I pull back to look at the perplexed expression on his face as he reads the emotion striking me stupid.
Blinking back tears, I say, “I’ll catch you up on everything over dinner tonight. If we survive this.”
He breaks into a wide grin, crinkling his kind eyes. “I look forward to that.”
Together, we turn to face the next round of Stryga as they pour into the room.
I fall into a killing trance, my motions fluid and streamlined as I cut through the wall of horrific creatures. Derek wields his power in an impressive display, alternating between his sword and the spears of ice shooting from his palms.
I dance around a beast double my height, matching it stride for stride. It knocks the dagger from my hand as I skirt around the marble pillar, swiping the flagpole from its place and snapping it over my knee. I ignore the pain radiating up my leg as I come around the other side and drive the jagged end into its gut.
Metal clangs against marble. I spin toward the sound. Derek’s sword is on the floor. His boot catches on the dais and he falls backward. The beast before him lifts its lethal claws.
No.
I grip the other half of the flagpole and hurl it forward like a spear. It flies through the air in a smooth line, finding its target. The Stryga freezes, then hits the ground with the pole protruding from its chest.
Derek glances at me, stunned, as I bend to scoop up my dagger and his sword.
“Jace is upstairs.” I jog over and help pull him up. “We need to get to him.”
Derek nods. We race out of the throne room and up the steps. My heart locks in my throat as we pass a window in the hall and I see Jace facing off with a golden soldier on the thin ledge between towers.
I clutch Derek’s arm, pulling him to a stop. His eyes widen as he sees what I’m seeing.
“This way,” he says.
Derek leads us onto a bridge running parallel to Jace. He hurls out his power from across the way, sending a spear of ice into the chest of Jace’s opponent. Screams fill the air as he plummets to his death. Jace wheels toward us, dark hair beaded with sweat. He makes an impressive leap onto our bridge, and Derek folds him in an embrace, clapping him on the back like a proud father.
“Jace.” I tug his arm as another cluster of golden soldiers spills onto the bridge after us.
He tosses his sword in the air and sends it slicing through our assailants, freeing his hands to draw two daggers.
The way he fights is beautiful. Easy in a way it shouldn’t be. Everything about him is calm and deadly.
Shards of ice continue to spray from Derek’s palms, skewering the golden soldiers as they topple back over the stone ledges.
I think we’re actually doing pretty well.
Until a dozen Stryga arrive on the bridge.
I’m floodedwith relief when the falcon circling overhead drops down beside me and a certain familiarOrCatpops up in his place.
Zadyn takes out two or three Stryga at a time in his lupine form, which would be super useful if they would just fucking stay dead.
“Serena, one of those banshee screams would be helpful right about now,” Jace tosses over his shoulder as he lifts a Stryga into the air and impales them on a spike.
“I’m not exactly sure how I did it last time without killing you all,” I quip, my voice sing-songy.
“It’s easy. Just open your big mouth and let it rip.” He grunts, thrusting his blade through the horned skull of another grizzly creature.
“Cover me.”
Closing my eyes, I plunge into my well of magic.
The banshee in me is buried in a dark, deep place that I don’t like to touch often. A place that houses every bad thing that’s ever happened to me—every heartbreak, every grudge, every scrap of pain and grief I have ever endured.
She is made of shadows. Of despair. Of rage. I’ve never attempted to summon her at will.
