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Didhedo that? Did he force the guy out of his wolf form?

The man recovers, rising up to one knee. "What is this?" he yells, looking at his hands. His face scrunches up with effort. "I can't shift!"

He strides forward, eyes blazing with anger, without even a limp from the wound I put in his thigh. These motherfuckers are built tough, but at least it'll be a fair fight this time. I raise my fists into a guard, bobbing my head back and forth as I track hismovements. He makes a telegraphed swing to my head, and I evade and land a solid jab on his chin. It's like hitting a brick wall. Goddamn solid bones.

Bam, bam. I cut in and connect with a gut punch, and when he lurches over, I pivot on my toes and throw my weight into a devastating uppercut that flips his chin like a Pez dispenser. He staggers backward onto his heel. For a second, it looks like he's about to recover, but I know that look in his eyes. Or lack of one. Then they roll back into his head, and he goes down hard.

"Fuckin' A," I say. "I think I broke a knuckle."

No response from Dustin. I whirl around. A patch of blue sky is visible through the open hatch at the top of the empty ladder.

Son of a... Why didn't he wait for me?

With a sharp tug, I pry the sword stuck into the wall and climb the ladder. Slowly, carefully, I peek up over the rim.

My heart plunges into my feet.

Dustin is on his knees, trapped between two armed men, their drawn blades crossed in front of him. His eyes meet mine, wide with terror. Sitting casually on the ground in front of them is that damn cat sniper, the same one that took me captive. She licks the back of her paw and hops up to her feet.

"Come on out," she calls to me. "There's nowhere for you to go."

A shadow falls over me. I don't need to turn around to know I have a sword pointed at the back of my head. I grip the rungs of the ladder, my knuckles burning and swollen. I hear shouts from the passageway below, and the thud of boots and paws.

Well,shit.

4

AIROS

“Run!” I shout. "Make for a place to hide!"

"There is no place to hide!" Kalistratos shouts back.

Tyler drags the floating core on its rope, and it hovers behind him like a sea anchor.

"They're going for Tim!" he shouts as the insects dive at the core.

"LEAVE TIM!" Kalistratos yells before one of the giant black insects rams into him. Tyler spins around with his sling and fires a stone that cracks against the beetle's eye. The creature whirls madly and crashes into the ground with a sparkling, purple fluid gushing from the wound. The sharp odor we'd smelled fills the air. He drops the rope. The core is engulfed by the swarm.

"Oh god," Tyler says. "It's the phoenix energy. I think those things are feeding on the phoenix energy from the flyer cores."

The swarm abandons the drained core, swirls into the air, and dives for Kalistratos. He draws his sword as Tyler loads his sling. I command a bolt of Gnosis energy to explode at the head of the swarm, and the insects careen off it like rain on a canopy. They quickly regroup, moving as if with one mind, and head straight for Kalistratos.

"Why me?!"

"You used your powers!" I yell.

"So did you!"

"Not my phoenix powers!" I fire another blast of green magic. "These spells are different."

We clamber up the stairway as I hold them with a shield spell that quickly begins to corrode. Gnosis magic is greatly limited—it's gleaned from arcane knowledge discovered through research, and there's only so much one can learn from manuals and scrolls. Its original source is mysterious, even to me, and unlike my phoenix powers, my control over it is tenuous at best.

"There!" Tyler points at a building up ahead constructed into the wall of the gorge. Its walls and door are intact, and there are no windows. We throw ourselves inside, just as my shield collapses. Kalistratos slams the door closed onto the leg of an insect that manages to make it through. Its wings buzz wildly, bashing Kalistratos's body as he fights to keep the door from bursting open from the swarm battering against it. Tyler hoists a fallen beam, and with a furious scream, charges with it like a batteringram. The splintered tip impales the bug through the bottom of its shell, and purple fluid gushes down the wood. I point my staff and fire a blast of energy that severs its leg at the joint, and though the gap closes, Kalistratos still struggles to hold the door shut as the bugs continue to pelt the building with their bodies. The sound is earsplitting, like an avalanche.

I run to Tyler's side and help him maneuver the beam to wedge it against the door. Kalistratos stumbles back into Tyler's arms.

"Are you alright?" Tyler asks, touching where the creature's wings have bruised Kalistratos's face.