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Naia’s breath caught, her eyes frantically following the trail of briars back to their master.

Ronin was in front of the warehouse, yards away from her, his skin covered in smudges of soot and his forearms drenched in his blood as he manipulated his thorns.

Avi emerged from behind him, the muscles in his arms flexing as he flung two potions on the ground. They hit with a boom and thick smoke infected the air. The nightrazers caught in its vicinity evaporated.

Ronin moved methodically, but with haste, controlling the briars of his blood as if they were extensions of his limbs. Before the nightrazers could set their sights on him, they were brought down. Deadly and efficient.

As his arms worked, his eyes scoured the disarray.

She opened her mouth to call out for him when a bad feeling flooded her gut. A trepidation she was well accustomed to, alerting her senses.

A black whirling shadow danced in her periphery.

Her pulse accelerated as it raced towards Ronin, faster than any mortal eye could register.

Not this time, Marina.

Kicking off her feet, the velocity at which Naia traveled blurred her surroundings as she weaved between those in her path.

Time moved slower.

Ronin’s blood briars seized the space in front of him like a shield. He had enough sense to know when he was being targeted. But like the agile bat she was, Marina twisted at an angle at the last minute, preventing her from being hit.

Naia’s heels dug into the gravel, appearing in front of Ronin, channeling all her strength into her fist as her knuckles collided with Marina’s solar plexus.

The impact of the hit vibrated down Naia’s arm as Marina flew backwards into the carcass of the brewery. Rubble and ashes puffed in the air like a mushroom cloud.

“Naia!” Ronin’s wet fingers brushed her shoulder before she propelled in Marina’s direction.

Naia made it halfway across the gravel road when a powerful force slung her back.

A dragon made of flames roared into the open night sky, sending a scorching trail of fire from its mouth in pulses. It loomed over the shoulders of the High God of Fire as he strolled down the road. The collected puddles of Ronin’s blood on the gravel, the briars seizing to grab a hold of him—all of it burned.

And he was headed straight for her.

Bits of rocks stabbed in her knees as she got to her feet. She braced herself, the muscles in her legs clenched into a firm stance.

Solaris would never hurt her. Not physically, anyway.

He stopped a few feet away, waves of his fire rippling across her face.

Vines of blood briars licked around his flames just to wither.

Ronin shoved through the bodies to get to her.

On her left, Marina stepped out of the rubble, her nightrazers floating like wraiths at her side. She’d come prepared, protected by her silk black layers. Only the lethal cut of her eyes shone over the dark mask around her face.

Beneath his armor of fire, Solaris extended an arm and a barrier of flames shot down the road, twenty feet tall, separating the mortals from her.

“Naia!” Ronin shouted from the other side.

Marina’s shadows quivered in small masses, attacking around Naia’s arms and legs. Their touch was like insects burrowing in her pores. She growled and kicked. Ronin’s blood caked all over her had no effect on them. And as Naia tried to rid herself of them, it hit her they were eating away the blood. To prevent the chance of it touching Marina or Solaris.

Aware of her sister’s frightening aura, Naia dug her feet into the gravel. Marina materialized beside her, snapping out an arm.

Naia bent her knees and ducked. She couldn’t move her feet from the shadows weighing down around her ankles.

Marina’s fingers latched her by the throat and squeezed. Naia screamed and drove the heel of her hand into Marina’s sternum. A crack reverberated in Marina’s bone, the impact sending her flying back into the brewery’s rubble again.