Page 56

IRIS

Remy’s shadows bunch around me. I take a deep breath in the moment of night-black silence.

Here we go.

We blink into chaos.

Lombardy Keep is carved out of a mountain.

The five towers and high wall barely hold back swarms of zombie kobolds and the stampeding skeletons of massive, gold-tusk boars.

Monsters pile and climb, pile and climb, while the fresh-risen kobold mages launch spectral missiles from far behind the vanguard.

I choke on smoke and decay and the roar of psychic pain from Sentinels fighting themselves instead of the enemy.

Hands steady me when I reel—one hot, one cool.

I clear my head of everything but what I need to do.

“His voice,” Remy says hoarsely. “The pull is stronger here.”

“Stay with me.” I cycle through his soul, leaving nowhere for the lich to grab hold. His shadows wobble, then steady.

“I’m with you.” Remy drags my hand to his mouth. His throat burns, but the feeling eases when he huffs between my fingers.

“Never left.” Vhex cups my mouth with semi-clawed fingers. My gut clenches.

“Keep a tight hold on Kevan,” I remind Remy as I press my badge to alert Cherise that reinforcements are here. “Take us down to the central tower.”

Remy drops the Deathguard squads on the other towers. He carefully lowers me and, by association, Vhex.

Kevan and Luca’s bodies fall and roll into a corner, bundled up like shadowy sacks of trash.

I can’t spare them any more thought.

Between clanging metal, clashing spells, the psychic agony of out-of-control Sentinels, and the eerie, deathly aura pressing down on the battlefield, I can barely spare enough attention to take a full breath.

I anchor into Vhex and Remy, letting their strength shield me from the chaos.

Once I’m grounded, I squeeze Vhex’s hand. “Clear the walls.”

Glee boils out as his hellfire rolls down the parapets. Kobolds aren’t his match, let alone the undead kind, but there are so fucking many of them. Some are oozy fresh, and some are so ancient, they’re only walking bones.

Just as many skeletal boars charge within their ranks, but he’s already barbecued them once before.

Letting Vhex take over our defense, I wince and turn to Remy.

His throat burns hotter than the hellfire.

“Kneel for me,” I murmur, tugging him down.

Remy drops, letting me cover his face. Using my hand like an oxygen mask, he takes deep, dragging breaths that tickle between my fingers. His dark and flickery thought patterns smooth out as soon as he’s breathing my skin instead of the blood-soaked air.

When his shadows are calm, I put him to work. “Bring me the Sentinel over there.” I point the direction with my silks.

Remy hmms , and a foggy-eyed A-class Sentinel appears from a puff of darkness.

I latch into the woman’s soul while she’s dazed from the trip, not giving her time to attack.

The lich king’s energy stings more sharply now that we’re closer to its source. Jabs of pain slow down my purge, but I don’t dare free up my hands to make skin contact with the Sentinel.

I’d rather be a little slower than risk weakening the weave between me, Vhex, and Remy.

If I lose them, everything is lost.

I’m panting by the time the Sentinel’s eyes clear.

“Commander? What just…” She blinks in confusion.

Quickly realizing her sword is missing, she flicks a dagger from her belt and whirls to put me behind her back. Her figure arcs with lightning as she cases a battlefield turned pink and black with hellfire and ash.

“You’re safe.” I nod where I’d usually offer a reassuring pat. “Go support the Guides in the courtyard. Have them send up any Sentinels that give them trouble.”

Her silks relax.

She feels gratitude, relief, and a lingering hit of terror.

“On it.” She palms her dagger to salute me, then leaps over the wall. Thunder booms as she hits the flagstones stories below.

A jittery sense of thank you still crackles in the air.

How refreshing.

Remy growls when too much of my attention shifts to someone else. I move behind him, straddling his kneeling legs. Leaning against his back lets me conserve energy. “Easy. I’m not going anywhere.”

Remy captures my arm and holds it to his chest.

Vhex can play flamethrower from anywhere. Not to be left out, he covers me from behind and sinks his chin on my shoulder, tickling my neck with every breath.

I can’t help following the flow of their emotions.

Bubbly with bloodlust, then darkly possessive.

They’re sometimes confused, sometimes lost, but always comforted by my touch.

They protect me front and back, their powers and moods fully ready to bend to my wishes.

I’m in control, but it doesn’t feel that way.

“Next Sentinel,” I murmur to muffle my shiver.

Remy pulls a B-class through the shadows, and I get back to work.

Vhex melts the horde while Remy shields our people and delivers me Sentinels. They’re scary efficient when they’re fighting enemies instead of fighting each other.

I twine deep in their souls, keeping their power flowing smooth. My senses bleed into theirs, giving me a super-powered view that spans the keep and battlefield.

Cherise has her Guides corralling the last few empty-eyed Sentinels, and with Vhex and the Deathguard casting their best wide-area attacks from the towers, we’ve incinerated enough monsters to clear the walls.

As the attacks slow, I feel a rumble through my toes. The tower shakes, but not with death magic.

It’s much too warm.

Earth magic?

My heart catches. “Where are Simms and Tan?”

“I’ll find them for you.” Remy’s shadows bunch, then thin. I link into his senses as he sweeps the keep. The missing pair isn’t in the courtyard with the Guides. The inner rooms are empty, but Remy’s shadows find a collapsed floor, where cobblestones tumble into the deepening pit below.

The shadows plunge through the rubble and keep going, deep into raw rock.

Simms stands empty-eyed at the bottom of the pit.

Tan clings to his waist, but the magic stops and starts, and the earth shifts at Simms’s feet.

The hole gets wider.

Deeper.

Colder .

The tunnel slopes slightly left—tilting toward the lich king’s position.

Simms is drilling a fucking express elevator to its prison.

I grab Remy’s shirt. “Take me there.”

In a quick pop , the three of us reappear deep underground. The earth shakes, but shadows hold me steady.

“Baby. Stop. Please .” Tan’s frantic pleas echo in the dark.

“Give me a light?” I ask.

Vhex tosses a ball of hellfire that sticks to the uneven wall.

Tan pushes until he’s diagonal. His boots slide in the churning dirt, but he can’t budge Simms.

The Sentinel won’t respond.

I suck a breath.

We can’t donate an S-class to the lich king’s army.

I disentangle from Vhex and Remy.

Just like I’m guiding a Sentinel in battle, I position myself behind Tan. He jumps at my touch.

“Don’t stop.” I press my palms to his back. “Fight for your Sentinel.”

“I’m fucking fighting ,” Tan grits, straining so hard that he trembles.

“Remy,” I say, keeping my voice low. “Help us steady Simms.”

Shadows caress my skin, flowing past me to pin Simms in place.

Tan almost collapses when he stops pushing, but another shadow plucks his collar before I have to prop him up.

“Simms isn’t going anywhere. Take a breath. I’ll talk you through what you have to do.” I use my gentlest talking-Vhex-down-from-mass-murder voice, trying to be reassuring.

Tan doesn’t have time to take a breath. We’re sliding downward through the earth. The temperature drops.

Soon, even I can feel Simms’s power pulsing.

He’s about to rampage.

“Start talking.” Tan grabs his Sentinel’s jaw. Hair sticks to the sweat on his forehead.

“Follow his normal power flow with your silks until you find one of those cold, creepy death threads.”

Tan squeezes his eyes shut. “I can find it, but I can’t fucking fix it.”

“That’s half the work.” I rub his shoulders, trying to keep him calm. “Wrap the threads in your silks the same way you’d clear a tangle. But instead of healing it yourself, just guide Simms’s power to attack.”

“ Just? ” Tan’s voice rises, and he glares over his shoulder. “Our imprint is too new. I can’t?—”

“You have to,” I say calmly.

“But how? ” he asks, more despairing than frustrated.

I work on pure, stubborn spite, but that’s not what he needs here.

“Kiss him.” I give Tan a gentle push. “Simms almost fought Remy to protect you. Open your heart and let him feel what you’d do to save him. He’ll sense that and unconsciously give you his trust.”

“Even now?”

“Even now.”

Tan takes a shuddering inhale.

I’ve seen him and Simms do much more than kiss, but as Tan rises on his toes, heat burns my cheeks, and something stuffy fills my chest.

Tan clutches his Sentinel’s jaw. His finger joints whiten, but his mouth moves slowly and so gently.

The brush of lips is too intimate.

Too real.

I want to turn away, but I have to see this out until the end.

Tan pours himself into his partner.

Death magic whines, the earth shakes, but Tan’s lips blend all the sweetness of a first kiss and all the desperation of a last goodbye.

Have I ever kissed like that?

Have I ever been kissed like that?

Whether yes or no, I’m afraid to know the answer.

As the temperature rises, there’s a subtle shift in the air.

The death magic is being forced out. Slowly, the earth stops shaking.

Tan did it.

I bite back a sigh of relief, not wanting to break his concentration.

Vhex and Remy don’t give a fuck.

They both tug me. I brace to stop their fight before it starts.

I purse my lips to shhhhh , then freeze in a weird goldfish pucker, letting out a hiss instead.

The dukes aren’t glaring at each other.

They’re watching me with ten times the intensity of that life-and-death kiss.

While I was gawping, their silks were lacing tight. I don’t need to read the dark flames doing pyrotechnics in their eyes.

I can read their souls, and they’re both screaming the same thing:

I can kiss you so much better.

My heart rattles.

“Tan has this under control,” I offer shakily. “Let’s gather the guards and figure out how we’re dealing with the lich king.”