Page 34

“Run!” Breena bellowed, sprinting toward the narrow gully cutting through the craggy walls.

The rest of us dashed after her. The atmosphere blackened like a candle being snuffed out. Lightning flashed, illuminating Breena, Rhaegar, and Marek as they pushed through the constricted passage without hesitation.

With a hand resting on the edge of the opening, Seryn paused, her eyes searching. Her expression relaxed as they landed on me, but then her brows shot up. “Behind you!”

The droning oozed into my ears, and a frenetic energy seared across my back. My will to live bled out, my rune’s glow sputtering before snuffing out entirely.

It flared again as she stepped toward me.

“Go. Go now!” I shouted.

Her aura crackled, and bough-shaped radiance raced down her arms.

She wouldn’t listen. Per usual.

This damned, uncompromising woman would be the death of me— and I’d gladly accept such a fate because it meant I’d perished in her orbit.

For whatever reason.

But these fucking shades were not claiming either of us today.

A frustrated snarl shook my ribs, and I forced my leaden arms to move.

I flipped my sword within my hands so my blade jutted backward, cradled next to my flank.

With a swift and forceful push, its shank sank into a gummy mass.

The specter screeched, its cloying shadows spilling over my shoulders and dissipating along with the sharp hum.

I spun around, thrusting my sword through another creature as it skittered closer to take its brethren’s place.

Whizzing past my ear, Seryn’s dagger impaled a shade on my right, the faceted pommel glinting before the creature burst apart.

For a fleeting instant, the liquid-like haze remained motionless before being sucked back into the crystal end of her weapon, reuniting with Seryn’s glowing hand as if an invisible elastic band connected them.

I stabbed another shade to my left, and several more piled behind it. “Go! I’ll be right behind you!” I bellowed after killing another, my rune and blade blazing again at full power. As a unit, the shades jerked away, fearful of my embered weapon.

“You damned stubborn ass!” Seryn hollered as she hurled her body through the channel. I backed up, squeezing through the constricted space after her, a sharp rock snagging my clothes.

With a final push, I wrenched myself out of the passage. Stumbling, my feet clumsily caught me. I blinked, fearing I’d lost my vision. An all-consuming gloom obscured the spaces around me.

“Seryn?” I shouted, not caring if any lingering evil heard me. “Seryn?!” The fog gobbled up my words, the volume shrinking despite me roaring her name over and over.

Dark silhouettes moved haphazardly, some darting around me, others barely moving.

When I tried to focus on them, the shapes crumbled away.

I held my sword up, pushing my ember over my blade once more.

The fog swirled unpredictably, swiping across my vision like splashed paint one moment and then like thick, slow-dribbling honey the next.

“Bloody fucking void,” I rasped.

My molars slammed together as a solid form knocked into me. Soft, sweet-smelling strands tickled my neck, and my left arm instinctively wrapped around her waist. “Little Star.” My words fell out with a relieved sigh.

“Thank the Ancients.” She slowly pulled from my grip and fumbled until her hand found mine. Energy prickled between our joined skin. “Don’t let go.” The fog shrouded her, but I could just make out bits of her when her aura twisted, slicing through the haze.

“Never will,” I murmured. Her hand tightened in mine.

Her body lurched as someone bumped into her. “I’ve had just about enough of this fecking place,” Breena complained, her fingers wrapping around Seryn’s biceps. “Hold, please.”

With her gift rippling over her, Breena lifted her other hand, a twisting orb of ruby sparkles and heatwaves sizzling within her palm. She bent her knees and shot up, whipping her arm above her head. The sphere flew high into the air, exploding in a shower of dazzling sparks.

“Brilliant.” Rhaegar laughed as he joined us out of the smog.

With a smirk, Breena grabbed his hand. “Pleased you know that about me.”

My second-in-command chuckled as Marek found us as well. “If you’ve finished congratulating yourself, we need to keep moving.”

Breena’s mouth pinched, her nostrils flaring before her features settled into a confident grin.

“Lord Prickton of Twatsville is right. Let’s do this.

” She cocked one brow at him before she tugged Seryn and Rhaegar forward, and, in turn, me.

Seryn shook her head and held onto my hand tightly.

Marek pushed his shoulders back, his embered halo snapping.

I stretched my neck to each side, and a sharp burn bit into the space between it and my shoulder. I pushed into the muscle and winced; my hand was coated in blood.

“Gavrel, you’re injured,” Seryn said, her brows furrowing .

“It’s nothing. Let’s keep going.”

She narrowed her eyes, but swallowed her words.

As a unit, we pushed through the dense fog. At times, my muscles strained as if we barely moved. Other times, our limbs ripped through, our bodies slicing through the mist with ease.

Finally, my vision cleared as if a veil was torn away.

Our feet met the blanched, dusty terrain once more.

All of our embered light blazed bright for a moment before sinking within our skin.

Seryn let go of me, stepping forward. I followed her gaze and drew in a sharp breath at what loomed before us.

It was a gleaming, mammoth structure. Glossy, jet-black panels, rather than glass, formed the concave walls, reminding me of our ten-sided conservatories. Instead of a domed roof, it curved inward, sharp spikes jutting upward from the intersections between the panels like a melded onyx crown.

An unnatural sense of dread prickled along my skin, scratching at my flesh. The others shifted on their feet uneasily beside me, faces scrunching and bodies tense.

“Steady now,” Rhaegar said, pushing his axe forward as a slinking ebony mist began spilling from the base of the edifice.

Marek and I squared up, our weapons also at the ready. Seryn leaned forward with the blade of her obsidian dagger in front of her.

“Do you hear that? What the ever-fecking feck is that?” Breena asked, her words clipped. She squinted, pulling her daggers from the sheaths at her hips.

All at once, the screaming started.