A Tempest of Shadows

by Washington, Jane

  When Helki threw Calder into the marble so hard that the stone cracked around him, I felt the sound of drumming begin in that cold little space where my heart had retreated to. It filled me with fire, battering loudly at the confines of my mind. Fjor appeared before me, his dark eyes swallowing mine, blocking out the fight before me.

  I growled, a feral sound to warn him to get out of my way, but he stayed, watching or listening to my magic as it slowly, surely, began to filter away the power that held me in place.

  “She’s free—” he began to say, but it was too late.

  I was already twisting my ring.

  I dropped between Helki and Calder, catching a fist in the small of my back and another against the side of my head. I was jerked to the side, but it was Calder who held the back of my fighting leathers. The other great masters stayed at the edges of the temple, knowing that they couldn’t interfere.

  They didn’t have the brand.

  They weren’t Vold.

  But there was no rule against two people fighting their Legionnaires’ battle at the same time. I knew, because I had read the damn rules when Helki had tried to use them against me. Helki stared at me now, wiping blood from his lips with the back of his hand, and Calder gently released me, realising that there was no way he would be able to force me out of the fight without turning his back on Helki—who would incapacitate him in a second.

  Instead, we both ran forward, diving for Helki at the same time. As easily as he had held off Calder, he now held off us both, always faster, anticipating each of our moves. We dove at him with deadly intent every time, yet he was able to escape each attempt on his life with only minor injuries. We fought until we were slipping in snow, our clothes torn and sliced, our movements becoming sluggish, and it was all to no avail. Helki didn’t seem to be going through the same change. He grew faster, stronger, a curtain drawing over his eyes. Intention mixed with something stronger and darker.

  He was done playing with us … and he had been playing with us.

  He shoved Calder to the side, sending him into a pillar that cracked in half, causing the people around to scatter back in fear. He moved faster than my eyes could track, his hand wrapping around my throat and pulling me clean from the ground before I could escape from his grip.

  I recognised it, then. That look in his eye. It was a decision.

  He had decided that this was the time for me to die. The way for me to die.

  Sharp terror ricocheted through me, slicing hotly through whatever link there was between me and Calder, bringing him to his knees and then to his feet. He had a broken leg, and it dragged behind him as he limped forward, blistering wrath spilling from his eyes as oppressive heat swelled and burst around us. The ground vibrated, stone cracking with a deafening sound as the air itself seemed to lick with fire, wavering before my eyes. Helki’s grip on my neck constricted, cutting off my supply of air, but his brows dipped down and I saw the decision waver for a brief second before everything exploded.

  Calder was the only one remaining in the temple, standing on a single slab of the floor as we were all thrown backwards, pieces of marble and chunks of rock scattering into the gathered people, forcing an entire group of spectators to tumble from the edge of the mountain, though the slope wasn’t steep enough for them to be seriously injured.

  I pulled a shard of marble from my arm, barely noticing the pain as I ran back towards Calder. Helki had risen first and was almost upon him, though his right arm—the arm that had been choking me—was blackened all the way to the shoulder, the flesh burnt beyond repair.

  I thought of the brief moment of weakness I had seen in his eyes and screamed out in pain as I forced myself to run faster, launching myself on his back before he could reach Calder. My shadow leapt readily from my skin, passing directly from my chest to his back, sinking into the very core of him as we both tumbled down together.

  When we hit the marble, he grabbed me, crushing me beneath his body.

  “I’m sorry,” I choked out, watching that translucent brown light flicker from his eyes. I truly believed that he had changed his mind.

  As the first Fjorn had instructed me … I had waited for him to be at his weakest.

  I had waited for his humanity to peer through, and then I had stabbed him with it.

  “Tamksveel,” he replied, the word warm against my neck, and I felt the very last vestiges of my energy trickle out of me, stolen by him.

  His body was hauled off me, Calder’s face appearing over mine. He had crawled to my side, and his fingers now gripped my face, forcing my eyes to his.

  “Stay awake,” he commanded, the tone of his voice causing a laugh to bubble to the back of my throat, though it didn’t sound. I was too weak for sound.

  I heard people approach, and Helki was lifted from the ground, supported between Andel and Fjor, who both turned in a flick of air and were gone.

  “Is she alive?” Vidrol asked, toneless.

  “Yes,” Calder answered, not taking his eyes off mine.

  And so is Helki, I thought, my gaze drifting up, passing between Vale and Vidrol. I didn’t need to say the words aloud. They knew.

  Maybe they had always known. Maybe Vale had pulled the outcome of this battle from the water. Calder fell down beside me with a groan of pain, both of us staring up at the sky as Vidrol and Vale disappeared, having borne witness to whatever thread of fate had been chosen that day.

  “Look,” Calder murmured as people gathered all around us.

  He pointed up, and I followed the line of his finger to where the sun peeled back the darkness. The heat of it pricked against my face, causing a blood-filled laugh to gurgle horribly in the back of my throat.

  I’m free, I thought, witnessing the sun drawing apart the sky with arms stretched wide, clawing open the storm that had so doggedly blanketed the world in darkness.

  The world hadn’t given up just yet.

  My head fell to the side, my eyes meeting Calder’s. A familiar voice echoed inside my head, the sweet words of the first Fjorn passing in a moment between us.

  Every drop you bleed for me will be a bandage upon this world.

  I reached out, and his hand caught mine.

  It hadn’t begun with us … but it would end with us, one way or another.

  To be continued…

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