Endure - Sara B. Larson Page 0,101

fell out of sight, inhuman screams filling the air. But one of them was able to hurtle his fire first before falling. It sailed through the air toward a section of waiting soldiers who dove out of the way just before it exploded against the hard ground near some trees, setting a trunk on fire. Someone shrieked in pain but there wasn’t time to look over and see who it was, because the rest of the sorcerers and everyone else who had been behind their front line were running forward, leaping over the falling earth to land on the other side. We’d taken out a large number of the black sorcerers, but more were coming, and our sorcerers couldn’t make the hole any wider without risking the entire trail collapsing and possibly setting off a chain reaction that would take all of us and the temple with it.

“Archers!” Deron shouted, and Jiro added his own shout in Blevonese as we all began to fall back, rushing to escape the reach of the fire that the remaining black sorcerers were conjuring up. Some of our sorcerers stopped and threw their hands out, knocking one or two of the black sorcerers down.

The whistle of arrows sounded as we turned and ran back to higher ground, where the rest of the soldiers and sorcerers awaited the fight. I heard one or two cries of pain as arrows hit targets, but not nearly enough. I stopped and, swinging my own bow over my head, I grabbed an arrow, quickly notching it, and spun around to take aim. The first black sorcerer I spotted was looking up at some archers in the trees ahead of him, lifting his arm to ready his unholy fire. I let my arrow fly, and it rushed through the air, hitting him straight through his eye, knocking him to the ground. The fire in his hand extinguished, unthrown. He was dead.

“Alexa!” I heard Damian’s frantic shout, and I sprinted to catch up to him and everyone else trying to get out of reach of the fire that was exploding all around us. There were more screams and cries of pain as the black sorcerers hit some of our men. I didn’t dare look back, terrified I would see someone I knew.

There wasn’t much farther for us to go — the temple loomed ahead. We had to turn and fight.

I grabbed another arrow and stopped to turn back and try to take out another one of the enemy. But what I saw turned my blood to ice in my veins — Rafe was running toward us, sword lifted. He was easy to pick out because of the empty eye socket he had; only puckered flesh remained of what used to be his eye.

I took aim at him, hoping that I could somehow break through his command, but the instant I pulled the string back, confusion clouded my mind and I let the arrow drop down again.

“Alexa!”

The frantic shout of my name shook me from the haze to see Rafe grinning at me, his one remaining eye glinting. “Hello, Alexa,” he called out. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you here, so that you can protect me from harm.”

I turned and ran, desperate to get as far away from him as possible, so that I wouldn’t be forced to do exactly that — to protect him from my own people.

Another fireball exploded right next to me, knocking me to the ground and taking out several of our soldiers and at least one of the Blevonese sorcerers. I groaned and forced myself to my feet. I hadn’t been burned, just bruised and shaken. But I’d dropped my bow. Rather than turning back to get it, I yanked my sword out as I finally reached Damian and Rylan, who stood together, gripping their own swords.

“We have no choice but to fight,” Rylan said, his gaze meeting mine, and I could see the dread beating in my stomach echoed in the depths of his eyes. He’d seen Rafe, too.

I turned to look up at Damian for a moment, and then I spun on my heel and shoved my sword in the air. “For Antion!” I shouted, and then I raced back the way I’d come, straight at the enemy.

The nearest black sorcerer hadn’t been expecting my attack, and when he saw me coming he tried to throw his fire at me, but his aim went wide when I cut to the