An arrow slammed into Rain’s back, knocking him offbalance and sending him sprawling.

“Rain!” Ellysetta scrambled down the hill towards him.

“Leave me! Run! Get to the river! I’ll be right behind you.”

“I’ve already told you, I’m not going anywhere without you.” Her eyes went wide, and she lunged for him. “Look out!”

Rain threw himself to one side. The arrow in his back snapped in two as he rolled onto his back, and two more barbed arrows thunked into the ground at the exact spot he’d just vacated. A third arrow sank into a tree trunk near Ellysetta’s head.

Rain’s eyes flamed at the sight of the poisonous black missile quivering in the tree so close to his shei’tani. Despite the howling protest of the sel’dor embedded in him, he sent Fire spinning from his outflung hand. It scorched several trees and ignited the three Elden bowmen who’d shot the arrows.

Ellysetta grabbed him and yanked him to his feet. Together, they raced up the final ridge, scrabbling over slick piles of fallen leaves and tumbled rocks. A storm of arrows erupted from the trees at their backs. Ellysetta flung a blast of Air to knock them off course.

At the bottom of the hill, a pair of yellow-robed apprentice Mages stood surrounded by archers and swordsmen. Magic crackled around them in a visible nimbus, and in their hands they coaxed deadly globes of blue-white flame to life.

One of the two Mages sent his ball of Mage Fire roaring towards them. Rain attempted a five-fold weave, but sel’dor howled through his flesh. His resulting weak, crippled weave only managed to deflect the Fire, not destroy it. The Fire plowed through another clump of trees, eradicating portions of them from time and space.

In a battle of magic today, even those two apprentice Mages would win.

“To the river, shei’tani. Hurry!”

Behind them, at the bottom of the hill, the second Mage released his fire. Rain looked back just in time to see it hurtling towards them. “Get down!” He flung himself at Ellysetta, knocking her to the earth and covering her body with his own as the enormous ball of blue fire roared over their prone bodies, close enough to singe Rain’s skin with the burning ice.

A hail of arrows followed on the heels of the Mage Fire, and yet another volley of Mage Fire followed the arrows. Ellysetta deflected the arrows but Rain could not even slow the Mage Fire.

“Rain.” Ellysetta gasped softly and grabbed his hand, squeezing tight.

A sudden blast of energy from the west ridge intercepted the hurtling balls of Mage Fire and destroyed them.

Their unlikely savior was a blue-robed Primage heading up a second troop of soldiers and archers. “Kill the Tairen Soul, if you must, idiots,” the Primage shouted in Eld to the two apprentice Mages, “but harm the girl, and the High Mage will roast and eat your livers out of your still-living bodies.”

Rain glanced behind them, to the Mages approaching from the west, north, and east, then looked down at the troops standing between them and the river. “That’s our only chance,” he said. “I don’t see any Mages there.”

Ellysetta raised her brows. “So what are we standing here for?”

He laughed, loving her. Then his expression went serious as he handed her two red Fey’cha.

She took the poison blades and searched his face.

“In case, I cannot save us,” he admitted in a low voice.

Her gaze fell, and she nodded in solemn understanding. Their situation was grim. Rain would die before letting the Mages take her, and if he did, the Fey’cha would at least give her a way to avoid capture. She sheathed the poison blades carefully in the knife belt across her chest.

He touched her cheek. “Lend me your strength, shei’tani?”

“You need not ask.”

“And give me one last kiss?”

She smiled and moved into his arms. “You need not ask for that either.”

Her lips, so warm and soft, parted beneath his. She tasted of life and sweetness and all the dreams he’d ever dreamed as a boy. She tasted of hope and of a future he’d never allowed himself to want since he’d found his wings. Regret dimmed his pleasure. She was so young, her life so unfulfilled.

Ellysetta pulled away to look into his eyes. “No regrets, Rain. I have none.”

Peace settled over him. He nodded, his throat too tight for words, and kissed her once more. «Ver reisa ku’chae. Kem sera, shei’tani.»

Her hands closed around his. The brightness that was Ellysetta flowed up his arms and filled him with peace and warm, rejuvenating strength. He gave her back the essence that was himself and watched her eyes flutter closed. She smiled, a secret, womanly smile. “Ke vo san, shei’tan. I always have. I always will.”

Together they turned to face the advancing line of soldiers.

“There.” Rain directed her attention to the spot where the line of soldiers was thinnest. He gathered his power. They would not have more than a few moments to make their escape. He would have to strike hard and fast, with only one or two concentrated weaves to open up a corridor between the advancing Eld.

She squared her shoulders. “Let’s go.”

They ran down the hill, magic blazing. Earth shuddered violently. The ground split open to the left and right, and dozens of soldiers toppled into the fissures. Fire and Air roared down the hillside, plowing through the remaining line of men and clearing a direct path to the Heras River.

Sel’dor screamed in Rain’s flesh, amplified by the echo of Ellysetta’s matching pain, but he roared his defiance of it and held his weaves until his very bones rebelled. They raced through the burning carnage as the remaining soldiers converged on them, swords drawn.