Before I finish speaking, a massive, glowing, wolfish form appears in the Great Hall out of literally fucking nowhere. It leaps toward Baelfire with claws extended. I shout, but Silas is already whirling to hit it with a bright blast of blood magic.
The wolf makes no sound, gnashing its teeth as it recovers. No sooner does it turn toward Everett and me than a thick, deadly spike of ice erupts from the ground, skewering the strange beast high in the air. It twitches and evaporates.
“What the fuck was that?” Bael snaps.
“My familiar,” Parker’s voice says from nearby, and we all turn to see him glowing with blue magic as he glares at all of us from the end of the Great Hall. “And there’s far more where that came from.”
He raises his hands, and spells cascade from his fingertips. Bright blue lights shift into vague animal shapes that immediately begin to attack. Silas quickly fires back with his own magical attacks. Baelfire snaps a familiar’s neck before charging toward the acolyte. He’s blasted into one of the nearby pillars hard enough that I hear acrack.
I scramble out of Everett’s arms, ignoring the lingering nausea and weakness as I withdraw Pierce from a hidden arm strap. It’s a full-on battle with magical beasts all around. Everett sends a wave of ice to knock many aside so I can dash toward Parker.
His attention is on me until Crypt emerges in the mortal realm and tries to snap the acolyte’s neck. But Parker has so many defensive charms glowing around him that Crypt is electrocuted immediately, dropping and spasming as blue light sizzles across his skin.
Silas cries out somewhere behind me. When I risk a glance toward him, my gaze latches on Baelfire, who is trying to fend off another familiar despite his broken back, which isn’t healing fast enough. Silas is bleeding heavily from a bite to his arm. Everett freezes another familiar and is immediately tackled by a glowing blue jaguar.
How dare he harm my matches?
Anger floods me along with the life forces of the guards I killed days ago, and I run faster. As soon as I near Parker, he fires off a spell that would be agonizing if I didn’t rip through it immediately. A paralysis spell, a death spell, madnessmaledictions, hexes—I tear through each of his attacks as darkness crackles around me.
I was made to destroy anything. To be nothing but deadly calm.
Parker shouts in horror as I reach out, ignoring the pain that lashes through my system momentarily before my magic shatters the remaining charms protecting him. He falls back on his ass. I immediately plant a foot on his chest, forcing him to his back so his head smacks with a resounding sound against the Great Hall’s mosaic floor.
When he tries lifting his hand to defend himself with another spell, I fling Pierce down so it stabs him through the wrist, pinning it against the floor. He screams, thrashing as the rest of his summoned familiars dissipate.
My head is still pounding, and now the adrenaline is mixing with the nightshade in my system. It’s not a good mix, as evidenced by the nausea that barrels through me again as the world tilts.
Hands and arms marked with intricate swirling patterns reach around to steady me from behind.
“All right, darling?”
I nod, trying to focus on the acolyte, who I realize is bleeding heavily from his head. Pierce’s adamantine begins to taint his veins, blackening his skin as he curses at us.
“Fuckingmonsters!”Parker spits as Silas stalks over. Everett isn’t far behind, allowing Baelfire to lean on him as my poor, grimacing dragon shifter still hasn’t healed. “Your patchy excuse for a quintet deserves every misery it gets—starting with this fucking bastard biting the dust,” he adds, glaring at Crypt.
Is he really trying to threaten Crypt when the adamantine is sucking his life away?
I roll my eyes. “And yet he will far outlive you.”
He sneers mockingly at the incubus, showing off his unfortunate overbite. “Far?Ha! No. Maybe for another couple of years, until he burns out early like the rest of the fucking stewards. Didn’t know I knew that about you, did you, Nightmare Prince? You fucking deserve it. It’s an insult that the gods ever chose Somnus DeLune’s monster spawn to tend to the?—”
Crypt releases me and kicks the acolyte’s head in.
Blood splatters everywhere. The others react with scowls and disgust, but I’m still registering what Parker just said.
The other stewards of Limbo…burned out early.
As in, they died.
“How long?” I whisper.
The DeLune picks up on the fury in my voice as the others go quiet. “Darling?—”
“Don’tdarlingme right now. How long do you have left?”
He hesitates. “I’m not certain.”
“But you’ve known about this.”
