Once I gave Oliver the cue to proceed, he swept his hand and the dome around us split apart into cascading sand, just as expected.

He held a Terris affinity, a deviant one, in fact, attuned to sand rather than plain earth, which made it considerably harder to control given the fineness of the particles.

The moment the dome dispersed, we saw them. Around ten figures encircled us, all masked, all armed, and none of them looking particularly interested in conversation.

They weren’t joking around, were they?

I glanced briefly around. Both ends of the passage had been sealed off, rocks and collapsed building rubble blocking any straightforward escape. We could jump, of course, leap high enough to clear it, but that would leave us exposed and give them a clean angle to strike us down.

The best solution was to cut through them.

"Arrows!"

Oliver’s warning rang out sharp.

Five of them were perched on the rooftops on either side of us, bows drawn and ready.

"I’ve got this!" Mia said, swinging her sword with a motion almost too casual, too gentle, and immediately, dark sand rose and swirled in a dense curtain around us.

This was...

Ironsand?

It certainly looked like it.

The arrows came immediately, loosed in rapid succession straight toward us. I had a feeling, and thankfully the swirling sand proved me right, intercepting each shaft before it could find its mark.

But we had no time to rejoice. Our attackers quickly shifted to magic essence.

As expected.

"Leilah," I called, glancing toward her.

She turned her gaze to me.

"Get Eleanor out of here," I said.

She gave a single nod. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"Y — Your Majesty?" Eleanor looked to me, but I had already pressed her into Leilah’s arms, whose whole body released a deep, consuming dark essence that swallowed them both.

"Oliver," I called next.

Oliver let out a quiet sigh. "Your Majesty, I shall have a few reprimands to deliver once this is done."

"I will hear every last one of them wholeheartedly," I said with a smile, "provided we both live to see it."

He smiled wryly, then swung his sword in one fast, decisive arc.

Sand exploded outward, a dense swirling storm that blinded everything around us in an instant, shrouding the entire passage in a veil of churning grit.

A brief pause fell over our assailants, and I used it. I slipped out through the cover, leaping into the open.

I felt targets lock onto me almost immediately.

I raised Hyperion, fixed my gaze on the nearest man, and swung.

He barely had time to react as a wave of blazing golden-amber flame tore through the air and surged toward him.

KA-BOOM!!

The explosion sent a scorching heatwave rippling outward in all directions, and the man was engulfed at once, swallowed whole by the fire.

"Gyaaarrghh!!!" A harrowing shriek tore through the air as he thrashed wildly.

Well. Perhaps I should have held back, I had released a great deal of essence as a precaution, more than strictly necessary. But it worked.

"Kill him!!"

Shouts erupted, and arrows were loosed toward me once more.

I held my ground and looked around.

The shafts came fast, but before any of them reached me, they were deflected, every last one changing direction mid-flight as though guided by an invisible hand.

"What?!"

I could hear startled murmurs ripple through our attackers, but the answer to their bewilderment lay in the fine particles of sand scattered across the ground throughout the entire space around us.

Mia stood directly behind me, her sword thrumming with released essence.

Her ironsand, she was using magnetic pull, drawing on the particles dispersed all around to redirect the arrows before they could reach me. The shafts were made of light wood, easy to push aside, while the tips were iron, a perfect target for her magnetic sand.

It was quite the sight...

Arrows driving themselves into every surface around me, into walls, rooftops, and cobblestones, yet not a single one finding me.

"Your Majesty, please stay by my side!" Mia said, closing the distance between us.

"I would gladly stay by the side of someone as beautiful as you, Mia," I replied with a smile.

She looked like she wanted to question whether this was truly the moment for flattery but she held her tongue in the end.

I mean, it did help ease the tension.

"Wait, where are the others?!"

Startled murmurs rippled through the attackers as they faltered, glancing around for Oliver, Leilah, and Eleanor.

Well, the whole point of drawing attention to myself had been precisely that, to give Leilah the cover she needed to slip away with Eleanor while Oliver provided the diversion.

And Oliver, for his part...

"Aghh!!"

A scream rang out as one of the archers perched on the rooftop was stabbed from behind, his body shoved clean off the edge.

Gazes snapped upward to find Oliver already standing there, sword in hand. He stomped forward across the rooftop and moved swiftly, dealing with the remaining archers one after another.

Meanwhile, three of them remained on the ground with us.

"That damned King of Helios! He’s right there! Kill him!"

They rushed forward at once.

Mia moved to meet them a beat later, yet she was already faster than all three of them combined.

BAM!

One of them took her boot straight to the solar plexus. I heard the crack of bone before he was sent hurtling backward.

That had to hurt.

The other two swung their swords in quick succession, but Mia sidestepped the first blade with ease and lunged toward the second man, who overextended his swing and left himself wide open. She drew her sword across him in one clean motion.

Blood welled along the gash she opened through his leather armor. He grunted and crumpled.

The last one swung at her from behind but her counter came even faster.

Clang!!

The force of her parry was enough to wrench the sword straight from his grip, sending it spinning and clattering across the cobblestones. Disarmed, the man stumbled back a step.

And Mia drove her blade through his chest without hesitation.

It had all taken only a matter of seconds.

"Your Majesty!"

Mia’s shout snapped my attention forward.

Damn.

I had felt the danger a half-moment too late.

I turned to find a man who had not been there before, taller, broader, built like someone who had spent his life in this kind of work. He came in fast, dagger thrusting toward my back.

But Oliver dropped from above at precisely that moment, landing squarely in front of me, his sword catching the dagger with a sharp ring of steel.

The man, however, drove his other hand forward, essence blazing around his fist, aimed not at Oliver, but past him. Oliver realized it a fraction too late, his eyes widening as he understood the true target was me, standing just behind.

I saw it coming however.

I raised Hyperion.

The burst of essence detonated outward and slammed into the blade. I braced, but the shockwave drove me skidding several steps back all the same.

Damn.

For a first true life-and-death battle, I supposed I wasn’t faring too badly, was I?

Maybe I smirked too fast.

"Your Majesty!"

Mia’s voice pulled my gaze around just in time to see another masked figure driving a dagger straight toward me. She reached him first, slamming into him hard enough to send him crashing away.

I had barely drawn breath to thank her when something cut through the air with a sharp, whistling hiss.

Shit.

Mia shoved me forward instantly.

The arrow missed my heart but it buried itself right into my shoulder.