It had all gone to hell. Everything.
The Montesere army had not marched over the mountain as we suspected but set camp at the base of the mountain. We had no choice but to meet them there and it wasn't long after the first lines clashed together with a wicked thud did the other half of the army appear from the surrounding trees. It had been my job since to pick out every single one, that task distracting me from helping the others on the field, leaving them to fight at a disadvantage. Carnel had gone down after the first couple minutes, leaving me with Feyre. But it was different this time, we both kept an eye on each other at all times, him specifically through the bond, keeping true to the promise he made himself. Never again would he leave me alone.
We were on our own, no one was coming to help us, so we needed to help ourselves. I wonder how the other army was doing, hopefully not as bad as we were seeing as they had the high lords. I told them all I could do this, told Rhys, and I was never wrong.
More arrows flew out of the hidden tree canopy and I growled. Tucked away on a higher overlook Carnel had found for me I used my power to shake the branches; men came tumbling down. I expected someone to finish them off, but everyone was too busy on the blood bath that was laid out before me. The archers stood and ran off deeper into the trees. I licked the top row of my teeth and flicked my pointer finger. I felt more than saw my vines slither from the trees and wrap around each of the fleeing archers' necks, I didn't hesitate to pull, and pulled hard. The archers didn't move after that, their bodies left to hang, merciless to the wind.
With another clench of my fist I brought a rumble into the armies, both sides caught off guard; but the difference was that our army was used to it, expecting it even if they didn't exactly know what or who it was and recovered quicker, using the momentary distraction to make the final blow against their opponents. The archers had brought down a few of our own when we were first ambushed, and for the first time since this miserable battle began, we had evened the numbers again, our men now fighting against one other soldier instead of two.
Carnel was deep in the thicket of the fight, occasionally defending himself against three or four males at once to keep them from attacking his brothers, taking on the brunt himself. Showoff.
I roamed my eyes across the commotion, repeating things I had done earlier today already, my power beginning to strain even if I didn't want to admit it to myself yet. But it was taxing, the constant use of my power and doing multiple things at once. There, at one side, one of our soldiers was injured but on the other side of the field, a sword came soaring for the unprotected side of one of our soldiers. It didn't take a second before my power reacted, dragging the wounded soldier to the medics and letting the ground swallow the attacking soldier seconds before his sword connected to the winter soldiers' neck. His sword clattered to the ground without a sound and the ground closing up above his head. He had minutes at most before he suffocated.
My power was pounding throughout my body, thrumming through the blood in my veins.
More, more my power seemed to beg even as the familiar burning sensation began to creep up the bottom of my back.
More and more soldiers did I help, never getting more than a couple of seconds to catch my breath; to strategize so I could finish this battle quicker. It would have been easier If our army wasn't here at all, like I told them earlier. But with our own soldiers mixed up in the madness, the precision, the control it would take to kill them all at once would be too much for the amount of power I have left.
On the field our front line to the left flank fell and I cursed. I watched as Carnel impaled a Montesere soldier and threw him off like a child with a doll and turned to scream orders at another general.
"shit." Feyre breathed next to me. "They need to fix that front line, or we'll be surrounded"
I cracked my knuckles with a small motion and casted my power under all their feet. I made the land grow and form around their ankles, trapping them there and even causing some men to trip. The flank, mostly composed of autumn and spring court soldiers we able to cut them down after then, the front line quickly reforming. Carnel had reached the general assigned to lead that flank and from the way I could read his lips from this far he seemed to be yelling 'hold the line'.
The burning in my back burned in a sharp sensation, like a hot iron pressed near the bottom of my spine for a couple seconds. I stumbled forward and brought a hand behind me, clutching my back and Feyre caught me with a hand around my shoulders.
"You're pushing yourself to hard" she gritted through her teeth, but I barely heard her as my eyes widened in fear, as I looked to Carnel.
He had gone back into the fight and seemed to have felt my pain through the bond, the pain I forgot to block from him. His head snapped up and our eyes met, distracting him from the fight, distracting him as one of the three soldiers he was fighting off took his open vulnerable side as an advantage and jammed a knife into his side.
A silent scream left my lips, fire burning through my veins as the mating bond between us wobbled for the quickest second, like a single strummed guitar string. I felt the pain, but it was nothing compared to the pain I'm my heart. Carnel was quick to turn his attention back onto the field, ripping the knife out of his torso and taking down the three attacking soldiers like grains of wheat, even with his wound open and bleeding, even as I struggled against Feyre's tightening grasp.
"Luna you can't-"
"CARNEL!" I screamed, my voice finally returning to me.
"he's hurt Feyre, let me go" I struggled against her embrace again, but she didn't let go of her grasp.
He kept going, kept fighting but I knew him, somehow, someway maybe even better than I knew myself, knew that deep in my bones he was lagging, slowing. I felt his blood drip onto the floor like a drop of blood in a field of fresh white snow, calling to me like a beacon in the night. I froze.
The world slowed and I stopped hearing everything around me as my ears rang in a high-pitched ring. I heard my name called from far away, like they were underwater and a part of me recognized it, recognized who it was but I continued down my path, steadying my feet and gritting my teeth. My blood only screamed one thing, two words.
Protect. Carnel. Protect. Carnel. The words separate but intertwined all the same.
My head spun but I grabbed every last drop of power in me.
The trees rumbled first, like my last training session with Rhys except this time, I was in control, even of that control threatened to slip through my fingers.
Blue grey eyes pierced into mine as Feyre stepped in front of me, blocking my view of Carnel and the field. I didn't need vision to see though, Cassian had ensured that.
"Get. Everyone. Off" I managed to let out, the pounding in my body traveling to my head as every breath, every thought was an echo of my own heartbeat, as loud as a drum next to my ear.
Feyre's lips tightened, glancing around to see the splintering tree's, the small cracks in the ground my power made as it was forced back.
"Breathe Luna. Control"
"I am in control" I snarled back, my voice not entirely my own.
She hesitated, clearly weighing the risks and possibilities of what I was asking her to do.
"Ok" she promised me, and a shiver ran down my body, my power echoing it across the field as a tremor passed through.
"Ok" she said again, more to herself and turned towards the army.
I felt her grunt as she used her daemati powers to tell every one of our soldiers to leave as quickly as they could from the field.
No one hesitated to follow the high ladies command. Soldiers wearing colors from all courts began to flee- no, not flee but seek cover; because I was about to be released.
A dark form came flying for me and I almost dropped to my knees in relief as Carnel, pale from the blood loss, flew towards us. He landed roughly, stumbling and feyre had to help him catch his balance. He didn't let his injury stop him from reaching me though, didn't stop to rest as any sane person would do.
"Hey" Carnel said softly, placing both his palms against my cheeks.
"You're alive"
He smirked a little
"It's going to take a lot more to kill me"
My face dropped as I remembered a line from the book.
"no, no it won't" I whispered back almost instinctively, as if finishing the quote. His small smile faltered and his lids fluttered as the blood loss began to take its toll.
"let me finish this, for you Carnel"
His lips thinned but he didn't reject. He was worried, but he knew when to draw the line between worrying and being overprotective. Sometimes.
"Don't burn yourself out" he warned, most likely feeling the strain through the bond.
My back burned as if I was on fire, alerting me that I was close to my burn out, dangerously close; but my power thrummed an answer completely different than what my power was telling me.
More, more, more. It seemed to say, as if I could indeed draw up more. But I couldn't, I had reached my bottom.
"Trust me Carnel"
He placed a heart-breaking gentle kiss to my forehead and leaned back with a small wince, clutching his wound. My eyes dropped to it.
"Always princess"
"I'm sorry" I said. My eyes glazing over again as I fell deeper into my power. It was my fault he got hurt.
Something passed across his eyes as he stared into mine, but his features revealed nothing.
The ground around us let out a vicious rumble and both armies struggled to regain their footing. Our soldiers were almost off the field, leaving the Montesere army in an easy group, waiting to be picked off.
Some soldiers followed ours, hoping to get another kill in to satisfy their need for blood.
"It wasn't your fault" Carnel replied and I met his eyes again.
A pull tugged on the bond between us, as if he begged me to remember who I was, to remember him, to remember us.
The last soldier cleared my range and I readied my power, one final blow that would leave not one Montesere soldier alive.
I took a deep breath in and held it, the world around me had blurred again, everyone but Carnel in the corner of my vision and the target.
"But it was" I said and released my breath and power all at once.
The ground cracked with a vicious cry that overpowered the screams and yelps of the Montesere soldiers. Some fell into the small channel of earth cleaved in two, some even began to run away, but that wasn't the point of the crack, no, it was to make it easier on myself.
With one last thought the crack opened up and reached for all the soldiers like a hand scooping them up. The soldiers fought against the land like they were an opponent to be fought but no one could fight the land, one could only tame it.
The earth grew into the sky and closed in on the field like a dome, entrapping all the soldiers within. I could hear their cries through the earth, but I didn't care. They had hurt my mate, and they were going to pay. I brought the earth down on them, crushing them with hundreds of pounds of dirt and rock, and I didn't feel one ounce of regret.
I dropped to the ground as my earth did, the field trembling slightly as the earth settled.
Carnel caught me in his lap, even as he let out a wicked wince and something warm trickled down my side.
My body was on fire, and by the way Carnel held me with his blue shields wrapped around his hands and arms, I knew I was burning him too.
"They hurt you" I whispered; Carnel shivered slightly.
"I know Luna, I know"
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Hi, how are you guys doing?
Thank you guys for everything and your constant support.
xoxo,
-S