that bordered on a roar.
A giddy sort of excitement filled her at what she was going to do.
It had been too long since she truly had let her power out to play.
Too long since she’d pushed herself to her edge and then toppled over into that sweet, sweet darkness.
Fear was what she lived for, and while the armies of Jibreal and Bangratas didn’t know it yet—fear was what had come for them.
Chapter 37
Fear Unleashed
“Only true friends take the time to call you a fool while they’re dying, for it takes a fool to know a fool.”
— Lazarus Fierté, soul eater, King of Norcasta
Lazarus’ sword swung, metal meeting bone as he beheaded another opponent when a vengeful outcry rippled over the grassy valley.
Every man, woman, and soldier looked up.
A dark shadow flew across the sky, wings spread wide to block out the sun. Red feathers glinted as the firedrake turned to the side. On his back was a rider dressed in golden armor.
Black tendrils snaked behind them, like scattered ashes across the sky.
Her lavender hair a flag, waving in the wind.
Lazarus grinned viciously, turning to impale another soldier.
“She would ride a firedrake into battle,” Draeven yelled over the clash of swords and singing of steel. He swung once, his violet eyes turning red. Channeling the power of a rage thief, he cut his opponent in half. The blade sliding through armor and flesh and bone as if it were butter. “Only someone who can’t feel fear would ever get on one of those beasts.”
The firedrake swooped low over his soldiers, heading straight for enemy lines. Its wingspan was easily twenty feet from tip to tip, and it carried its shadow over the battlefield. Quinn thrust her hand outward and a wave of black magic shot forth. Instead of inflicting harm upon the other army, they aimlessly swirled in the sky above.
“What in the dark realm is she doing?” Dominicus called, smoothly slitting another man’s throat.
Lazarus titled his head to the side.
As the firedrake started to turn, the swirling mists gathered to form a giant number in the sky. Seven.
Seven?
Lazarus frowned as deadly feathers shot from the firedrake’s wings.
While she was clearly trying to aim for the other army, there was no true way to discern who it would hit. Lazarus opened his mouth to give a command for them to get down when the unimaginable happened.
Water shot up from the battle lines like geysers into the sky. They spread over the front of the Norcastan army, like thin pools that contorted light in the sky. The spread only stopped when each geyser of water touched at the edges. Just as the deadly feathers reached them, the wave above his men turned to ice—protecting his forces while allowing his enemies to perish.
The clang of metal gave way to screams. The sharp edges of the firedrake’s feathers were so poisonous and sharp that any who had been harmed by one would be dead in less than a minute.
The ice melted and returned to the ground just as another number formed in the sky.
Three.
This time when the beast swept, it opened its gaping jaws and released a great breath of flame. Unnatural winds gathered that fire and kept it from crossing into Lazarus’ army, instead sending it further into the Jibreal and Bangrati forces.
Those screams overpowered the sounds of battle.
“They’re rotations,” Lazarus said, both impressed and not entirely surprised. He twisted the longsword in his grip and funneled the strength of the troll to stab the metal straight through another man’s breastplate. Blood leaked from his lips. Pain contorted his face, and then he was forgotten. Just another face in the endless onslaught as he thought of Quinn. “She taught them rotations for what to do on her command.”
Another number appeared and Lazarus wished he would have focused more on what she was teaching them than on the woman herself. All those times he’d watched her training them, and he had no idea what it meant.
The ground shook.
“What does one mean?” Draeven yelled as massive sections of the ground itself lifted into the sky. Grass and dirt and rock, all shot upward to form a wall between the two armies. The sections came up one at a time, quivering as if the Maji controlling it were struggling to hold, and then settling as if resolve had kicked in. The sky darkened as black tendrils began to eclipse the sun. Terror filled his veins and that of every other soldier.
“I don’t know,” Lazarus said, the