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Karmen blinked, the only sign of surprise she allowed. So they didn’t sense each other. Maia had half expected her to already know of Enryr’s demise. “You’re lying.”

Maia paused less than a foot away, within arm’s reach if Karmen decided to grab her. She made sure she took up the saint’s full attention, conscious of Bryon leaving her side, creeping closer to Kheir through a puddle of blood. That was so much blood. Too much blood. He wasn’t moving. Maia needed to look at him, something in her soul grabbed her in a fist anddemandedshe look at her mate, but she couldn’t. She needed the Eversky to stay fixed on her. She needed to draw her away from her wounded mate.

But it didn’t feel like victory when those cunning eyes settled on her, or when the saint took a step towards her, Karmen’s upper lip curling away from her teeth.

“I drove my magic into him and shattered every bone in his body,” Maia said, ignoring the breathy quality of her voice. She was too afraid for Kheir’s life to summon her rage right now, but she stillhadher magic. Whatever the saints had done to dampen their power these weeks had failed. She prayed, wherever they were, Ark, Kheir, Az, and Jaro had enough power to free themselves. “His skull split,” she elaborated, hating the weakness and doubt that slipped in. “Just like yours will.”

Karmen grinned, one side higher than the other. “You’ve got nerve, girl, I’ll give you that.”

And without warning, she struck.

Maia’s feet dragged along the carpet as she was driven back, knocked off balance from the very first strike. It was pure instinct that had her reaching for the vine that wound around a column to her left. She hadn’t seen her magic gouge Enryr’s throat with thorns, but she watched now as it coiled like a whip around Karmen’s statuesque neck. Maia had a moment of breath, a moment to think she was winning, and then lightning shattered her chest, stabbing electric pain into her heart.

Fuck!Maia dug her fingernails into her chest like she could prise off the sparks of white magic. This wasn’t the crushing power Maia always suffered around the saints; this was sharp, biting,cracklingmagic. It burned everywhere it touched, and it sank deep.

Tears sprang to her eyes as she stumbled back a step but no further, digging in her heels. Her eyes narrowed, teeth gritted, and she curled her hands into fists.

Karmen pulled the vines from her throat like they were cobwebs. She took a step—another away from Kheir. Maia’s instincts were a buzz of panic and noise. She needed to look at him, needed to put her ear to his chest and hear his heart, needed to feel his breath against her cheek.

“He’s alive,” Bryon called from behind the saint, like he knew. A shudder of relief shook Maia’s bones, followed by a swell of strength.

Her mate was alive, he was fighting. She pulled herself straighter, adjusted her stance, and bared her teeth in a promise.

“You’re fucking dead,” she hissed.

The Eversky scoffed. She didn’t raise her hands to discharge the next flash of lightning, but Maia was ready for it this time. She lunged into the wall to her left, throwing up her hand and letting rage drive her power.

“Your leg is broken,”she said with absolute certainty, slashing her hand at Karmen’s thigh for good measure.

The saint shook her head in amusement. “No it isn’t.”

Shit. There went Maia’s idea of using her snaresong. Without it, she was floundering. She’d never learned how to use her spring magic, the fierce and endless power she’d channelled in Eosantha, but that only left—

She’s called for her lover as backup,Sephanae said in a rush.The second he arrives, soulspear into him.

But—you won’t be with me if I do,Maia said, pushing off the wall, her eyes widening when the air hardened around her, almost sharp with anger. When wind surged towards Karmen, and bone snapped loudly, it took her scrambled brain a moment to catch up.

“Isn’t broken?” Bryon laughed, standing guard over Kheir where he’d splayed on the floor, his wings spread around him, covered in blood. “It is now.”

Maia’s heart soared. Bryon had his magic, too. She locked eyes with him for one second before she grabbed fierce hold of her magic, the pure silver of his soul glaringly bright.

“You’re bleeding to death,”she spat at the Eversky. The sight of her gripping her broken thigh filled Maia’s heart with vicious glee. She deserved pain, deserved to suffer for everythingshe’d put Maia’s mates through. She’d ripped Kheir’swing.Fury spiked again and Maia let it roar through her. She was at her most powerful when she was emotional.“The broken bone split your skin and now you’re bleeding and weak.”

For a moment, it worked. A trickle of blood ran over Karmen’s thigh, gleaming against her flawless skin, and Maia sank deeper into her magic, surrounded by it, choking on so much power that she didn’t know what to do with it.

He’s here,Sephanae hissed, urging Maia to lift her head, to see what she’d seen.

Maia opened her mouth to warn Bryon that Heweryion was behind him, stalking up on his exposed back, where Kheir was vulnerable, but there wasn’t time.

Hew’s soul was a dark grey, not gleaming like Bryon’s, not black with hatred like the Eversky’s. It caught her attention like a moth drawn to flame. A way to win, to weaken Karmen. Maia didn’t stop to think; she speared herself across the distance and leapt into him like she’d once leapt across Venhaus, seeing all the way to the island with the saints' circle. It was so easy. Too easy. The power was a seductive rush as Maia opened hard eyes and looked across the pale corridor at her own body.

She stood there, empty and vulnerable, white power crackling across her chest where the Eversky had struck her. She hadn’t even noticed the red welts opened on her skin. Her eyes were vacant, all her consciousness inside Heweryion now. A few paces in front of her Bryon had erected a wall of dense, writhing air between her and Karmen, somehow sensing she was at risk. She knew in that moment she loved him. Just as much as she loved the beautiful prince bleeding across the carpet.

She threw her soul at the flickering spark of silver that was Kheir’s soul and gripped tight, refusing to let him go even as she forced Hew to take a step. Karmen didn’t realise what Maia had done yet; she was still smirking, smug right until the momentMaia walked the man’s bulky body past Kheir, past Bryon, and stopped in front of Karmen.

“My faithful Heweryion,” she said with something like fondness. The closest someone as poisonous as her was capable of, at least. She lifted her hand; Maia gripped Hew’s soul in an iron fist and his meaty hands snapped up, clasping Karmen’s wrist and breaking it in the same fluid motion. There was so much power in his body, so much violence. Like her Bryon, he was capable of brute force and precise strikes. Unstoppable.

She watched Karmen realise he was dangerous to her. Too late, as Heweryion drew the heavy sword at his hip and swung it, cutting deep into her hip.