Page 162 (1/2)

It hollowed out my ears and seared my face

And where a thousand soldiers had been a heartbeat before …

Ashes rained down upon our foot soldiers

Nesta had known She gaped up at ony on her face, then scanned the sky for Cassian, who flapped in place, as if torn between co Illyrian and Peregryn ranks She’d knohere that blast was about to hit

Cassian had been right in the center of it

Or would have been, if she hadn’t called hi at her like he knew, too Like he didn’t knohether to scold her for the guilt Cassian would no doubt feel, or thank her for saving hi fronal

The other High Lords raised shields this ti the one he rallied

But the Cauldron did not hit the sa to incinerate part of his own arain hurtling for us, for Nesta sprawled on the ground, as the light and unholy heat of the Cauldron were unleashed again

Right into its own lines Where the Bone Carver was gleefully shredding apart soldiers, draining the life frousts of that deadly wind

An unearthly, female shriek broke fro--and pain Just as that white light slammed into the Bone Carver

But the Carver … I could have sworn he looked toward me as the Cauldron’s power crashed into hi at all

There--and gone

The Cauldron wiped hin of effort

CHAPTER

71

I could barely hear, barely think in the wake of the Cauldron’s power

In the wake of the empty, blasted bit of plain where the Carver had been The sudden cold that shuddered downthe tattoo inked upon it

And then the silence--silence in soed leash of control faded into darkness without end Leaving nothing behind

I wondered ould carve his death in the Prison

If he had perhaps already carved it for himself on the walls of that cell If he had wanted to make sure I orthy not to taunt me, but because he wanted his end … he wanted his end to be worth carving

And as I gazed at that decimated part of the plain, the ashes of the Illyrians still raining down … I wondered if the Carver had

I sent up a quiet prayer for him--for all the soldiers who had been there and were now ash on the wind … sent up a prayer that they found it everything they’d hoped it would be

It was the Illyrians who drewin an to panic in the wake of the Cauldron’s ions re-forryns wholly interspersed with them now

Jurian’s human army, made up of Graysen’s men and others … To their credit, they did not falter Did not break, even as they went down one by one

If the Cauldron dealt another blow …

Nesta had her brow in the grass as Cassian landed so hard the ground shuddered He was reaching for her as he panted, "What is it, what--"