Page 43

“That’s it,” Kato grunted.

The pillar groaned, shifted.

Skye snarled, muscles burning, legs sinking deeper into the muck.More.Just a little more.

The river fought to pull him under. The runes on the stone flared, magic snapping against his skin. He threw everything he had into it, tipping his head back, teeth bared to the sky as he roared.

With a final monstrous shove, the beam ripped free.

Chunks of mud and soil fountained into the sky.

Above them, the whole structure tilted, one side breaking away from the riverbank in a spray of falling timber and stone.

“Another,” Skye panted to Kato as they waded to the next beam. The rapids swirled past, waist-high and relentless. “We need to take down another.”

Water splashed in Skye’s eyes, stinging with salt. The riverbed sucked at his boots, shifting, dragging him down. But he barely felt it.

His eyes locked on the column. The last barrier. The last damn thing between him and Taly’s safety.

The power was still there, rolling beneath his skin. He hadn’t used all of it.

He needed more.

His lungs burned. His pulse hammered. His muscles flexed, not with effort, but with…change.

Beneath his sleeves, tendons flexed and realigned. Ligaments stretched as bones reformed.

It should’ve terrified him. Maybe it did.

But Shards, it feltgood.

Every lick of pain burst into power. He was splintering from the inside out, like his body was feeding itself to the fire.

And he let it.

His shoulders broadened. His spine stretched. His body reinforced itself from the inside out. His legs braced deeper, calves corded with new strength. His fingers elongated—jagged, built to tear through stone.

Kato swore. “What the—”

But Skye was already moving through the water. The river parted around him in churning arcs.

He would not die here. Neither would she.

He’d come too far. He was too close to the finish line to lose everything now.

With a snarl, he struck.

Where his fists came down, rock shattered.

The second column didn’t tear from the earth like the first.

It snapped.

Countless tons of reinforced rock and metal crumpled and burst apart, followed by the telltale crackle of aether as the wards spat sparks into the storm.

“Go, go, go!” Kato shouted as they both ran for the bank, fingers digging into the mud as their boots slid.

The bridge collapsed behind them with a thundering crash. A wave of water slammed into his back, dragging Skye backward. Fingers splayed, claws sinking knuckle-deep into the slick earth, he hauled himself upward, refusing to slide back.