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Dom did the same, and hardly believed his eyes.

Instead of cutting the Ashlander from shoulder to hip, cleaving through flesh, her sword moved as if through mist. The edges of the creature curled from the blade in wisps of white, black, and a shock of ghostly blue. The rest faded like the smoke of a snuffed candle, trailing into nothing.

Sarn did not react, her focus snapping to the next Ashlander, and the next, still coming through the trees. They were faster now, lunging, spurred to action by her strike. She never lost her balance again.

Dom balked, looking back at the two he had already dispatched. But instead of bodies, there was only smoke curling on the ground, disappearing into the grass.

Corayne gaped, slack-jawed, at the sight.

One roared a tortured scream, the voice inhuman, and Dom reacted with blurring speed, raising his sword to parry a cursed blow. Instead his blade passed through the ruined iron of corpse armor, and another Ashlander gave over to nothing.

The others did the same, fleeing before every strike. Their own weapons turned to dust against steel, until there was nothing in the clearing but the trio and the drifting smell of flame.

In the trees, the horses continued to doze.

Dom spun in a circle, searching for more. Searching for the trick. He expected Taristan to fall on them, expected the wizard to rain lightning. He thought he heard the bell again, tolling for the temple and the fallen. But there was nothing but the breeze in the cypress. His breath came hard and heavy, not from exertion, but from pure bewilderment.

Corayne fell bodily to the ground, her face bone white.

Before Dom could reach her, Sarn blocked his path. The scorpion on her neck looked poised to strike.

“What thefuckwas that?” she growled.

The world wheeled around him.

Dom opened his mouth to answer, and vomited rabbit liver in reply.

10

JYDI CHARMS

Corayne

She blinked, the air warm again, her blood running hot, the grass smooth between her fingers. The fear was paralyzing, and she searched against the darkness, hunting for another walking corpse.

This is your fate.

The strange voice rang her skull like a bell. Corayne winced as the words cracked and splintered, flowed and coiled. It was human but not, something more, something less. And socold, leaving her skin prickling.

It does not wait,the voice continued, fading without echo, barely leaving behind a memory.

The white-faced demons were gone too. The smell of smoke and burned flesh disappeared with their forms.

A dream. They’re getting worse,she thought, her lips parting. She gulped down a bracing breath of air.I was asleep, and I dreamed of those creatures, red and terrible, broken and hungry.

But there was Dom, doubled over, spitting into the grass. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, his face nearly as white as the creatures. Sorasa grimaced at him, disgusted, her sword in hand, her body still tensed to fight. She glanced at Corayne and her gaze was hard.

Not a dream.

“Calm yourself,” the assassin said sharply. “Breathe slowly through your nose, then out through your mouth. You too,” she added, rapping Dom with the flat of her sword. He glared and spat again.

Corayne did as she was told, sucking in air.

Not a dream.

The leaping sensation in her gut began to ebb, leaving behind cold truth.

Not a dream.