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Shaye raised his hands, opening his palms, willing Daeanna’s evil into his body.

The world shuddered.

A dense silence filled his ears.

Bright white-blue speared down from the clouds.

Aimed straight for his beckoning palms.

“You wish for death and defeat?!” Daeanna screamed, her hated voice cutting through the silence. “So you shall have it!”

Rihanna shouted, “Shaye!”

Ignoring the panicked cries erupting from all around him, consumed by a desperateneed, his skin prickled a split second before the blistering power struck his palms.

He pitched his arms down and forward, casting the bolts toward their enemies. Fire rocked through every inch of his body, muscles, nerves, forcing a roar from his throat.

A reckoning force slammed into his back.

Unyielding power tore through him, overwhelming, uncontrolled. It stole all, vision, sensation, being.

And turned the world black.

40

Astrange silence followed, then was torn by the squawk and whoosh of bird-like creatures bulleting overhead and strafing the solid lines of gold-plated Fae with slashing claws.

A monstrous bellow echoed throughout the grounds, the magnitude of it shaking the rubble beneath their feet and causing the ground to quake—a bellow that enforced the wave of unstoppable magic that fled Shaye’s body Rihanna could see like his spirit was being stretched out from his physical form. His hair whipped wildly around his head, his hands blazed with the magnificent colors of fire and ice.

But not before two lethal daggers fled Daeanna’s hands.

Gold glinted, cutting straight through the storm of magic, weaving between the dense threads of power, aimed dead center for Shaye’s chest.

Chaos rang out. Shouts, commands, screams.

Rihanna spun around, sending her magic to intercept the blades. She never saw Moira until her sister slammed her palms onto her brother’s back.

The force of the light that exploded from Shaye’s hands sent her reeling, spinning and folding down on herself.

That power…

That roar…

The ground jolted. Rock ground together, lending a threatening beat to the battle cries. Rihanna mustered her magic from the depths of her soul, absorbed power through her feet, and aimed it directly at the daggers.

The rush deflected off the whirlwind of power rushing from her brother. The blade flipped over and stabbed one of Daeanna’s followers through the temple before the man could deliver a fatal blow to one of the High Fae defending Shaye.

She never saw where the second disappeared.

Until a familiar face filled her vision, strong hands gripped her shoulders, and a leather-clad body slammed into her, bowed as his features twisted in agony.

“Bryce?” she whispered.

“Back, little bird. Away,” he said through clenched teeth. With a grunt, he shoved her, but not before he stumbled forward, knocking into her hips and bringing them both to the uneven ground. A cushioning cloud escaped her fingertips before they hit the rock, breaking their fall.

That’s when she saw it.

The dagger. Protruding from Bryce’s back.