Page 64

“So this is a Guide’s body. Fascinating,” he says, deadpan and discordant. “It’s adept at manipulating energies. Conditioned for necromancy,” he continues, talking purely to himself. “But limited to one target. Pity.”

Green flashes again.

This time, I recognize the color of magic pulled through their imprint.

Even reduced to half a corpse, Kevan shudders.

But if the imprint is working, he and Luca must still be alive?

I can’t promise to keep them that way.

“That body.” Lich-Luca swings his white eyes back to me.

My muscles lock from the weight of his attention, digging through my soul.

“Perfect. Unconstrained. Yes. I want that body.” Lich-Luca beckons. “Come here.”

Death magic wraps around my ankles and forces my feet to move.

“No.” I plant my glaive and strain to slow the pull. Spectral fingers yank away my pole.

I yelp as my left knee buckles in a flash of pure white pain.

Shit . I must’ve pulled something.

I can’t stand unsupported, let alone resist.

Helpless, I’m dragged in front of the lich.

Cold mist creeps along my skin. My body temperature drops, leaving me shaking and clammy.

I try to swing my blade, try to fight the lich’s pull, but the touch of death numbs my body and soul.

The sound of my teeth clacking wakes me up just enough to duck his reach.

“Hold her,” the lich says coldly.

Puppet Sentinels jump to obey. One grabs each of my arms. Kevan takes my left side.

In full lich mode, his head is pure skull. Cold, blue flames burn from the empty pits of his eyes.

My skin crawls from his familiar yet unfamiliar touch. With his silks blocked off from me, he’s the same as any other zombie.

The Sentinels present me to their king.

He reaches for my jaw.

NO.

I scream with every fiber of my soul. My aura surges with blue light, blazing across my skin.

Lich-Luca flinches.

For just a moment, his death energy flickers.

Kevan doesn’t budge—I can’t reach him anymore—but my sudden, mental attack knocks back the other Sentinel holding me down.

I can fight.

I can win.

I meet the lich king’s calculating gaze. “Don’t touch me.”

Feral roars echo.

I feel two energies surging toward me—disoriented but so fucking determined.

Vhex and Remy are coming.

“Powerful. Yes,” Lich-Luca murmurs, “A superior shell. I must have it.”

“Not a chance,” I growl, sharpening my silks into spears.

Soul-to-soul attacks risk damaging my silks. I don’t care as long as it hurts him worse.

There’s no ‘I’d rather die’ option here.

If I die, he wins.

I cock back my energy.

Before I can strike, two psychic screams shatter my focus.

Pain knocks the breath from my lungs.

Groaning, I fold like I’ve been stabbed.

“Stay back,” Lich-Luca barks.

Two jerky sets of footsteps stomp directly on my heart.

Vhex staggers, gripping his head. His flames ebb and sputter as threads of decay worm through his soul. He thrashes and snarls, but without my help, Vhex can’t shake the lich king’s hold.

“Lich,” the word slithers like a curse from the shadow that used to be Remy. He’s almost gone.

He has no thoughts.

Barely a pulse.

Yellow mist creeps through his ink-choked soul. With nothing left but rage at seeing me attacked, he launches shadow blades at the lich king’s guardians.

The blades twist and disappear before they hit their targets.

Remy claws at his temples, scattering silver hair.

His claws rip through the leather of his mask. Straps severed, it falls to the ground.

Without the last of my lingering flavor, his pain and confusion spike.

“Fight!” I scream through the echo of his agony. “He’s not stronger than you.”

Luca’s body is weak.

And they have me .

If I could just touch them.

“Come to me,” I call, fighting Kevan’s grip.

Vhex and Remy stumble closer.

Their bodies battle the lich king’s guardians on auto-pilot, but their motions are jerky. I can see and feel them fading.

Moving just as robotically, Kevan heaves me into Lich-Luca’s reach.

“Yes. This is the body.” The lich king grabs my throat. “My perfect vessel.”

Shards of ice slow my breathing.

The deathly frost spreads, filling the creases in my brain.

“No,” I choke and grab his wrist. My arms shake. My vision wavers.

The cold burns.

I can feel the lich king’s intention.

He’ll burn my soul and hollow me out.

It hurts .

I hang on as the guys stumble closer, instinctively fighting to reach me even though their reasoning is gone.

Vhex reaches me first.

I latch into his soul.

His welcoming heat hits like a deep hug, burning off a layer of suffocating ice.

“Vhex,” I gasp.

Inside, he screams. His meridians are charred worse than before I found him. Corruption flows so thick in his veins that I dry heave, burning my throat and mouth.

Come back, come back, come back.

I give him everything I have.

Lich-Luca’s grip tightens. The king’s soul scratches at my mental defenses, trying to open a crack and pave the way to overtake my body.

I stop trying to breathe as his fingers pinch my throat.

Vhex shudders.

I’m too overloaded to feel what he feels, but for a flash of a second, his flame-choked features soften.

He lifts a sharp-clawed hand, but instead of slashing at Luca, he touches my back.

Ticklish flames spark beneath my skin.

Strange.

Familiar?

Hellfire sears, burning back the lich king’s power.

The crawling, prickling flames eat down my shoulder blades, drawing lines of fire.

Vhex’s smile turns my heart to glass. “Fly, Firefly.”

Darkness blocks my senses.

The hand on my throat disappears.

Surrounded in a pool of pure ink, I brush Remy’s reaching silks.

“Remy.” I reach for his soul.

His lips find me in the dark. Shadows fleetingly caress my cheek. My lips tingle from his kiss, but when I lean in, he pulls back.

“Survive,” Remy rasps.

His soul is cold.

Finality hits me in a hammer-stroke.

The shadows curl around me, blocking everything else.

I catch a last flash of something morbid.

Vhex and Remy’s silks are ripped from my grasp.

Flash .

I wink out.

Breathless, I reappear in open air. There’s no light.

And no floor.

My stomach drops.

I start to fall down into the darkness.

Then the prickle in my back whooshes into a brilliant roar.

Hellfire wings unfurl.

As they slow my fall, I feel the lich king’s magic pulsing far, far below.

Those bastards sent me away.

Vhex’s magic coils inside me, hot and itchy as it welds new circuits to my spine.

I can’t control the wings. They flap themselves as if Vhex is steering, casting pink sparks that light the walls below.

“Stop. Send me down. Godsdamnit!”

I windmill my arms and kick, fighting a sick wave of pain when my knee extends. No matter how I struggle, the wings won’t listen.

They carry me up, heading toward the surface.

Gritting my teeth, I force myself to relax. I can feel the magic knitting into me. All I can do is save my energy. When it finishes, I should be able to take control.

While the wings do all the work, I hang limp and glare into the pit. Warring magics pulse below.

Vhex and Remy can’t win without me.

They need my touch.

And I?—

Stars .

I need them .

Vhex and Remy are already mine.

They didn’t abandon me.

I won’t abandon them.