Chapter 258

The smoke stung Elain's eyes and she squinted toward the town. Another fire? The breath ripped from her lungs when she saw it coiling black and almost oily up into the clear mountain air. The fire must have been even bigger than the one the other day had been. Half the town had to be on fire, and Elain dreaded to think how it had happened. Everything had been fine about an hour ago when she had told her sisters that she was taking a walk up into the mountainside to see if she could find any new flowers that she had not yet encountered.

As the wind picked up, blowing more of the smoke her way, the faint screams reached Elain's ears and her heart began pounding painfully in her chest. She froze an instant later, reaching for Lucien down the bond. She could hear his heart in her head, beating even more quickly than her own was, and an instant later she felt what came close to panic from him. She felt him reaching for her, and she pushed what she was seeing down the bond to him, wanting him to know where she was. Why hadn't she told him what she was doing? She had figured that Feyre and Nesta would let him know, but what if they hadn't? She knew the moment that Lucien had received what she had pushed his way because his panic lessened, and in its place came a sort of steely determination.

When the screams reached Elain again, she surged forward, heading back down the mountain. It would take her at least fifteen minutes to get back down there. She had climbed a good distance in her wandering and she really wished that she could winnow. "I'm coming!" she tried to send the thought to her mate, not wanting him to be worrying about her with whatever was going on down there.

The single thought of "No!" reached her then, but it only set Elain moving from a brisk walk to a run. She careened down the slope, jumping over rocks and small bushes here and there, her dress snagging on branches as she tore past. Elain didn't stop, still trying to maintain her connection to Lucien through the bond. His heart was still pounding quickly in her head, but she wasn't getting anything else from him and that scared her.

When she hit the town, Elain was trying her best not to choke on the thick smoke coiling through the street. She gagged at the sight that befell her then. Several young Illyrian females lay in the dirt by the first of the shops she came to and, upon closer inspection, she saw that they had all very nearly been sliced in half. Blood and gore was splattered around them, innards in the dirt and Elain pressed a hand to her mouth, fear spiking through her as her eyes swept the rest of the street. Nobody else was anywhere to be seen, and she took several more steps up the street, terror building in her. Running for the training square, Elain hiked her dress up past her knees, trying not to trip.

"LUCIEN?" She screamed, her mate's name ripping from her as she lost all control of her fear upon seeing the training square empty of anyone she knew. Several more Illyrian females lay by the far wall, and Elain couldn't make herself move any closer to look at what had been done to them. "LU-" choking his name back, Elain realised that she should probably try to make less noise lest those who had done this hear her if they were still around. She hadn't seen anyone leaving the town on her way in, so it stood to reason that they were probably all too close.

Closing her eyes for a moment, Elain tried to focus on the bond. If Lucien wasn't in here, where she had expected him to be, she would find him through that pull that was always present. She tilted her head, trying to follow that sense… and then headed for Rhys' cabin.

It didn't take Elain long to get up the hill and she approached the cabin at close to her top speed. She stumbled a little when she reached the stairs and she had to step over a young female lying sprawled across the bottom two steps. Had this female run here looking for help? Evidently she hadn't found it, and Elain eyed the front door warily. If Feyre and Lucien had been here, they never would have let something like that happen on the front steps.

Knowing that she couldn't just turn away without checking, Elain slipped inside and hurried from room to room. Apart from a mess in the kitchen, she found nothing out of the ordinary, and she ran back outside, jumping down the steps in one motion before she turned left and took off toward Cassian's cabin. She could still hear Lucien's heartbeat, and she knew now that she was heading in the right direction.

When Cassian's cabin came into view, Elain hurried to hide behind a tree, peering around at what was happening in the small garden out the front. There were a handful of Illyrian warriors that Elain recognised from the previous day and they had a small group kneeling in the dirt before them. Her eyes sweeping the group, Elain's breath caught when she saw Azriel kneeling among a few of the females Elain recognised from the training session the day before. Before she could even try to come up with an idea of what she should do, several of the warriors had moved forward and taken heads from shoulders in a matter of seconds. Elain squeezed her eyes shut, clamping a hand over her own mouth as she spun away, sure that she would never forget the image of Azriel falling limply into the dirt. Panic ripped through her, and she felt a tug from Lucien. He was alive, and he was nearby. She had to find him.

It was Feyre Elain found first, having snuck through the trees and around the side of the cabin. Her younger sister was slumped against a tree, a hand pressed to her abdomen as blood soaked her shirt.

"Feyre?" Elain asked, sinking down to kneel in front of her younger sister. "What happened?"

"They appeared out of nowhere.." Feyre breathed, her eyes looking almost vacant. "They were here before we knew what was happening… they walked through the town slaughtering everyone. It didn't matter who…"

"Azriel is…" Elain shook her head, "Where's Lucien?" she asked, "Where are Nesta and Cassian?"

Feyre frowned a little, before making a vague gesture toward the back of the cabin. "They tried to sneak some of those who made it here… They tried to get them out…"

"Is Rhys coming?" Elain asked, thinking that the High Lord of the Night Court might be the only one who could put a stop to this. "You've asked him to come, haven't you?"

"No…" Feyre shook her head, her movement almost clumsy. She pressed both hands to her abdomen then. "I can't reach him… they hit me with faebane…" she made a choked sound, blood dribbling from the corner of her lips. "The bond is dark…"

"Okay…" Elain tried to squash her panic, tried to remain calm and keep her voice steady. "You need to get up. We have to move before they come around here and find you…"

"I can't." Feyre breathed, "That's why I'm here. I can't move…"

"You have to."

"No." Feyre's voice was suddenly hard, commanding. "You go." She said, "You go and save those you can. I will be here when you come back."

"Feyre…"

"Get up, Elain. Do as I said…"

Elain got to her feet, her eyes on her sister's pale face. No matter what Feyre had said, Elain knew that her sister would be dead by the time she returned. "I'll come back…" she breathed, and Feyre gave her a weak smile. Without another word, Elain spun on her heel and took off around the back of the house, through the thick garden.

"Lucien?" she breathed, spotting a hole in one of the low hedges across the back wall of the garden. She could tell that someone had gone through there not long ago, and she hurried across the garden, ducking beneath the leaves as she followed.

Elain had about a second and a half of relief at having found her mate, warmth spreading through her as his eyes, russet and gold, met hers, and she smiled. Then, several Illyrian warriors appeared out of the leaves, and several more shrieks sounded as the group of four or five females that were huddled nearby realised that they were outnumbered and trapped. Cassian and Nesta moved instantly, back to back as they attempted to hold back the warriors who approached them, and Elain went to move toward Lucien, trying to get to him before a hard arm snaked around her waist and she was lifted from the ground. She gave a startled cry, and she heard a snarl from Lucien followed by a pained grunt.

"No!" She cried, kicking at the male who held her. She was proud of the irritated sound he made, and then he had dumped her onto the soft earth and she gasped as the breath was knocked from her lungs. Forcing herself up a second later, Elain tried to see what had happened to Lucien. She had only a brief glimpse of him, face down on the ground, a huge Illyrian warrior standing over him, before the male standing over her had seized a handful of her hair, yanking her up to her knees.

Nesta and Cassian were putting up a terrific fight nearby but, as Elain watched, one of the Illyrians fired a bolt from a vicious looking bow, and Cassian jerked backwards, shock on his face as blood splattered his shoulder, and began running down his chest. She heard Nesta's scream of outrage and fear, before her sister's voice was cut off as an Illyrian grabbed her by the throat and lifted her from the ground. Elaine's' heart stopped cold in her chest when there was a sickening snap and Nesta went limp, falling to the ground when she was dropped.

"NO!" Elain shrieked, tearing at the hand holding her hair, and she tried to get away, to get to her sister. "Nes! Nes!" she couldn't get anywhere and tears blurred her vision. From the corner of her eye, Elain could see Lucien responding to her screams, trying his best to get off of the ground where he was being held. She redoubled her efforts, trying with everything in her to break free, to do something, anything, as the Illyrian standing over Lucien pulled a large sword from the scabbard at his hip and then lifted it high. "NO!" Elain screamed, just about dragging the male holding her by the hair across the grass as she tried to get to Lucien, "NO! Please! No!

Russet and gold eyes met Elain's then, and Elain felt Lucien so very clearly down the bond. He was terrified, and his fear ripped through her, filling her entirely. "Elain…" he breathed, and Elain reached for him, her hands outstretched as she strained to get closer, even as she wrapped herself even more tightly in the thread between them. It had taken only a second, even though it had seemed like an eternity, but Elain had barely even drawn a breath before the Illyrian had brought his sword down, driving it through Lucien's ribs and into the earth beneath him. Elain felt the blow as if she had been the one who had been struck, but she held Lucien's eyes, unable to look away as her mate released a slow breath and went still. Elain hadn't even realised that she was screaming.