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“Fair point,” Arabella said, her mind reeling.

Her strategy in Shadowbank had always been to get behind the ward. So long as the demons didn’t punch a hole through it, that kept everyone safe. Eventually, the demons lost interest and returned to the forest.

Without a ward, it was fight or die. Or outrun it.

And they were in the demon’s territory, which put them at a disadvantage.

Hadeon ducked beneath a low branch—his wings barely fitting through.

She opened her mouth to speak when there was a shift in the shadows. Glancing down, she noticed the ground had turned to an ashen gray. Something rumbled beneath her feet, and she knew with sudden certainty that the zaol was about to unleash the gathering shadows.

“Behind me!” she shouted, pivoting in the underbrush and skidding to a stop.

Hadeon, Breckett, and Jessamine stopped at once and flung themselves behind her as a torrent of energy yawned open in the trees in front of them.

There were no shadows for her to pull from, nothing to form a shield, but she moved on instinct.

Darkness felled everything in its wake. Entire trees crumbled to the earth in a pile of black ashes as the power swept through.

“Arabella?” Jessamine asked, a note of warning in her voice.

But Arabella didn’t respond as she watched the line of power barrel toward them.

She wasn’t going to fight the shadows.

No.

The shadows were hers to command.

A few paces away, the trees exploded in a torrent of black. She knelt and pressed a hand to the earth. Then she opened herself to the dark veins of the Abyss.

The power blasted into her like a rogue wave in the deep ocean. It was so much force—more energy than had ever been in her body at a single time. It felt like she was a cup filled to overflowing. She let the shadows flow into her, soaking up every drop.

But soon, it became too much, and she directed the surplus into the ground.

She thought she heard Jessamine and Breckett shouting behind her, but she didn’t register their words.

The trees on either side of her disintegrated into dark ash.

I can’t take this much longer,she thought, hoping the zaol’s attack was almost through.

Her entire body trembled at holding so much power. Blood trickled from her nose, and she thought she felt liquid flowing from her ears, too. Gasping, she tried to take in a deep breath, but it felt like a boulder had been placed atop her chest.

Spots formed in her vision, and she thought she might black out, when the torrent stopped.

The first thing her mind registered was a strange sizzling sound. Glancing around, her eyes widened as her gaze fell upon dozens of charred trunks where the trees had been. Only the trees that were directly behind Arabella and her friends remained in this section of the forest. Now, the desert was visible from all sides, and the shadows were returned to the earth.

She breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of Breckett, Hadeon, and Jessamine all on their feet.

All fine.

“Your neck,” Hadeon said. “There’s black veins.”

She swiped the blood away from her nose with the back of her sleeve. “Interesting.”

The zaol stood several hundred paces away. Behind it, the forest remained intact. It made a hissing sound as it took one step forward and then another.

“I think you pissed it off,” Breckett said.