Then the sky screamed.
Several Frostdrakes barreled toward us, undoubtedly drawn by our combined mana. They swooped low, gray wings cleaving the air, forcing us to split our focus more than it already was.
One passed too close, its talons raking Draven’s shoulder before he shattered the air around it with a blast of ice, the monster screaming as wind and hailstones tore through the wings and bone like Winter shrapnel.
The Frostdrake crashed to the ground in time to be trampled by the raging Gorenvyr.
Another lunged for me, jaws gaping wide. Batty darted between us in a shriek of frost and light, striking once before releasing a crackling surge of mana that pulsated through the monster’s skull. Ice bloomed along its veins as it spiraled away.
But the near misses kept on piling up. Too many. Too fast. As we fought battles from every direction.
The ground heaved as the Gorenvyr reared back, its massive head lifting as its throat convulsed. I felt the danger a heartbeat too late.
Draven—
Acid sprayed across the battlefield in a violent arc.
The air filled with the sharp, burning stench of it as it struck stone and flesh alike, eating through armor, hissing where it splashed across skin.
A Winter soldier screamed as it caught his leg, the sound cutting off abruptly as Draven dragged him clear and froze the wound solid.
My vision tunneled.
The hiss. The smell. The way skin blistered and sloughed away beneath it.
For the briefest moment, I saw my father’s face, imagined the injuries Amias had covered over with that thin white sheet in the infirmary.
My mouth filled with bile and the taste of copper, my shadows flickering wildly as my imagination ran wild.
Would that be how Draven died? Wynnie?
My stomach lurched as shadows and ice tore free from me in equal measure.
The Gorenvyr charged once again, its snout spraying streams of acid as it went, like it was answering the challenge my mana had issued.
I forced myself to move, to breathe evenly.
With each thundering beat of my pulse, I hurled my shadows toward the Elderborne, locking them around its horns and tugging backward as hard as I could. The Gorenvyr roared in anger, its pace finally slowing just enough to allow Draven and a Shadeclaw warrior to lead a more direct assault.
But then a Frostdrake swooped next to me, sending bright bursts of frostfire searing past my face, forcing me to twist aside. I lost my grip on my shadows, and the monster tore free once again.
But Draven was already there, stepping seamlessly into the space I had just occupied.
He drove wall after wall of ice into the Gorenvyr’s path to allow the Shadeclaw time to get away. The Gorenvyr’s acid struck at the barriers and burned straight through them, steam and rot exploding into the air.
Then the sky bent with fractured light. My mother cut through the chaos like a falling star.
Gravity warped around her as she surged forward, the air buckling under the force of it. A Frostdrake diving for her was yanked violently off course, crushed inwardly by an invisible pull before it shattered in a burst of light and blood.
Another followed, caught mid-swoop and flung hard into the flank of the Gorenvyr.
Radiance flared around my mother like a beacon. She called on every ounce of her mana, striking at the Frostdrakes again and again, pulling all of their attention back to the skies. Toward her.
And as scared as I was for her, I was also grateful that she was buying us time. Luring some of the monsters away so we had a chance of defeating the raging Elderborne.
As she flew, she expended her mana, lighting up the sky every few breaths to keep the attention of the Frostdrakes on her.
My thoughts scattered, torn in too many directions at once. Toward my mother racing across the sky with monsters on her heels. Toward my sister somewhere below in the chaos. Toward Nevara and Soren holding the gates through sheer force of will.
