I hit the ground so hard that it knocked the wind out of me. I lay there for a moment, blinking mutely, lungs spasming and head ringing.
Something nearby was screaming an awful, inhuman scream. I couldn’t figure out what it was for a minute until my brain started to function again.
Phelan. Phelan just did something awful and wonderful and unexpected and it either saved us or doomed us.
Thom yelled my name and I forced my bod to respond, slowly at first and then faster—rolling onto my side, grasping for my bow, getting my feet back under me and rising unsteadily to my feet.
The green light hadn’t faded, I realized with startling abruptness. Phelan stood beyond the border of our wards, the line—the normally invisible wall—illuminated in green by his spell. His expression was a mask of concentration and pain, jaw tight and teeth gritted.
One of the skinchangers had thrust a heavy-hafted spear through the protective wall of magic and right into Phelan’s side. Though he and his fellows were trapped outside the confines of our wards, they had still managed to reach their quarry.
I drew back on another arrow and fired.
The head and shaft punched through the spear-wielding Hamrammr’s spine and it jerked once before it fell sideways, blue and green fire engulfing it as it fell.
Bile rose again in my throat and I pitched forward to my hands and knees and puked up everything I’d eaten that day and the night before. Darkness nibbled at the edges of my vision and I gasped for air. I couldn’t go down here, not like this—this was insane. I was barely even hurt and the skinchangers were still coming.
Hands closed around my shoulders and lifted me.
“Get her beyond the ward lines!” Thom was shouting at someone. “We’ve still got work to do out here!”
“We’ll cover Thordin, just do it!” Matt added, his voice no quieter and no less commanding than Thom’s. It almost made me shiver.
Thordin, I thought dimly. What idiot thing was he trying to do, anyway? He’d thrown himself into the ravine. What was he up to?
“Up, Marin.” Cameron’s voice murmured in my ear. “Get up and work with me here.” My shoulder was wet. Was I bleeding, or was he?
With his help, I stumbled to my feet, gasping as my thigh was suddenly aflame with pain. I’d forgotten what the Hamrammr had done to it.
Forget it. Forget the pain. Not important right now. Worry about it later. Time later, not now.
“It’s just a few steps,” Cameron said as he pressed my bow back into my hand. “Just a few steps. Just do it.”
All I could see ahead of me was a wall of bright green light. Phelan was still holding on tight to his staff, but his face was pale as death and he wavered on his feet. Blood was soaking through his shirt where he’d been stabbed, running down the side of his pant leg, oozing sullenly around the spear still stuck in his side.
I swallowed and spat, shoving Cameron away as I stumbled a step toward the wards under my own power. “Take care of my husband and my brother,” I ordered, voice rough and rasping. “Leave the rest to me.”
I lurched across the border, skin prickling with power and something else I couldn’t quite identify as I crossed through the wall. Phelan was only a few steps away, his expression a rictus of pain and concentration.
Something flickered in his eyes as he saw me coming toward him. He sucked in a breath, the green fading for a moment before flaring brighter again. “No, leannán,” he said hoarsely. “You can’t.”
“Watch me.” My hands closed over his on the staff.
The world screamed and I didn’t care.
