Page 7 of Scorched Earth

“Take her.” Hegeria pushed Lydia into his arms.

She was boneless and limp, chest rising and falling in rapid pants as though she’d been running. Killian lowered her to the ground. “He’s coming,” she whispered. “Killian, the Corrupter is coming. You need to go. You need to run!”

“I’m with you to the end.” He pulled her close and pressed his lips to her forehead. “No matter what the end.”

The cyclone descended, and with it came the awful howling. Like a thousand, liketenthousand, tortured voices all shrieking their agony.

“Steady now, Lord Calorian!” Hegeria’s skirt brushed his elbow. “If it is a fight he wants, a fight he shall have!”

A stream of black mist broke away from the cyclone, flying towardthem with a piercing wail. Hegeria lifted her hand, and the mist exploded with a concussive blast that made his ears ring.

But the Corrupter was not so easily defeated.

Stream after stream lanced toward them. Hegeria met each one with her own power, the noise deafening and the ground shaking. The attacks only increased in frequency, the air a blur of blackness, the goddess’s jaw tight with strain.

She was losing.

Losing to the Corrupter, and Killian’s mind recoiled from the reason. From the truth that the Corrupter’s influence had undermined the faith people had in Hegeria. In all of the Six. With his own eyes, Killian was witnessing the consequences.

Hegeria staggered and fell to one knee. She struggled upright, blocking a dozen attacks in a matter of seconds.

But one got past her flanks.

Killian watched with helpless horror as the oily stream of blackness struck Hegeria in the side. A cry tore from her lips as she fell, the earth shuddering as though it were a tower that had fallen, not an old woman.

Pushing herself upright, Hegeria blocked another attack. But as though bolstered by having landed a blow, the cyclone birthed a dozen streams of blackness, all racing together.

Killian held Lydia tighter and closed his eyes.Please,he silently begged the higher power he served. The god who’d given him his mark.Please, Tremon, do not leave her to fight alone.

When he opened his eyes, it was to discover not salvation but the streams of the Corrupter’s power drawing closer, the air so cold his breath misted around him. All the light in the world seemed to disappear in shadow, and then—

Five columns of white light burst through the darkness, the ground shaking as five figures landed on the ground. Killian blinked away tears from the sudden brightness, and his breath caught as his eyes latched on a familiar armored form. “Tremon?”

The god who’d marked him gave him a wink, then reached down a hand to pull Hegeria to her feet. “Sister.”

“You took bloody long enough,” she muttered. “As is your habit.”

Tremon laughed, then turned to face the attack, the rest of the Six forming a perimeter around Killian and Lydia. They were human in size but had the presence of giants, beautiful and yet terrifying to behold. The pressure formed by their presence made it almost impossible to breathe, Killian’s heart stuttering in his chest as his eyesskipped from Tremon to Madoria to Gespurn to Lern to Yara and back to Hegeria.

The Six had not abandoned the world.

Far from it.

Seething with rage, the cyclone descended in a screaming wrath of darkness but was met by a brilliant glow of light as the Six lifted their hands. Killian threw himself over Lydia, closing his eyes and covering his ears as the might of the gods collided. The ground shuddered, as though Reath herself cringed away from the violence of the moment.

Then all fell still.

For a long moment, Killian didn’t move.Couldn’tmove, if he was being honest with himself. Then he managed to push up on one elbow. Lydia stared with wide eyes, the half-moon tattoo stark against her blanched skin. “Is… is he defeated?”

“It is a battle won in a war without end,” Tremon answered. “For a time, our brother will need to rely on his chosen to do his fell deeds, as it should be. The toll of battles between the divine is too great for it to be otherwise.”

“Reath weeps.” Yara pressed a palm to the ground, even as Madoria closed her eyes and said, “The sea is in turmoil.”

Gespurn, who looked for all the world like Agrippa’s friend Baird, snorted in disgust. “We should not be here.” Then he disappeared in a swirl of white mist. Lern and Yara simply vanished, yet as Madoria began to dissipate, Lydia reached forward to catch hold of the goddess’s dress of seaweed. “Teriana. Is she all right?”

Madoria smiled, teeth white against her midnight skin. As she leaned down to cup Lydia’s cheek, her multitude of braids clicked as seashells and bits of coral knocked together. “Her road is as difficult as your own, child, but Teriana is exactly where she needs to be.”

Then she dissolved into a froth of water that swirled away on the breeze, leaving them with Tremon and Hegeria.