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My connection to Des still burns brightly, and I should be frightened by that. This is exactly what the Thief wants—to make me understand what I have so that later I will feel the ache of its loss. But the sensation gives me perverse strength.

We will defeat him.

Amongst the darkness, Euribios laughs. A moment later, I feel him grab my daggers by their blades.

“You still think you can kill me?” he asks, tilting his head. “I am a deity.”

He jerks the weapons from my grip and tosses them aside.

Heedless, I slash at him with my claws, my siren consuming me.

Euribios doesn’t have flesh like I do. I’m not even sure what I’m tearing into, only that even in that darkness, he still has substance.

The entire time, my bond pulses. I feel Des on the other end of my bond.

“Enough,” Euribios says.

The magic around me shifts, and I shift with it, fluidly evading the dark power.

I swoop in again and collide with magic and flesh. Immediately, I sink my claws into the substance—whatever it is. I can’t see anything, except for the galaxies twinkling deep within his form, but it’s enough.

Something like blood slips between my fingers as I tear into the Thief’s odd form.

Behind me, I sense his magic closing in on me again. At once I release my hold, dropping to the ground just as his power moves overhead, stirring my hair. I hear a crack as the Thief’s magic strikes magic.

“Gods could not destroy me.” His voice thunders in the darkness. “It’s foolish to thinkyoucan.”

I leap back up into the air, claws bared. I attack darkness once more.

Let’s see if this thing has a heart.

I can’t see his body, but there’s something left of him in the darkness. My fingers tear into his strange flesh, digging for that organ of his.

He hisses at the sensation.

We will find his heart—we will find it and rip it out.

I feel bone and blood—

Euribios’s magic slams into me. Or maybe it’s his hand; impossible to tell when the world is so dark and he’s morphed into something that’s half human, half shadow.

“Enough!”

He throws me onto the ground, my bones cracking at the impact.

I moan.

Things are … broken. Wing bones, ribs.

Didn’t kill him. Didn’t even come close.

I can feel Euribios’s form, his immense, dark form looming down on me, his power pinning me in place.

I begin to drag myself away. My magic moves through me, mending bones and tissue as it goes. Now that I’ve drank the lilac wine, my body can heal itself. Not that it’s pleasant.

I grit my teeth as bones snap back into place, my body throbbing at the speedy healing.

All the while, my connection pulses.