Her Cinder Throne (Completed)

Chapter 71

Cole scrambled to her feet, staring as Tanwyn shouted at the guards. He was already too far to hear her call after him without shouting, and if she did that then none of them would escape the town.

Biting down hard on her lip, she grunted in frustration and spun around to grab her mother's hand. She pressed the stone into it. "Stay here," she said. "Use the stone to keep hidden."

"Caspia, what are you going to do?" her mother asked, barely above a whisper. Her eyes were huge as she grasped Cole's hand, nails biting into Cole's palm.

"I can't just leave him," Cole replied. "He helped me get you back and get all of us away from Thijs. He could have kept the stone and stayed connected to me, but he's not. He gave up his world, the Eldritch and Thijs' city, so that we could disappear and live our lives."

Her mother's grip loosened. "You'll just be captured if you run after him," she said.

"I know," Cole said, her eyes suddenly filling with hot tears. "But what other choice do I have?"

Her mother replaced the stone into Cole's palm. "This. You have this."

"I barely know anything about magic," Cole replied. "And even without Tanwyn's exhaustion adding to mine, I don't think I could do much in the state I'm in."

Her mother's hands shook and her eyes shifted to stare at the ground. The bones in her jaw shifted and she seemed almost to be squirming inside her own skin. "I still have the Eldritch power within me," she said, almost choking out the words. "They stripped my wings and magic from me, but my blood does not forget the power that it was born with."

"What are you saying?" Cole asked.

Her mother looked up, her eyes locking with Cole's. For once, there was strength and power behind them, and a small inkling of the leader she must have once been. While her body was one broken and made frail by Thijs, he didn't seem to have completely ruined the Eldritch queen.

"I'm weak and haven't practiced magic in decades, but I'm saying that with this stone I will be able to give you a chance to save Tanwyn."

Cole sucked a breath in. "You could really do that?" She didn't dare to hope that they could all get away, that no one had to get hurt or left behind. But she desperately wanted to.

"I won't be able to last long, but it should be enough for you to grab him and come back. I won't have enough power to transport us away, but I should be able to make them confused enough that we might be able to slip into the darkness."

Cole nodded, once and sharp. "We'd better hurry before it's too late," she said, spinning around to face the direction Tanwyn had run off in. She could still hear the shouts of the guards, which she hoped was a sign that Tanwyn was still evading them.

"I'll be right behind you," her mother said.

Cole had no idea what her mother planned to do with the stone, but she trusted that she only had to find Tanwyn and the rest her mother would take care of. As she ran through the tall grass, following the sounds of the guards, she just hoped that she would be able to reach him and get him out of there fast enough that her mother would not run out of strength to use the stone.

A few steps more brought Tanwyn and the guards into view. Tanwyn had, at some point, fallen to the ground, and was now being hauled to his feet by one guards as another pointed his sword at them.

"Let him go!" Cole shouted, bursting forward before she had much time to think. She was still a few feet away from the guard with the sword, but her shout managed to distract him enough that he looked away from Tanwyn. That was all Cole wanted, as he was the immediate threat at the moment. She slammed into him with her shoulder, causing him to stumble into the guard that held Tanwyn. The others, watching, began to draw their own swords, shouting as they started to comprehend what was happening.

In the chaotic mess of limbs and bodies, Cole managed to scramble forward and catch Tanwyn's arm. He was half buried under the guard that had been holding him, so Cole leaned back to kick the man in the ribs and roll him off Tanwyn's legs.

"Cole!" Tanwyn shouted, anger edging his voice. He glared at her as she helped him to his feet. "What are you doing back here?"

"I'm getting you," Cole replied, breathless, as she turned to see the other guards pressing in close with glinting blades.

"Are you kidding? I gave you a way to escape! You could have lived happily! Now we're both going to die!" he shouted back.

"We've got a plan," Cole replied, though her voice was hinted with unease. She knew that it wasn't a plan at all, just a vague trust in her mother to help them when they needed it. And they needed it now.

"A plan? Is the plan to be surrounded by Thijs' men and killed on the spot?" Tanwyn asked.

Cole didn't have time to respond before the faces of the guards stepping toward them were lit up with a strange green glow. A second later, a sickly mist wrapped around them, silent but seeming to glow from within. It was the color of fresh grass, and had no smell. But as it enveloped the guards their faces began to contort and twist. The blades dropped one by one as the guards used their hands to clutch at their necks and gasp for air.

Cole jumped back from the mist, though it hadn't made any attempts to wrap around her or Tanwyn. Still, she didn't feel comfortable even looking at it as the guards panicked in its green embrace and began to fall to their knees or try to run.

Gripping Tanwyn's hand, Cole scanned the grass until she saw her mother a few hundred feet away, staring at the guards with a creased forehead and her hands raised. Even from this distance, Cole could see the sweat pouring from her mother's skin and the tendrils of green smoke spilling from her palms. The magic stone. In that moment, Cole could imagine her mother as an Eldritch queen armed with dangerous magic and magnificent wings.

"We need to get to her," Tanwyn said, presumably also seeing her mother. He was right. Her mother was obviously struggling, and they still needed to disappear into the night before they could relax.

While the guards were distracted, Cole and Tanwyn pushed their way through the tall grass to reach Cole's mother. When they were at her side, she rotated her wrists, wrapping up the tendrils in her hands and then swiftly jerking her hand to break the mist from her hands from that which was slowly dissipating from around the guards.

She gasped as if she had run miles, and turned to face Cole. "We need to hurry before I faint," she said, but there was no sign of the unstable voice or face that usually triggered her mother's leaving. This was instead the face of a woman who had used all her energy and was still pushing onward, burning what little else her body could give her. The spell of Thijs' prison was slowly breaking, and returning a once noble queen back to the world.

"We're ready," Cole said, pulling Tanwyn closer and adjusting her grip so that she clasped his wrist in her palm. She could feel the beat of his heart through his veins and she couldn't help but revel in it. He was alive and right there. Connected to her even though he had severed the magical bind she'd placed over both of them.

"Stand close. The smaller a displacement glamor I have to cast, the better. We'll only have around a minute or two before I won't be able to keep it up. I still need to save some strength to walk," her mother said, already preparing herself to cast more enchantments. Cole pulled up close to her side as the stone in her mother's palm glowed and released a shimmering sort of wind from inside its depths. Cole barely even had time to register that the glowing interior of the stone hadn't depleted at all, despite the heavy use it had been enduring, before her mother motioned at them to start walking forward. She also held a finger to her lips to signify that they should keep quiet.