Page 222 of Of Iron and Moonlight

She ran as though nothing existed beyond the place where Duncan lay dying, driven by pure terror and the pounding of her heart. The distance seemed to stretch endlessly before she dropped to her knees beside him, sliding the last inches through the red snow.

His fingers twitched weakly toward her, then fell.

Something in her shattered, filling every part of her with unbearable rage. Contempt sharp enough to carve into bone. Despair so demanding it stole the breath from her lungs. An unyielding need to see every last one of them dead.

Kora slammed her hands into the earth. The hum surged into her veins, rushing upward with such force it turned both her blood and her soul into a blazing furnace. A scream tore from her throat, bursting from her chest in a cry that seemed to reach for the moons themselves.

The moons did not answer.

But the earth obeyed.

Thousands of vines erupted from the ground, ripping through ice and snow with violent speed, lashing the battlefield in a storm of snapping thorns. Her vines wrapped around Valdir’s soldiers wherever they stood, coiling around throats and torsos, tightening with brutal certainty. They fell gasping, choking as the merciless grip of living earth dragged them down.

The battlefield stilled, shocked into silence by the carnage.

The power left her as abruptly as it had come.

Kora knelt at the center of it all, hands now hovering uselessly over the wound she could do nothing to close. A sob wrenched her ribs. Then another. And another, until she shook over him, heart breaking open in a way she had never imagined possible.

Somewhere, trumpets sounded. The sounds of battle stirred again. Through the blurred edges of her vision she glimpsed gold, white, and deep blue banners charging across the plain.

The Citadel overwhelmed Valdir’s remaining soldiers within moments.

Kora did not care. She lowered her head until her cheek rested against Duncan’s, desperate to hold onto the feel of him before the last of his warmth disappeared. Before his last breath slipped away.

“Kora,” Yaoaya murmured softly, appearing beside her.

Hands began to ease Kora back.

Kora resisted with what little strength she had left.

Yaoaya tightened her grip, urgent and unexpectedly firm. “Move, child.”

Kora stumbled back onto her heels in a blur of tears and confusion. She watched in bewildered silence as Yaoaya lifted her hands over Duncan’s wound. Her eyes flashed, a luminous green cutting through the grey.

The bleeding slowed.

It stopped entirely.

The torn edges of the gash knitted themselves closed.

Chapter 100

Duncan

Rolling hills.

Lush forests.

A rushing river.

Emberglade Valley stretched for miles in every direction.

Bathed by the sun in a golden glow.

A perfect summer day.

Above rose the faint outlines of four moons, hanging enormous over the horizon like distant guardians. Four moons? That was odd.