I watched the Seraphim inch toward the final funnel, right where we wanted them, and I felt it—my moment coming. My soldiers surged again, some falling, others reforming midair with borrowed blood from the fallen. It was something I’d never tried before, but it worked like a charm.
I flew lower, hovering above the second ring just as the Seraphim stepped into the kill zones. The Elementalists were already triggering the second traps—spires of jagged ice, pulsingwalls of kinetic force, circles of binding light—but it wouldn’t be enough.
I was the anchor of this plan. My power was the cage.
I inhaled and called every drop of spilled blood back to me, the air humming as it stirred with anticipation of my orders.
Ribbons of blood snapped upward, congealing midair, swirling around the two Seraphim in their zones. I thrust both arms forward, blood dripping from every fingertip, and willed the blood to bind.
“Cage them.”
It obeyed instantly. Long, winding bars of blood formed around the burning ones. The Seraphim thrashed, their wings beating with such force that the bars groaned in protest. My focus snapped tighter as one of them loosened a roar that shook the air itself.
I watched many of our forces shrink back on instinct, but Kieran shouted loud and clear from the center of it all. “Do not hesitate. They are not the Creator! They can be destroyed!”
Pride surged in my chest, renewing my determination to hold them in place.
But the Seraphim tore holes through the first layer of the blood cages with devastating ease—flaming limbs shredding through the woven walls of crimson like silk unraveling in fire, heat surging outward in violent bursts that scorched the air and cracked stone where it struck. One Seraphim, its six wings thrashing with terrifying grace, let out a soundless shriek that sent tremors through the inner rings, and then it lunged forward, molten white flame searing the cage in a blast that lit the surrounding buildings.
I didn’t back down. I pushed deeper, groaning as my body tensed from the effort, feeling like I was going to snap.
Blood hung suspended in the air all around me, droplets gleaming and I called them back with a snap of will—gatheringthe remnants of the blood that had burned down from the cages, drawing every last thread into my grasp and weaving them anew. The magic responded, forming thicker columns, reinforcing the cages.
The Seraphim screamed again, a roar of rage and divine flame, and lashed out once more. Fire crashed against the cages and they burned through again.
I felt them begin to slip through as my magic started to give—and I knew what came next. I knew it would seek out the blood in all of my allies, to give me the energy and blood source I needed to continue. But I couldn’t.
This city might have turned its back on me and treated me like an animal to experiment on, but there were so many more in this realm who had suffered as I had. The fallen. The wyvern. If they could be here, fighting together for one cause, I’d commit to finding my source elsewhere.
Today the bloodlust would not control me. I was its master.
Without hesitation, I dropped the blood-dagger clutched in my hand, letting it fall forgotten to the rubble below. I summoned talons of blood to my fingers and dragged them against my chest. I didn’t hesitate as my skin split open beneath them, clenching my jaw through the pain. The gash wasn’t graceful. It didn’t need to be. It just needed to bleed and ground me as my source.
My blood surged over my fingers, warm and thick, dripping down my arm in rivulets. I reached out with that hand, fingers outstretched toward the burning sky, and the air around me shifted with a pulse so raw, so familiar, it took me a moment to realize I was trembling.
The bloodlust surged through me, rising higher than it ever had, fed by the power I’d absorbed over the last three days—Kieran’s blood, rich with the power of the stars that had stitched into her veins. It reminded me it was no longerjustblood magicI was wielding. My veins lit up like constellations as I fought to access the power her blood had given me.
I wanted more. More screams from the triad. More justice.
More of our enemies meeting their end.
Every blast of the Seraphim’s flames, every wingbeat of those Dominion bastards around us, only served to pour gasoline on the fire roaring through my chest.
The magic boiling within me seared through me like fire in my bones, white-hot and merciless, every beat of my heart pushing more of myself into the blood cage, threading blood and will and bone-deep defiance into it.
They bucked against it, their wings a blur of molten blue, and Iknewthis wasn’t going to be enough. Not unless I kept giving. Not unless I let it devour me. The memory of that first explosion of power from me as a kid came back like a blade to the ribs—my brother’s scream, the avalanche that followed, the way I’d felt my own magic split me open from the inside out. But this time, I didn’t flinch away from it.
This time, I opened the door and power ripped through me. It was raw, uncontrolled, ancient magic slamming into my veins until I could barely tell where I ended and it began. My spine arched with it, the air punched from my lungs in one jagged exhale as stars exploded behind my eyes.
Every drop of blood in my body answered the call.
My vision bled red as I lifted my hands and pulled blood from my body once more. The ribbons of liquid life and sacrifice wound around my wrists and coiled like serpents across my arms. I couldn’t pull from myself forever, but I would make it count.
With a roar, I flung the blood outward to reinforce the cages as the Elementalists and foot soldiers descended. I had to keep them contained or every soul down there would perish. TheSeraphim screamed in rage, their fire surging hotter, brighter, trying to melt their way out.
Still, they burned through.
Still, I poured more until my body trembled, struggling to produce any more blood.
