They were running towards the island.

  Over the water.

  It was too early in the year for the ocean to have started freezing over and there was no way that the over mile distance between the coast and the island could have frozen over in the last few days since I’d ran over it with Fyga.

  There were still people on land, running towards the water. The people who were on the ice were having trouble moving, so despite the ice bridge being almost a hundred feet wide, it looked like most people were closer to the shore side of it. I didn’t see Fyga or Val, but there were so many people, it wouldn’t be hard to miss them, especially at this distance.

  “They’re not going to make it.” Eveth turned away from the shore and looked back at the hole in the wall.

  She wasn’t wrong. Even though people could fan out, we were walking and were going to have to stop soon because of the congestion trying to get on the ice bridge.

  A low growl alerted us that a Zombie had made it past the guards and out of the hole in the wall.

  I pulled out my sword and started moving towards it. “Try to hurry people up!”

  Except the blonde was already moving towards the Zombie.

  Eveth ran faster than I could at the moment and that’s when I realized just how tired I was. I still hadn’t physically recovered from the explosion and my mental exhaustion was nearing my limit. I didn’t have much fighting left in me.

  But there was still a lot of fighting left to do.

  I still had the small bag in my pocket that held the heartstones that I’d salvaged. I’d heard how addictive they could be for a Bokor, but The Master hadn’t said anything about them being addictive for a Touched. But they were a boost of power that I could use. I didn’t know how much magic was in them, but there had to be enough in the few stones I had to create a big enough fireball to keep the Zombies at bay so that Eveth could run with the Humans.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  The walking purifier was my biggest hope at the moment for a solution to the Zombie problem. The Touched had developed a very dangerous weapon and we were going to need some way to combat it, though I had a feeling that they would have had a much more difficult time getting into the city if security hadn’t been so lax.

  I pulled out the bag and opened it. I wasn’t sure how to draw the magic out of them. Just touching the stones didn’t do anything and neither did pushing some of the precious little magic I had left into them.

  An explosion drew my attention away from the project. Zombies rolled across the ground as the Touched woman walked through the hole in the wall. Her brown hair was whipping wildly around her as the air circled her. Her purple eyes were full of hate as she focused on Eveth.

  The Touched woman was holding a very fancy sword that I’d last seen in the mayor’s hands. I had known that there was no way the older man was going to survive the horde, but seeing it confirmed filled me with rage. I hadn’t cared for the way that he’d acted, but in the end, he’d given his life to protect his people and that was a sacrifice that was sullied if she used his sword to kill those he died to protect.

  “ABOMINATION!” the Touched woman blasted air at Eveth.

  An invisible bubble wrapped around Eveth, outlined only by the debris that it was diverting around her.

  I wanted to help Eveth, but she was holding the Touched’s attention and there were Zombies running towards the fleeing Humans.

  I put the heartstones back in my pocket and pulled out my sword. The Zombies ignored me as I ran at them, making easy targets for me to finish off, but putting me further away from the two fighting women.

  People were pushing and shoving as they tried to get on the ice bridge, which resulted in people falling into the water.

  “Stop shoving!” I moved towards the water as I tried to head off more Zombies. They were coming out faster than I was killing them and in a few minutes, they’d start reaching the people. They were avoiding Eveth, leaving her to fight the Touched woman.

  I reached for the heartstones again. If nothing else, I could crush them and make a fire line.

  I never got the chance to pull them out.

  Two black dogs ran out from the woods. Their shoulders came up to my hips, which classified them as huge compared to the smaller ones that I’d seen in cities. But that wasn’t the most impressive thing about them.

  There was fire drooling out of their mouths as they ran.

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