Avoca coughed twice and then slowly opened her eyes. “I can’t feel you.”
“I know. I know. The bond…it snapped. I thought you were dead.”
Vera appeared at her side. She lifted Avoca’s deadened black hand. It had climbed from her wrist to halfway up her forearm. “She needs a healer.”
“Can’t you do something?” Cyrene asked shrilly.
“Healing doesn’t run in my bloodline, as you’re well aware. I can delay it momentarily, but we need someone skilled in it.”
Cyrene gasped. “Helly. Helly is here. We’ll take her to the Society.”
Vera nodded. “And at once.”
“What…happened?” Avoca asked as Dean lifted her into his arms again.
Cyrene tugged on the bond with Sarielle. “We need you right away. Avoca lives, but she needs a healer.”
I am already on my way. It pleases me greatly that she lives. She will have my wings at her service.
“Sarielle is heading this way.”
“And Halcyon,” Dean said.
“And Ameerath,” Vera said. “She had been locked in battle with Akeera, but…Malysa’s death stopped the dragon’s heart.” Vera choked over the words. “She…she plummeted in the mountains.”
Cyrene clutched her chest. “Oh Creator.”
Vera grimaced. “It was not pleasant.”
Cyrene reached for Avoca’s healthy hand. “Just a few more minutes. We’ll get you to a healer.”
“You…stopped her?”
“We did,” Cyrene told her. “Vera did.”
“Good,” Avoca whispered and then promptly closed her eyes and passed out.
Cyrene worriedly looked down at her. She was alive still but not out of the trenches. She could still die from whatever attack Malysa had launched at her. If they didn’t hurry, she might not make it.
She could see Sarielle closing in, and then she felt something under her feet.
“Is someone doing that?” Cyrene asked.
“No,” they all said.
And then it began to intensify.
A rumbling deep within the castle walls.
“What is that?”
Kael eyes were wide as he answered in dismay and desperation, “The castle is coming down.”
72
The Bombs
Rhea
“Okay, that’s the last one,” Rhea said.
She stood back and observed her handiwork. Ever since she had left with Fenix to return to Byern, she had been working with Caro Barca to replicate her findings. She’d used the black powder to create a series of bombs. They’d slowly been putting them in specific places around the castle over the last couple of weeks. And, after she had found out about Fenix, she had returned to finish the job.
Byern deserved to pay for what they had done.
“All of the fuses link back here,” Rhea told him, “which means someone will need to light the fuse while the other gets out of the castle grounds. It can’t be done from farther away.”
“That’s a suicide mission,” Barca said. He straightened as much as he could. His hair had gone completely silver since Eren died. And he looked almost frail. But he was a genius. A mad scientist. And the best Receiver she could have asked for.
“I’ll do it,” Rhea told him.
He shook his head. “No, girl. I’m old. I’ve lived my life. You’re so young. I understand what has happened to you, but you can move on from that.”
“Barca,” she whispered.
“I won’t hear of it.” He put his hand on the small of her back. “You run out of here and get back to the camp. Tell them what old Barca did.”
“I can’t let you stay behind. Your works. The decades of work,” she bemoaned.
“None of that compares to you.” He fondly touched her cheek. “You’re like a daughter to me, Rhea. The little girl I never had the time for. The one I wish I would have made time for. I won’t let you do the same.”
“It’s what I want to do.”
Barca shrugged. “Tough. You don’t always get what you want.” He began to push her toward the exit. “You’ll need a head start to get off the castle grounds. Hurry along.”
Rhea sighed. Then she nodded her head. It was clear that she wasn’t going to be able to argue with him. This was what he thought was best. “All right.”
“Good girl.”
Rhea followed him toward the exit of the chamber they had been working in. The castle had emptied over the last couple of days. Kael had evacuated most nonessential personnel to a more secure location. And she and Barca had rounded up the rest to herd them out of the castle. This wasn’t about killing innocent lives. It was about destroying a symbol of the corruption within Byern. A start of a new era for the people. Something she could do for them that would end this terrible reign.
She and Barca stepped out into the empty hallway. It was a little eerie how silent it was. She had gotten used to the constant chatter and patter of feet. The endless people milling around, none the wiser that she had been sneaking around the castle.
Now, there was no one.
Barca turned to face her once more. Tears glistened in his eyes.
“Don’t go soft on me now,” she joked.
“You were born for greatness,” he told her.
He put his skinny arms around her and pulled her in close. Barca had never hugged her. He wasn’t a very physical person to begin with. But this…this was different.
She found that she couldn’t get words past her throat. She was choked up. Unable to believe that they’d gotten to this moment.
“I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you, too,” she breathed. “I love you so much that I can’t let you do this.”
“Rhea,” he began.
But already, she had released him and dashed for the open doorway to a room with only one door in or out. Barca cried out, trying to catch her. But he was much older than her and less agile.
She threw the door closed and barred it from the inside. She could just barely hear him banging on it, yelling her name.
Tears finally came to her eyes.
She would miss him.
And Cyrene.
And so many others.
But she had to do this.
The world needed Caro Barca.
Rhea had lost so much. She wouldn’t let him sacrifice himself, too.
She walked to the long fuse and reached for the fire starter. She prayed Barca got out in time. Then she struck the match and set it to the fuse.
Byern would finally pay for all it had done to the world. And to her.
73
The Finale
“Sarielle, hurry up! The castle is coming down!” Cyrene yelled.
I am near. What do you mean, the castle is coming down?
“Exactly what I said. And, if you don’t show up, we’ll die.” Cyrene whirled on the rest of the party. “To the terrace edge. We have to evacuate now. Dean, are you okay with Avoca?”
“Yes,” he said, jogging to the edge of the balcony with her in his arms.