Page 25

“Thanks.” Crispin shifts until his body is shielding between me and the kobolds. “Stay behind me.”

It’s a little late for that.

I let him have his moment while I conserve energy.

“Crisp!” A Sentinel shouts. She and a full unit of Guides tear toward us, surprising the kobolds from behind.

With Crispin blocking for me, I take the chance to read the energies spread around the lawn. The scattered sword-clangs are dying down, and I don’t sense any unfamiliar Sentinels spiraling.

The familiar ones…

Hellfire and shadows crackle back and forth where the kobold lord used to be standing.

I rub my forehead.

As long as the warlord is dead and Vhex and Remy angle their fight away from the base, I’m not getting involved.

Let them burn themselves out.

“Iris? Are you okay?” Crispin’s soul-silk tentatively strokes my cheek.

I jump away from the too-intimate touch. “It’s Guide or Commander.”

His lip juts. “Even to me?”

“To everyone.” I knock away his clinging silks. His energy curls, still trying to get cozy.

I’m even less tempted than before.

Crispin may be warm, but he’s a tea-light compared to Vhex. Not even enough of a project to keep me busy for an afternoon. “How did you get separated from your squad?”

“They sent me to find Sentinel Simms before the base was overrun,” he sighs and ruffles his sweat-drenched hair. “I got pinned instead. The kobold numbers were insane.”

“Simms didn’t fight?”

“He never leaves his suite,” Crispin says bitterly.

A guard’s strongest Sentinels always set its tone.

With Vhex, Remy, and Simms each flaking in their own, special ways, the Farguard would struggle against a spawn of butterflies, let alone basic barbarian kobolds.

“I’ll discipline him.” I have to at least try turning this clusterfuck around. When the palace hears an ancient undead is about to rise, they’ll send someone scarier than me to take control.

I’ll happily shuffle into second-in-command.

Silence confirms the end of the battle. I start to rub sticky palms against my thighs but hit the strips of kobold leather.

Right.

No pants.

Wincing, I wave over the squad that’s spread in a half-moon formation around the kobolds on the lawn. “Nevin, right? Let me check you out.”

“Me first.” Crispin blocks the other Sentinels.

“You’re all set.” I retract from his clingy silks, giving him nothing. “Go tell Warden Dell that we need every kobold corpse collected and burned within the hour.”

I step past him, reaching for Nevin.

“Thanks, Commander.” The giant of a Sentinel stoops so I can touch his jaw. I connect with an earthy, jumbled energy.

“Iris,” Crispin says and grabs my arm. “How can you?—”

Before I can throw him off, his body is gone above the wrist.

His severed hand sticks behind, holding on to my sleeve.

I blink, not sure if I’m seeing what I’m seeing.

“Don’t speak her name.” Remy’s shadows peel off the clinging fingers, then he slingshots the hand a few football fields over the base.

Crispin screams as his uniform bursts into pink flames.

“Stop!” I spread my silks full-blast, connecting to every Sentinel in range.

Fifteen of them.

Their souls greedily welcome mine, but two points devour more than their share. I redirect my flagging energy to my two biggest problems.

Vhex and Remy quickly split me in half. Their magic faces off in the middle, fighting to claim more pieces of my soul.

There’s nothing left to share.

“Come here,” I call wearily.

Remy wraps me from behind. His arms surround my shoulders. His shadows grab everything else.

Vhex flashes in front of me, flame wings spread to block my line of sight. “ Mine .”

My heart throbs but not for the reason he thinks.

“See?” Vhex grins so wide, his fang pops, his eyes fixated on the spot in my chest. “You crave me.”

A ghostly prickle tightens my belly.

I wish it were just from Remy’s shadows. Vhex’s leftover heat still courses deep inside me.

“Let me remove that filthy venom,” Remy says, languidly stroking my throat. “I’ll start at the source.”

Their energies collide.

I’m so spent that it takes zero effort to pull away. My silks evaporate, giving the Sentinels nowhere to hook.

I shove them, staggering and refusing their help as their souls suckle for more. Crouching to check on Crispin, I growl, “Fetch that hand and a healer right fucking now, Remy. And no more godsdamned flames.”

Between the pain and the sledgehammer of Vhex and Remy’s S-class power, Crispin lies unconscious in the dirt. Thankfully, his own magic cauterized the wound.

He won’t bleed out before the hand is reattached.

“You touched him.” Vhex shrugs.

“He touched you ,” Remy adds, somehow producing a handkerchief from his tattered shirt. He dabs blood off his fingers.

The shadows act more obediently than the man.

Within a few breaths, a healer winks out of nowhere. She wears a Sentinel’s uniform with blue scrollwork embroidered on its shoulder cape and a very confused expression when she has to catch a tumbling severed hand.

“Can you heal him?” I ask and reach to smooth her silks.

Transmitting exhaustion and relief, she welcomes my guidance. “Thanks, Commander.” As she kneels and checks the damage, she knocks back a restorative potion from her hip pouch. Finally, she nods. “No problem. Just give me a few minutes. It’s tricky reconnecting the nerves.”

While her healing magic glows, Vhex and Remy prickle.

I drag them across the lawn.

“You’re out of line.” I thump my chest, all caveman like these idiots. Then I wave at the green-faced squad of Sentinels trying to minimize their presence on the lawn. “Guide. Sentinels. It’s my job to help them all. Not just the two of you.”

“Then we don’t need them.” Vhex sparks hellfire in his palm.

I’m about to punch him in the throat.

Before I can attack, I hear the groan.

I draw a too-sharp breath.

It’s not Crispin.

It’s not human .

Something moves in the dirt, making chuffing, muddy sounds.

Cut horizontally in half, the groaning kobold is absolutely very dead.

Now it twitches.

Both its halves attempt to stand.

Its chilling moans break the breathless silence as every Sentinel stops to watch the things crawl.

Kobolds rise all around the base.

They don’t attack.

It’s like they don’t even sense that we exist.

Clawing, stumbling, they shamble desperately across the lawn and over broken walls. I spot the kobold with my spear wedged through his ribs. It merges into a shuffling group, every body headed mindlessly toward the mountains.

“They’re being called.” My voice cracks. “Vhex.”

Hellfire blooms around the closest corpse.

Both halves of the dead kobold keep fighting forward, even as it burns.

When the body finally collapses, a wind appears, carrying the ashes in the same direction as the horde—north, toward the collapsing seal.

Holy.

Fuck.

Whatever’s buried down there is stronger than I feared.

I grab Vhex and Remy’s wrists. “No more screwing around.”

Adrenaline gives me a second wind.

I need to go make that call.

“Everyone corral the bodies. Burn them all.”