Page 166 of The Incendiary

Elias stopped with his back to us, stilling and tensing completely. A few seconds later, he turned. “What did he just call you?”

It seemed my time as Fera from Brinnea had run out.

With a sigh of resignation, I reached into my wheel of power and summoned enough to let the blue in my eyes return to green and the black of my hair fade to silver blonde. I used Autumna’s power to release the mask.

Elias stared at me, utterly stricken with shock. He was too distracted to see an archer across the field aiming an arrow right toward him.

“Elias!” I shouted. “Behind you!”

But he was too stunned. It wasn’t enough to make him turn. The arrow flew just as the archer was tackled and killed in my periphery by one of our own soldiers.

I aimed my hand toward the arrow, using Aurana’s power of gravity to stop it an inch from Elias’s head. He finally turned to see it levitating with the metal tip nearly touching the bridge of his nose, right between his eyes. I dropped my trembling hand before I lost complete control. The arrow fell with it.

“Fera?” Elias looked sick and pale with shock.

“No.” I swallowed the lump in my throat and infused my eyes with apology. Not for protecting myself. Not for doing what I needed to do. Not for proving myself and giving myself the freedom to decide who I was. But for the deceit and the deceit alone, guilt twisted in my gut. “Not Fera.”

“Aryella?” he gasped breathlessly.

I lifted my chin and gave a single, firm nod.

Elias dropped his sword, fell to his knees at my feet, and looked up at me, awe, horror, joy, and anger battling each other within those beautiful, gray-blue depths.

“Pick up your sword, Commander Winterton.” I forced Nevelin’s ice into my soul and glared down at him. “Your queen commands it.”

FORTY-NINE

ARYELLA

“Commander!” I abandoned formalities and dropped to my knees before him. His eyes had glazed over. “Rise!” I gripped the hilt of his sword and shoved it into his chest.

Panicked shouts erupted from behind him. I glanced over his shoulder to see another swarm of Insidions emerging in the distance. At least a hundred of them.

“Elias, look at me!” When that still wasn’t enough to alert him, I shook his shoulders. “There are more of them! You have to get up!” His eyes, astonished but clearer now, darted from my eyes to my mouth to my arms to my hair. “Stand up and keep your shit together!”

“I…” His mouth fell open as he lifted his free hand to my face. “Oh, gods, you’re alive. I,” he stammered again, “I⁠—”

“I know I am.” I grasped his strong wrist. “But we have to⁠—”

“No!” he roared at something behind me before yanking me into his chest. An Insidion hovering over us, choking and bleeding, impaled on the sword that Elias had just lifted in defense. The knife the Insidion had been about to drive into my back fell out of his limp hand.

Elias tossed the sword and body to the side with a grunt and stood, keeping me pressed tightly against him.

“Let me go.” I gently pushed away. He reached for me, even as I retreated, still pale with shock. “We⁠—”

“I’m sorry, Fe—Ary,” he corrected, face transforming from shock to regret. I assumed all that happened between us over the last six weeks was flashing through his mind. “I’m so sorry.”

“Later. There’s no time.” I shook my head, grabbed his shoulders, and urged him forward. The Insidions were closing in on the tree line.

“At the ready!” roared Elias when he saw the enemy approaching. Ezra had disappeared and was nowhere to be found. If something happened to him, and I never had the chance to explain, I’d never forgive myself.

Before I could think more of it, someone nearly bowled me over with the force of their hug. A taller woman who smelled like sweet grass, sweat, and the next closest thing to home. She released me, drew back, grabbed and squeezed my hands.

Wild black hair uncovered my face, revealing amber eyes I’d missed so dearly.

Gemma.

Finn had gotten her out. I gasped and threw my arms around her neck. She held me back in a tight embrace.