Queen Magic (Empire of War & Wings Book 5) by Sarah K. L. Wilson

Author:Sarah K. L. Wilson [Wilson, Sarah K. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sarah K. L. Wilson
Published: 2020-12-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Open with blood,

Pay our price,

Bind your eyes.

The words of the next verse from the tower rippled through my mind. Last time they had been accurate. After all, I had fetched hope in seeing my Osprey again. But this prophecy felt less welcoming. Open with blood? Pay the price? I was already swaying from the energy Juste had stolen from me.

The world shuddered into being and I felt like I was being vomited out of the Forbidding. I stood right on the edge of it – but also on the edge of a pitched battle rolling out over a plain. In the distance, I saw Astar Harbor, flags snapping crisply in the wind, boats and ships gathered far from the city as if fleeing the conflict.

They’d talked about a fight for Astar Harbor. This was that fight. Out there somewhere, Juste would be trying to marshal his troops to press for victory. And the other Wings would help him. Thankfully, he had not ended up in the same place as me, even though he had grabbed my hand to force me to be there with him.

But that might be the only thing to be thankful for. I walked like a ghost between fallen men and women, dead in a blood-soaked carpet across the muddy fields. My breath hitched in my throat. It was always going to come to this – war. A pitched battle between us and them. Us for our freedom. Them to keep us from it. Why did they want that enough to fight us? Was it really worth their lives?

I stumbled, trying not to look at faces. And then I stopped myself from that nonsense. Of course, I should look at faces. What if no one else did? What if I was the only one who saw them in death and truly cared?

There was a boy who looked about my age. He clutched his wounded belly, but his eyes stared far away, curtained by death.

There was an older woman. She could be my older sister Anfrea. Her hair was splayed around her sightless face. Was she someone else’s sister? Someone’s mother?

My eyes were getting glassy. I blinked back tears and shuddered. All of this death. All unnecessary. It didn’t have to be this way. But they’d forced us to it. They’d taken everything except our lives and thought we’d be grateful just to keep those. No, they hadn’t even let us keep our lives because were they really even our lives if we couldn’t defend them? If we couldn’t live them with free minds and free tongues? No. They were just pale shadows. Death on the front step instead of fully in the door.

I shook my head, tears pouring from my eyes. It was right to feel their deaths. If I didn’t who would? Who was going to remember these sacrifices? Who was going to mourn?

My bees began to buzz in my heart as my fury built.

There was a shout ahead and I looked up.

I’d stumbled further than I thought.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.