The ground was still smoldering, the heavy scent of charred dirt clinging to every breath. What had been a woodland clearing was now an ash scar, branches reduced to skeletal arms reaching out wildly towards a gray sky. The firestorm Lucian had showered them with or rather, the ambush he had laid still seared in their throats. Every cough brought back how helpless they had been against being annihilated.
Adriana moved through the injured, her boots crunching through ash, her white cloak ripped and soot-stained and smeared with blood. Her magic, taxed, smoldered feebly at her fingertips as she placed her hands over a soldier's broken ribs, urging sinew and bone to mend. The man gasped, rosy color returning to his cheeks, and Adriana found herself trying to summon a weary smile before going on. Her body longed to rest, but there were still too many to need her.
She spotted Damian first before she heard him. His voice, sharp and commanding, rang out across the clearing as he bade survivors dig in and form a quick perimeter. Covered in blood, armor charred and missing a half gauntlet, Damian Hale exuded an aura of unyielding strength. But when his gaze met Adriana, something warmer pushed through the iron of the warlord into something that belonged solely to her.
Elara sat by herself apart from the others, hands bound by magically forced shackles that emitted a soft glow in the darkness. She looked a clipped bird of prey, eyes scanning shadow to shadow expecting at any moment for someone to knock her off. The others stood back. Rumor ran rampant: traitor, spy, threat. A few of the young warriors spat on the ground as they passed.
Adriana came to a halt next to her, observing the girl. Elara's silver locks were tangled, her face streaked with grime and dried tears. She lifted her gaze, and Adriana found in it something that was not hatred it was desperation.
Why spare her?" one of the lieutenants snarled, his voice trembling with anger. "She deceived us there. If you had not been there, Lady Adriana, we would all now be nothing but ashes. She ought to be cut down, not given quarter."
A murmur of assent passed through the survivors who had emerged.
Adriana stood upright. Though weariness pulled at her, she raised her chin, her voice steady.
"Warned us," Adriana responded, her voice firm and steady. "Yes, she took Lucian for a walk once, but I caught her eyes. I saw her choice she left him. She saved more lives than you realize."
The lieutenant gritted his teeth. "And if she betrays us again?"
Adriana glanced over to Damian, standing silently a few feet off. He was a presence at her back solid, anchoring.
"So her fate will be mine to pay," Adriana answered, her words dripping with determination.
A tense silence dropped. No one argued again, though the air hung heavy with tension, much like storm clouds. Adriana knelt in front of Elara once more.
"I won't let them hurt you," she whispered. "But if you fail again if you allow him to take advantage of you I will stop you myself."
Elara nodded, tears streaming silently down her face.
Finally, when darkness descended upon the clearing and the fires were pounded into smoldering cinders, Adriana inched back from the circle of warriors. Her hands shook with exhaustion, her magic unbearably thin. She leaned against a blackened tree trunk, struggling to slow her breathing.
A noise behind her. Damian. Of course.
"Don't be alone," he muttered softly, his voice deeper in the night. He had no helmet anymore, his hair damp with sweat, soot on his face.
"I needed air," Adriana replied, though even she could detect the weariness in her voice.
Damian approached, his gaze sweeping over her with silent concern. He reached out, cupping the palm of her hand upward. Her flesh was pink and blistered from exhausting too much magic.
"You're burning yourself out." His voice dropped lower, on the edge of a growl of annoyance. "Every time, you give everything, leave nothing in reserve. Someday, there will be nothing of you left to save."
Adriana tried to pull away her hand, but he didn't release it, his grip firm but soft, wary.
"You can just quit?" she demanded, attempting to keep her voice tougher than she was. "That you can stand there and watch them suffer, watch them die, when you could do something to stop it? That's not who I am, Damian.".
He clenched his teeth together. He was quiet for a very long time. Then, softly: "It's why I" He caught himself, swallowing.
Adriana tilted her head, regarding his face. "Why you what?"
The fire danced between them, shadows on his face playing. His hand still against hers, thumb rubbing lightly against her wrist. She felt her heart thudding in her chest, the beat echoing out the words he hadn't said.
"Why can't I lose you," Damian whispered finally.
Air became thick. Adriana's breath caught, her lips parting with words that ached to spill out, words she had repressed under duty and fear. She ached to tell him she felt the same, that every quarrel was bearable only because he held her close.
But the world intervened. Frost shot along the clearing, and they both stood still. The fire trembled anomalously, shadows deepening with purpose.
A voice silky, mocking crept across the night.
"Poetic," Lucian's voice said, though he was nowhere in the clearing. "Two hearts tangled in the coals. How sweet… how vulnerable. Shall I break one to see if the other cracks?"
Warriors sprang to their feet, blades drawn, but the voice merely laughed, sounding all around them.
Adriana's hold on Damian's tightened reflexively. Eyes locked, they saw fear, anger, and something more fiercely burning between them.
Lucian's sneering ceased, leaving only the sound of crackling dying embers. The oppressive silence that followed was heavy.
Damian released her hand reluctantly, but his tone stayed even. "He's observing. He wants us unsettled."
Adriana's gaze hardened. "Then let's make him fear something else then."
She heaved herself up, the exhaustion burned away by determination. She again faced the others, and her voice called out, clear for all to hear.
"We will not hide," she declared. "Lucian thinks he can frighten us in the darkness, but I say we take the fight to him. No longer waiting for his strike we end this, on our terms."
The warriors erupted into a cry of assent, though underneath the words, Adriana felt the heavy weight of her own proclamation. This wasn't surviving anymore. This was hunting.
Damian moved to stand beside her, his shoulder against hers. His expression was even, but his eyes lingered on hers for a fraction of a beat more than was required.
They had not spoken the words. Not yet. Yet the bond between them was as hot as it was indomitable, forged in fire and blood.
And riding off down the road that would lead them deeper into Lucian's lands, Adriana knew that when the time came, their hearts would save them. or destroy them.