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We marched the five hundred paces to Indrasyl, and I fell back into the second line, waiting for Alvar’s signal to reveal myself.

I heard Erovos’ demons before I saw them. They grunted and growled in a deadly cacophony that shook the earth.

The closer we walked to Indrasyl, the darker and more desolate the Lirien Valley became. No birds or any living things were in sight, and my throat closed as I thought of the beautiful starwings who once thrived here but were now extinct.

I gulped, glancing up at the sky. It was morning, yet the clouds were so dense they completely blotted out the sun.

Indrasyl finally came into view, stretching above the Voro-Kai like a dark tower. Her twisted branches and blighted bark no longer saddened me. It enraged me. A fury rose beneath my skin and urged the Light in me to thrash and swell.

The grotesque demons surrounding her made me want to explode like a supernova. Nothing had ever looked more wrong. She was sick, dying, and encircled by those who meant to destroy her. I prayed she was still alive, somewhere deep inside, holding out for hope.

When my gaze lowered to the Voro-Kai, my blood froze. Though I had seen the horde before—mere fetuses in murky cocoons—they were now mature beasts of darkness, equipped with fangs, tusks, and jagged claws.

Rowen halted our army with a closed fist.

The Voro-Kai were the only thing standing between me and the salvation of worlds.

You’d think there would be a calm before the storm, but there wasn’t.

Instead, the air whirled with tension and dread.

I could barely breathe as my inner tornado built into a swirling vortex.

Even my tongue tingled with notes of metal and ash.

It was as if I could already taste the impending bloodshed.

I glanced at Rowen, committing every line of his beautiful face to memory.

He drew my left hand to his lips and kissed me just below the ivy ring. “No one will touch you. Your path will be clear, Keira. I will get you to Indrasyl, even if it’s with my last breath,” he said like an unbreakable vow. Little did he know it was a vow to my last breath, not his.

Suddenly, an emptiness ached in my chest. “Where is Maddock?” I asked, realizing he was nowhere to be seen.

Rowen and Dyani looked around, but it was as if he had vanished into thin air.

“Have you seen Maddock?” Dyani hissed to the soldiers beside her.

A Wyn soldier with obsidian skin and dark green eyes spoke up. “I saw him leave just after we fell in line. He said the Light Bearer asked him to get her another weapon.”

My voice went numb. “I never asked him for anything.”

“He’s gone?” Dyani asked, not hiding the disgust in her voice. Her grip tightened on her blades. She must have grabbed another Ever-burn, one for each hand.

My knees went weak, and I nearly sank to the ground. “He told me he didn’t want to fight again. That he felt worthless,” I barely whispered. I should have told him he wasn’t worthless, not to me, but I was too concerned with my own problems to notice he had no intention of fighting this battle.

Dyani scoffed in disgust. “He deserted us.”

The words didn’t sound right. Not after everything he’d promised. But as I desperately searched for his warm eyes, the truth plunged into my gut like a sinking ship.

I should have known he would leave, but that didn’t stop the sting of betrayal any less.

“I’m so sorry,” Rowen said, squeezing my shoulder. “He’s gone."

“I couldn’t care less,” I said quickly, biting my lower lip to keep it from trembling.

The words weren’t true.

I cared.

I cared with every fiber of my being. Or what was left of it. He went like a thief in the night with my Light and soul flame bond. He’d driven his hand into my ribcage, grabbed onto vital organs without a care in the world, and wrenched them from my chest.

The gaping hole bled and convulsed, but I couldn’t think of the wound he’d created, healed, and ripped open again. It hurt too much.

I had confided in him, telling him what I needed to do. And still, he left me.

Maddock was a deserter whose cowardice would outlive me. Once I was gone, Rowen would seek a way to exact revenge; maybe he would hunt him down and kill him. That was if I succeeded.

I locked my knees and faced the enemy ahead. “Let the coward go. We have a battle to win.”

Neither the rattle in my bones nor the breaking of my heart was enough to drown out the sea of demons grunting, “Take. Take. Take.”

Despite the deathly chant, Mithrion was a comforting weight in my hand.

I glanced at the soldiers around me. I couldn’t ask for braver souls to die beside, unlike Maddock, who was a coward through and through. I hated that I had ever grown to like him or call him a friend, but the worst part was that I had started to trust him.

Alvar was about to signal for me to show myself when suddenly, a single demon emerged from the line, hunched and hulking.

What was Erovos’ plan in sending out one Voro-Kai? We weren’t stupid enough to charge one demon. We needed to lure them farther away from the tree. They were still too close!

My eyes narrowed, searching for the world eater, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Suddenly, a scream pierced through the grey sky. It was a wailing unlike anything I’d ever heard, and it was coming from our side of the battlefield.

My eyes darted back to the lone astral demon when a flash of silver bounced off its bulging arms, and my breath caught in my throat.

Silver cuffs encircled the Voro-Kai’s wrists, their design unmistakable. They were the exact same cuffs Demil wore the day he helped Erovos kidnap me.

A chill slithered down my spine. One bite from a Voro-Kai could turn you, but had Demil been turned? Or had his cuffs been stolen off his body like a sick war prize?

It could be a coincidence, but when it came to Erovos, there was no such thing as coincidences, and when the Voro-Kai raised its boar-shaped head, terror gripped me like a steel claw .

Yellow eyes peered at me—Demil’s eyes.

The wailing persisted, and I realized it was Dyani. She’d recognized her twin within the twisted demon face.

Demil raised his blade as a bleeding darkness swarmed his irises. The silver circlets that once sat high on his arms were now snug around his wrists from how much he’d grown.

Suddenly, a slash of white bolted from our ranks.

“Dyani, no!” I screamed as she charged across the field toward her brother. “It’s a trap.”

“Hold the line!” Alvar screamed as Dyani continued to run, losing us precious ground.

I wanted to chase after her, but as I took my first step, Rowen pulled me back to keep me hidden. “If we charge, she dies.”

I knew he was right. Dyani was too close to the opposing forces. If we charged, the Voro-Kai army would swarm her, and no matter how skilled a warrior she was, no one could survive that. She had a better chance of beating her brother one-on-one.

I fell back in line, though the dread twisting my gut did not lessen. We all remained rooted in terror as the siblings collided on the battlefield.

Demil slashed at his twin, but she ducked just in time, narrowly missing a blade to the chest.

She spun back around, but his yellow eyes were fixed on her dual blades. “Demil, it’s me, your sister,” Dyani coaxed, tucking her swords within their sheaths. “You don’t have to do this. We can find a way to fix you.”

My heart seized. There was no cure for a Voro-Kai bite this far along.

Demil grunted, banging his chest with his monstrous arms.

“Please, brother. Remember me. I promised Mother I would keep you safe.” The pleading in her voice broke my heart.

Sadness seemed to engulf his eyes, which still looked so human on the face of a demon.

Suddenly, Demil attacked, barreling his blade on his twin sister, but Dyani had always been faster, and in a move that was so swift, I almost didn’t see it, she pulled her knives out and blocked him with a cross-blade formation.

“Demil, please,” she grunted, holding up both her arms as Demil pressed down on her with his blade—his Wyn warrior blade. “Remember who you are, my brother.”

He released his weapon and struck again, but Dyani deflected the blow.

“Kill her!” Erovos shrieked in a tone that made everyone cover their ears. His voice rang out like it was everywhere, in all our heads.

As if on cue, the last traces of humanity vanished from Demil’s eyes. Now a mindless demon, he brutally attacked his sister. Blow by blow, she defended herself, but only just. Dyani was fighting for her life.

The siblings crashed like thunder, and sparks rained down upon them as Ever-burn crystal met steel. Dyani had always been a better fighter, but now, Demil was twice his original size. His body bulged with unnatural muscle and brute demon strength.

They were evenly matched.

Demil beat down on his twin in a barrage of hits.

My heart was in my throat as Dyani blocked each violent swing, but her arms were beginning to shake. She was tiring.

Then, the demon hit Dyani so hard she lost her footing and opened up her side.

Demil struck her unguarded ribcage, and a cry warbled up my throat.

But Dyani twisted away at the last second.

She dropped to the ground and swept her leg out in a precise semi-circle, kicking his legs out from under him.

Her brother staggered and crashed into the mud.

It was just like the first day I’d seen them sparring on the training grounds. Demil must have remembered, too, because something flashed in his eyes, and the darkness receded.

“Sister,” he grunted. “I’m so sorry.”

“I’m here. Everything is going to be all right,” Dyani wept, dropping to the ground to gather her brother in her arms.

“Please, end this.”

“I can’t,” she sobbed.

His voice was different as he tried to speak around the tusks. “I beg you.”

“No!”

“Mother wouldn’t want this for me.”

“I can’t!” she cried again.

“Do it! Please.”