Magnus sagged to the side, half free. He panted as his blood poured to the mud and grass below, and thanked the Sisters for his brother’s intervention. No way he was getting devoured by this fucking thing. Better to die tainted with poison and lying within the sweet embrace of his beloved earth than being cut to ribbons and swallowed in pieces.
—You owe me for this one, lad?—
With that, he snarled and sank his fangs into the dreadbeast, clamping down on the bony spike still holding him and squeezing for all he was worth until it, too, broke away.
Impact with the ground. A whimper left him when a talon drove deeper and mutilated his insides further. Ribs cracked and bone shattered, one of his forelegs twisting in the wrong direction.
The dreadbeast’s toxin stole his mind as it seared its putrid way through muscle and sinew, and Magnus fought to stay conscious. How was he to pray for his return to the fields if he couldn’t fuckingthink?
—It’s not looking good, Maggie?—
No shite, Pet.
Panting, he helplessly watched his brother through the haze of his failing sight, standing above him with the dreadbeast’sjaw in his grasp. Brand’s fangs flashed as he roared, pouring his formidable strength into holding the creature at bay.
Something locked onto his hind leg, the familiar presence of Thad’s wolf, Sorcha, dragging his broken body away before moving to stand guard between them and the fight.
Lunara fell to her knees and yanked both talons away without the slightest ceremony. Threading gentle fingers into his fur, she took a single breath before the light of her magic pushed back the dark tunnel creeping in on his vision. Coolness spread to tame the scorching heat of the poison, his flesh knitting together.
Strength returned like a hammering fist. Hearing restored, Magnus finally registered Brand shouting, but couldn’t decipher any of the words—not over Lunara’s agonized screams.
Pet, animal that he was, howled with bloody glee anyway.
—Oh yes, we like the witchling?—
Except it sounded like she was fucking killing herself to save him, radge wee lass.
She slumped over, breathing hard, her power still battering—but the shift in her body revealed only horror.
Brand had angled his horns and caught the monster’s last arm in their curling lengths, but the dreadbeast’s tongue had him snared around the neck like a noose, choking him. His brother’s hands clawed at it to free himself as he was dragged, closer and closer to its yawning, oscillating maw.
Brand planted his feet and leaned away, locking them in a standstill, but Mag knew he wouldn’t last long like that. His face was already turning a deadly shade of purple.
Magnus whimpered and pawed at the ground, willing Lunara to move and afraid of hurting her if he tore out from beneath her too quickly.
—Forget the lass! We must get to our brother!—
With a gasp, her head whipped up to follow his look. Eyes silver as the twin moons themselves, a vicious look twisted her features and she swiped something from the ground before flashing away.
One second, she was perched above him, and the next she was misting in beside Brand. Lunara brought her hands together above her head, one of the dreadbeast’s talons in her grasp. Loosing her own wee battle-cry, she thrust the spike down with all her might, severing its tongue.
Brand slipped back, his horns losing their hold on the front talon as the beast twisted and shrieked. Its newly-freed arm came sweeping out and into Lunara, her body crashing into the side of Brand’s ramp and crumpling to the ground.
“Luna!” Brand bellowed, tearing the beast’s tongue from himself and running to her.
Time to take a rest, Pet. It’s my turn again.
Magnus shifted and grinned. The cheeky Sorcerit had given him a fucking brilliant idea.
“Thaddeus!” he shouted. “With me!”
—You’re positively devious, Maggie. I love it?—
Brand slidon his knees through wet carnage, coming to a stop beside Luna.
“No, no, no,” he chanted under his breath.
“Take her up, Brand!” Magnus shouted, pointing to the top of the ramp before rejoining the skirmish.
