Page 121 of A Trial of War
I stepped close enough to feel the cold radiating off the entity. “Fight for us, for Valdor. And your conscience for wrongdoings in your former life, preventing you from making it through the crossing, will lift.”
Its eyes, the eyes of Seamus Duran, widened as black veins of magic pulsed beneath the illusion like cracks spiderwebbing through a mask.
After ages of confinement… After centuries of drowning in my guilt for regrets from a former life.
“Yes,” I whispered. “You will be able to cross, to pass into the afterlife in peace, with my fire and my blessing, once we secure the Heart of Valdor once more.”
A tremor rippled through the tunnels as the Labyrinth’s form quivered, fading into the mist.You offer me an ending, it said.A mercy I have never been granted.
I nodded. “And all I ask is for you to give me this favor. That you help us end the war,” I said. “Once and for all.”
Champion…it whispered,you ask for everything.
“And I’m offering everything in return.”
Very well, the Labyrinth said, its voice shifting, deepening. What remained was the raw, ancient voice of the entity itself.I accept. And my childrenwill feast.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Skylar Cathal
And with the gods above as our witnesses, the children of the Labyrinth feasted.
The valley snapped back into view, reeking of ruin. Smoke hung low and heavy, carrying the bitter scent of burned earth and a pungent decay of friend and foe below. The air tasted metallic, bitter on my tongue, as though the battle itself had left its teeth marks on the world. Heat shimmered from scorched patches of earth below, while a cold wind flowed east from the mountains.
I shifted into my phoenix the moment my boots sank into the torn soil. Fire rippled through me, rushing to my wings until they burst outward in an arc of light and heat.
“Go, Skylar. I’ve got it covered on the ground,”Daxton said.
“I’ll be back and fighting at your side soon.”
“I’m counting on it.”
I soared upward, the battlefield spreading beneath me as the Labyrinth and its children assailed the unknowing enemy. Below, shadows moved, too large and wrong to be anythingmortalor of this world. I didn’t dare ask theLabyrinth what his children were. All I knew was they were hungry.
Some prowled low to the ground on four legs, others held reptilian tongues that forked from the shadows, tasting for their prey, while others towered over five meters tall on two legs, their forms barely holding together as shadows warped and flickered around them. Their silhouettes shifted every time I tried to focus, limbs bending wrong, bodies stretching and collapsing as if they couldn’t decide what they were.
The darkness didn’t just hide them—it clung to them. Making it impossible to see where they ended and the void began.
The valley raged as the Labyrinth’s children screeched and tore through lines of humans, hunters, garmr, and fallen alike.
“We’ve returned,”I said to my pack.“Hold on. Help is coming.”My voice carried through the valley, reaching for any heartbeat still fighting.
A shriek split the sky, shrill, sharp, and way too fucking close. I twisted mid-flight with a horde of harpies diving from the smoke above, their tan, feathered wings beating the air around me in a chaotic gust. Talons snapped at my feathers, their snarling faces far too eager for blood, as I called upon my flames to keep them at bay.
I flared my wings and rolled, heat bursting off me in a molten wave. One harpy recoiled with a hiss, but two more closed in, circling my tailfeathers. They were close, but thankfully, I wasn’t alone.
Thunderous wings cracked against the sky. Idris burst through the clouds astride her mighty pegasus. Her dark skin glowed in my firelight with her crimson-painted armor. Braids snapped like whips behind her as she drove through the clouds. She leaned forward, a wicked grin curling across her face.
“Dive, Skylar!” she shouted.
I dropped instantly.
Idris swept over me in a blaze of speed, her pegasus neighing its battle cry as she swung her flaming spear. Fire spiraled around the tip of her blade, trailing brilliant arcs of flames as she struck. One harpy exploded into embers while another spiraled downward, wing shredded where her spear had sliced through.
Idris pulled alongside me, eyes bright with her fighting spirit. “Come on, then,” she said, smirking. “Let’s show these feathered pests who owns the skies.”
It was official. Idris was now my idol.
