Page 136 of The Last Remaining Light

Across the square, people were still trying to cross the northern walks. Too many. The bridge supports had begun to weaken beneath the weight of the crowd and the continuing resonance pulses from the city foundations.

If it fell, it would tear through the larger bridge beneath it, where hundreds more were fleeing toward the lower districts.

Korvel knew that.

The guards knew that.

The people on the bridge… did not.

A flare of resonance shot from beneath the bridge anchors. For one awful moment nothing happened.

Then the northern walk broke free.

The screams reached them after the bridge had already begun to fall.

Lora made a small, horrified sound beside her while Elowynn stood rooted to the spot, eyes wide with horror.

The walk disappeared into the smoke below with dozens of people still on it.

She watched Korvel close his eyes for one brief heartbeat before opening them again and turning toward the next official as though grief could be postponed by necessity.

“Send everyone else through the lower east exchange,” he said, voice hoarse but steady. “Now.”

Elowynn’s stomach twisted so harshly she thought she might be ill.

This was not the charming man from the library nor was it the one who had bruised her arm and frightened her with the sudden glimpse of possession beneath courtesy. It was not even the calculated operator who had moved through the gala as though every conversation were a piece on a board.

This was Korvel in a crisis.

He was competent and useful. He was willing to sacrifice some people so others might live. And perhaps that frightened her most of all because she understood exactly why people would follow him.

Caelyn stepped close enough that his shoulder nearly brushed hers, though he still kept himself from touching her. His gaze remained fixed on Korvel across the square.

“He did that easily,” Caelyn said.

“No,” Elowynn whispered, watching Korvel’s hand tremble once before he clenched it into a fist. “He did it knowing what it might cost him.”

Caelyn looked at her then. She could see in his expression that he understood the distinction, but didn’t believe it absolved Korvel.

One of the Council guards spotted them at the edge of the passage, his eyes narrowing first at Elowynn, then at Caelyn. Suspicion moved across his face with alarming speed.

Caelyn moved behind her, lowering his head to keep his blackened eyes averted.

“Scholar Selvicta,” the guard called. “This route is restricted.”

Korvel turned after hearing her name.

His gaze found Elowynn first, and something like relief broke through the severity of his expression before he suppressed it. Then his eyes moved to Caelyn.

The relief vanished.

Elowynn felt Caelyn go still beside her. The same stillness she had seen before violence.

Korvel crossed over to them through the smoke with two guards following. His gaze flicked over Alyra’s resonance blade, Lora’s stolen crystals, the blood on Caelyn’s coat, the blackened frost beneath his boots.

Uncertainty flashed across Korvel’s expression.

Elowynn positioned herself right in front of Caelyn and stared eye to eye with Korvel.