I am more than I was made or trained to be. I’m alive. Ifeel.My heart pounds wildly as I stalk closer to the impending danger—but what a fucking gift, to be so alive that I can fear death again.
Feeling mortality so heavily is thrilling.
Perhaps that’s why I’m smiling as I lift my hand, calling holy magic to protect myself and my quintet from the first round of attacks the necromancers and liches hurl at us. The cacophony of dark magic bounces harmlessly off the light swirling around us.
The second their attacks fade, my quintet is on the move. They work as a team so smoothly now that it almost takes my breath away. Ice flies and blasts of blood magic make my hair stand on end. Behind us, I sense a wave of heat as Baelfire’s royal blue flames annihilate anyone trying to creep up on our quintet.
My matches are keeping Amadeus’s casters busy enough that I only have to cut one of them out of my way with my scythe before I’m face-to-face with the Entity. His gleaming black eyes follow my advance, and when he speaks, his voice is the same deep, menacing rumble as always.
“And so my daughter returns to me.”
I grip my scythe. “I am not your daughter.”
His monotone response is almost drowned out by another dragon roar in the distance, but his cold, inhuman gaze remains on me. “Who but I could have turned you into this? The Reaper’s blood may run through you, but the fabric of your being was woven by me alone.”
He’s clearly caught wind of my true parentage, but I’m more interested in the fact that he still hasn’t attacked. He’s holding back.
Is the unfeeling king of the Undead hesitant to end me a second time, or am I missing something?
I found the spare,Crypt’s voice echoes through the bond.I can kill him now.
I can take the rest of them at once,Everett says.On my count.
“Yield, mytelum,”Amadeus rumbles as I keep my face perfectly blank to hide what my quintet is about to do. “This fray is but a passing moment to ones such as us. These mortals are subject to a fleeting existence, but your divinity may easily be traded for an eternity. I will show you?—”
Everett starts counting down through the bond, so I tune out Amadeus and prepare myself.
As soon as he reaches zero, massive spikes of ice protrude from the ground, skewering every one of the necromancers and liches out here. When they shriek and wither away instead of reviving, I know Crypt has killed off the last of them.
Amadeus reacts quickly to his lack of protection. Whatever he was saying, he cuts off before a wave of crackling dark magic ripples out from around him. Summoning holy magic to my hands, I once again shield my quintet.
Everett, freeze his legs.
Before Everett can even register my words, Amadeus has already used magic to fling my elemental aside. He slams into one of the arena walls, swearing through the bond.
Shit. Since this has turned into a fight, Amadeus has a high chance of seeing our next move. His foresight isn’t perfect, but I grimace when Silas’s next powerful spell is countered perfectly with a wave of Amadeus’s skeletal hand.
We need to jumble the future again. Don’t communicate or strategize. Just attack.
My quintet understands immediately. Soon, each of us is throwing everything we can at Amadeus from all angles. Baelfire crawls closer to snap at Amadeus, who sees the attack coming and repels Baelfire with a spell just as Silas hurls more magical attacks. I swing my scythe, dodge a lethal spell Amadeus flings my way, and roll under one of Everett’s spikes of ice as he rejoins the fight.
He’s starting to struggle with keeping up. Our chaotic strategy is working?—
And then Crypt launches out of the Nether, shoving the shadow heart directly into Amadeus’s skeletal chest.
Amadeus’s whiteless eyes widen as he grips Crypt by the neck. The Nightmare Prince drops back into the Nether to escape the Entity’s clutches, but Amadeus is already reaching into his own chest, trying to get the heart back out.
We all launch forward, trying to stop him from pulling his new weakness back out. As if in slow motion, I see the moment Amadeus’s attention snaps to Everett, instead. His skeletal, powerful hand plunges forward, and?—
He rips Everett’s heart out.
The elemental collapses immediately, twitching.
“No!”I scream, both aloud and through the bond.
Vaguely, I hear Silas shouting a spell, but it doesn’t register as blind fury and unparalleled horror overwhelm me. Holy magic burns through me with this rush of rage, and suddenly I’m slamming into Amadeus, sweeping his legs out from under him with my scythe until we both crash to the ground. He’s summoning dark magic to his hands, about to do something terrible to me.
But I move faster.
