protect his head. That was it! Then it...collapsed.”

  “No.” I ran forward to the rubble, frantically shooting earth magic into one boulder after another, turning stone into sand. “How far was he?” I yelled, even as blood trickled down the back of my neck from my still bleeding wound. I had been so disoriented from the injury that I couldn't remember myself. “How far?!” I screamed.

  Jakan rushed forward, pointing a bronzed finger to a pile of rocks only a few feet from the entrance. There was no way that fate would be that cruel. If Azazel had lost his life mere feet away from the exit of a tunnel much like the one which had led to his underground prison, it would be the worst irony.

  Sss... Granules of sand drizzled through the cracks of other boulders as I kept shooting earth magic into the pile of them.

  “Kai!” Uriel yelled. “Azazel is still alive! The spell he taught me shows life! You're in the right place!”

  Hope fueled me then. I could only imagine how injured the archer was, but if he was alive, that was all that mattered. I would drain my own life to heal him again if I needed to.

  Another boulder crumbled into sand, and my eyes caught on just the slightest flickering white glow from Azazel's remaining shield between two chunks of stone. I wasn't sure how that was possible. The pressure of the collapse should have crushed it.

  “Kai!” Azazel's voice was muffled beneath the materials between us.

  “I see you!” I blurted, watching as the sands from my latest spell drizzled over the magic of his remaining shield.

  “The last boulder!” The archer yelled up at me. “The last one, just move it!”

  I wasn't entirely sure what Azazel meant by that, but I reached out to the last boulder to follow his direction. Even though it was huge and must have weighed hundreds of pounds, it budged with a simple push, rolling over the rest of the rubble to the side as if it weighed even less than me. Azazel struggled to stand in the midst of the wreckage, and I reached a hand through the rocks, grateful when I felt him grab it.

  The archer pulled himself carefully out of the pile of rocks and boulders seconds later. The shield I'd given him minutes ago was weak, but it still persisted.

  “All right,” Cyrus breathed with relief, when Azazel finally stood beside all of us, no worse for wear. “I have to admit, you've impressed me in many ways already, but I have to know how you survived that.”

  Azazel jerked a thumb to me, his black eyes soft in my own. “Ask her.”

  I dispelled the archer's shield before I grabbed him into a desperate hug, letting my tears stain the front of his armor. Azazel lifted his arms up to return the affection, even as I said, “I don't know how you survived it, but I'm so glad you did.”

  Azazel chuckled before pulling away from me so Cerin could continue healing my head wound. “The spell you created back in Tal, Kai.”

  It only took me a moment to understand what he meant. Alleviate. It was the alteration spell I'd developed to allow Eteri's warships to carry the weight of the giants. I'd taught it to Azazel soon after creating it, just in case he ever needed it. I couldn't have imagined a use for it in battle then since its only purpose was to lighten the weight of a material object. I'd nearly forgotten the spell existed. Thank the gods Azazel had enough foresight to consider its use during such chaos.

  “Alleviate,” Azazel told Cyrus and Uriel. “It lessens the weight of an object. It will allow your warships to bring the giants with you into battle.” The archer jerked a thumb toward the rubble. “Needless to say, it also works on stone.”

  “You were right, Kai,” Cyrus murmured. “The lesser magics are useful. I only wish the queen had allowed our armies to use them before now.”

  “Paralyze alone was worth gaining the knowledge,” Uriel added before he glanced to the rubble. “What's the status of Abaddis and Aleyah?”

  “They are both dead,” I informed him. “The gods were holding Aleyah hostage here. She was not a willing participant in this war. She offered me intel I could get nowhere else before I killed her.”

  “Why did you kill her if she meant you no harm?” Cerin questioned, confused.

  “Because she didn't want to come with us to Mistral,” I replied, my eyes on the two Sentinels. “She knew Tilda would use her in much the same way.”

  Cyrus sighed heavily, though he didn't appear to be shocked by that information.

  “Abaddis crashed through a thick wall of the cavern to get to us, which is what caused all this to begin with. Azazel was forced to paralyze her again before we rushed out of there. She's under the rubble.”

  “Can we be sure she's actually dead, then?” Cyrus questioned.

  Uriel lifted up a palm beside him, moving it across the cliff-tops which were visibly caved in. No red energy ever appeared. “She's dead,” he confirmed.

  “Okay.” Cyrus's nostrils flared as he looked over the battlefield. The sun was just now starting to set, signaling the end of a very long day. The pink glow of the sunset shone off of the pu
ddles left behind by the earlier rains. From here, it appeared that the stone itself was bleeding, since the pools were contaminated with the blood of Eteri soldiers. The casualties had been completely brutalized. Between Malachi's brass knuckles bashing through heads and throats and Abaddis's immense strength and battle savagery, the corpses here were hard to look at. Many soldiers had literally been trampled by Abaddis and were little more than piles of gory mush. Going through the dead of this battle tonight was going to be distressing, to say the least.

  “Victory sure doesn't feel like victory tonight,” Uriel mused, his eyes looking over the few soldiers we had left. There were only about fifty survivors, including us.

  Cyrus turned to start doing the job no one wanted to do, heading toward the corpses of the men and women who'd entrusted their lives to him. “There are no victories to be had without sacrifice.”

  Twenty

  “I am an aunt.” My words were barely audible over the crackling of our small, pathetic campfire. Some of the soldiers had carried wood that was coated in calcint, which is what we used to keep the fire going over stone tonight. The fire was one made for comfort and light rather than for cooking food. Few edible creatures lived up here, so we all ate from the leftovers we had. Even the soldiers gathered around us tonight since we had so few people left.

  Cerin stiffened beside me at my words. I was sure it was the last thing he could have expected to hear. “How do you know?”

  “Aleyah offered me her powers before she died. I asked for information on Terran and Silas.”

  “Who is Silas?” Uriel questioned.

  “My former friend and bodyguard. He abandoned us just before the Seran massacre. He is Celdic royalty.” The two Sentinels took this information in with much interest.

  “Did she offer you any information about the child?” Cerin asked.

  “Their names. How Terran feels about them.”

  “He has more than one child?” Anto asked, surprised. “Already?”

  “Busy, busy man,” Nyx muttered.

  “The Battle of the Dead happened on the 83rd of Red Moon, 418,” I replied. “In ten days, three years will have passed. It is not too much to ask. Humans can conceive and give birth in less than a year.”

  “If you and Cerin could have kids, we'd be overrun with Renegades,” Nyx jested dryly.

  “Forgive my ignorance, Kai,” Maggie spoke up, frowning. “But why are ya barren?”

  “That's not really a question to just ask someone,” Cyrus protested, though he laughed out of awkwardness.

  Maggie shrugged. “Feel free not to answer it, love. Ya just don't seem to be one for avoidin' questions.”

  “I'm not. I took no offense.” I spun the ring Calder had given me around my finger as I explained, “You were there in Mistral when Bhaskar mentioned how I am a mistake of nature. Half-breeds of gods aren't supposed to exist. I am the first and only. Gods are not meant to breed with mortals. Given my own rarity and the fact that Cerin has no god blood, I am unable to get pregnant.”

  “Give Hades a holler,” Nyx piped up, grinning as Cerin shot her a glare.

  “Like that would even work,” I retorted. “I still have human blood in me, and he is Alderi in appearance. Bhaskar mentioned how the gods usually only get pregnant when two look alike, and even then it's extraordinarily rare.”

  “Are ya sure it can't happen?” Maggie questioned. “Ya never know 'till it does, right? You happened.”

  “Trust me, if I could get pregnant, I would have been by now,” I mused, looking over to Cerin with a flirtatious smile. “We've been together for over three years. Multiply the days passed by three, and that's how many chances we had.” I heard Nyx laugh at that because even she believed it to be true.

  “How does that make ya feel?” Maggie asked curiously. “That ya can't get pregnant?”

  “It doesn't,” I said, before a chuckle. “Well, honestly, it does make me feel relieved. I have no room in my life for children, and I have never felt a desire for them. I love war, adventure, politics, and my friends. Adding children to the mix would take time away from all of the above.”

  “What about you, Cerin?” Maggie inquired.

  “Same,” he replied. “I don't want children, but I sure enjoy acting like I can make them with her.” As I chuckled, Cerin brushed his lips against the top of my neck flirtatiously.

  “You sound affected by being an aunt,” Cyrus pointed out.

  “Because I am,” I replied. “My brother used to be the one light of my life, and he is going through major life changes that I cannot be there for.”

  “Do you feel for the children?” The Sentinel asked.

  “I don't know these children,” I replied. “I am not one to love family simply because they are family. I make my own family.” I motioned to my friends. “I grew up calling Sirius father and Terran brother. I only consider one of those labels to be true now given the events of the past. It is because I still love Terran that I am conflicted about this situation. Not because I love the children. I cannot love those I don't know, and given the war we find ourselves in, I will probably be at odds with these kids at some point down the line.”

  “Did Aleyah say anything about his kids possibly being powerful?” Cerin questioned, his long fingers entwining with my own.

  “The eldest is a daughter, Aella, born at some point during our early underground takeover. Aleyah said that Terran feels she may become a life or air mage.”

  Azazel nodded at this. “He named her after a whirlwind,” the archer informed us.

  “That makes sense. Do you know what Ignatius means?”

  “Fiery one or ignite,” the archer replied.

  “Aleyah said Ignatius has hair like my own, and that Terran is still celebrating his birth, so it sounds like he was born just within the past moon or two. I can't know for sure if both children will be mages, but red hair like mine is rarely found in non-magic users.”

  “Correction,” Cyrus lifted up a finger. “All with hair as red as yours have the ability to wield fire. Some simply do not use it.”

  “Also, the line of Seran royalty is highly magical,” Uriel added. “Though I'm sure you already knew this, Kai. It is part of the reason the city was named after the family line, to begin with.”

  I nodded. “I read texts back in Sera about the possibility that the human blood of the Serans had elven contaminants.”

  “I've heard the same thing,” Cyrus agreed. “It is rumored that one of the earliest Seran royalty had an affair with a half-breed elven man and that her firstborn was a fourth Celdic. If that's true, it would be highly diluted in the family line now, all these centuries later.”

  “Not diluted enough,” Uriel commented. “Sirius is supposedly fully human, and yet he can dual cast life and air?” The Sentinel scoffed. “It's extremely rare for humans to be dual casters at all, and one of Sirius's elements is of the two hardest to wield. That elven blood still runs through the Serans, Kai.”

  “I don't really care how much elven blood runs through Sirius,” I mused. “As long as I can easily kill him, it doesn't matter.”

  Nyx chuckled at my blunt words. “That's the spirit, friend!”

  “What did Aleyah say of Silas?” Cerin asked me, his fingers picking absently at the ring he'd bought me long ago.

  “The Celds have shunned him for his involvement with me. The entire Galan family's importance falters.”

  “That's a shame,” Anto commented with sympathy.

  “Silas made some decisions that I didn't agree with in Sera,” Cerin said, “but I would have never wished that upon him.”

  “You know,” Nyx began, “most of the things Silas and I bickered over had to do with his boring insistence to uphold the law and to do only good and yadda yadda. Out of all the people to be punished by a bunch of treehuggers, I would have never imagined it would be him.”

  Jakan chuckled at her wording before the thief said to me, “Well, now we can be certain we'll be fighting
with the Celds in the future. Your earlier estimate that the chances were low Silas would keep Celendar out of the war has now dropped to zero.”

  “Is there a chance he would rejoin you?” Anto asked hopefully.

  “I...doubt it,” I admitted. “No matter how badly the Celds treat him, he still doesn't agree with necromancy, and he doesn't like warmongering. He was unhappy with me when he left for a reason.”

  “I heard him wish you luck despite your differences,” Nyx pointed out. “He mentioned necromancy in that last conversation with you, and how if anyone could change the world's view of it, it was you.”

  I frowned over at my best friend. “Okay, first of all, you heard that? You were still in our room! And how in the world do you remember it?”

  Nyx shrugged and smiled mischievously. “My ears make it easy to eavesdrop, Kai. Lots of juicy drama was happening at the time. You couldn't have expected me not to listen.”

  I sighed at her antics. “In either case, I think Silas was simply being polite. Wishing the best for me because he cared for me. I don't think he ever expected me to get this far.”

  “When it comes time to skip through Chairel and take shit over, maybe he could be useful to us,” Nyx suggested.

  “Nyx, I'm not going to use Silas like a tool.”

  Nyx shrugged. “I'm just saying, if he won't fight us or join us, sabotage is always an option. He might be willing to make us a deal that'll keep casualties low and the forest safe.”

  Cyrus held up a finger to intervene. “Nyx, you were with Kai during the underground takeover, right?”

  Nyx nodded. “Yep. I killed the queen myself.”

  “There she goes bragging again,” Cerin muttered beside me.

  Cyrus went on, “You do know that when armies march for conquest, they do not skip?”

  All of us laughed at the unexpected jab. With a grin, Nyx retorted, “Well, if they don't, they should. How do you think we took the underground? All of us just skipped right through, and all the Alderi there were so impressed by our synchronization that they handed us the keys to the cities.”