Lunara’s breaths came shorter, nerves ratcheting.
A hand on her shoulder. “No fear, Sorcerit,” Hedda murmured. “Stay close, follow your instincts, and let your body remember what it knows now to do.”
Fern grinned. “You’ll be fine, eh? I can feel it.”
Trusting thefeelingsof a Fae with secret powers who couldn’t even remember her own name was?—
Your only choice. Let it happen. For Brand.
Right.
“At my word, jump and make for the steps.” Hedda toed the drop, glancing down. “We’ll clear our path, but that has to be good enough.”
“Aye. See you on the other side.” Magnus spared one lingering glance at Fern before he shifted, howling to the sky as he settled.
Answering howls sounded in the distance. The Wolflords were coming.
Vann’s smile was not in the least bit comforting. “Life or death, little sister?”
What the…
“I should think life would be obvious!”
Is hetryingto scare you? Honestly!
“I rather agree,” he answered, though why it sounded sad was beyond her.
Between one blink and the next, Vann’s platinum hair flowed with green. The black bled away from his one eye and revealed an emerald iris to match the other. Even his skin brightened, deepening as a healthy pink suffused his cheeks.
Riotous flowers and teeming vines flew across the battlefield below. They filled the rotting places with life and rose up to seize Forgotten by their multi jointed legs, holding them in place for the Demons and Sorcerit to slaughter.
Well, alright then…
Shouts from the bottom of the incline, and Magnus let out a snarl. The Demons guarding it were being overrun by the Forgotten concentrating there. They slashed out with teeth and talons, and Lunara watched in horror as one of the warriors was impaled and devoured.
“No!”
“Ah. Time to go.” Hedda wrenched her back, stopping her from trying to help. “They have their job, we have ours. Sadness has to be for later.” Jaw tight, she shouted for the Demons below to clear away. “Ready?”
Not even a little bit.
“Go!”
Fern was a blur as she shot past, hurtling towards the ground. Mace raised, she brought it down in an arc, thunder booming when she connected with her first target. The earth shook with every hit she landed, shockwaves rippling out and sending the Forgotten sprawling. From nowhere, rain pouredaround her in a tight circle, never touching Fern even as it doused their glowing ember gazes and flowed up into their mouths. Twitching, gurgling,drowning—just before she cast out hot streaks of lightning to electrocute and disintegrate them.
Faldir whistled. “Fuck. I think I’m in love,” he said, and joined her.
Vann followed with a wink, riding a wave of flora that churned the soil. Pastel petals scattered and sank into the Forgotten, eating through their woody flesh like acid. Thorns shot out and embedded themselves in fiery eye sockets. Vines lashed out like clawed hands, gripping the maimed at each limb and tearing them apart before burying the pieces in their wake.
Magnus leapt from the incline and landed on the back of a Forgotten. His massive jaws closing over its jagged skull and tearing it away in a single pull, shadows spilling from the decapitated torso like blood. Its needlepoint teeth were still snapping when he fed the severed head to Vann’s violent maelstrom of plants. She could hardly track him as he moved on to the next, and the next.
Shitting stars.
“Araxis showed you what to do, and we’re running out of time.” Hedda gave her a nudge, eyes darting between her and whatever was happening behind them. “Let go, my friend. You must.”
With a deep breath, Lunara unfurled her whips. Araxis’s voice in her mind, she commanded the particles in the air to lift her body, holding her suspended—safe—over the pandemonium.
Yesterday, she’d been nothing. No one. Now, she was the Keeper of Illamiata and she was fucking flying over a bleeding battlefield.
