Pantar looked at him, eyes burning amber.“He has one chance to put everything right, or Aurathia will be no more. Mira has stayed behind to monitor them, but we must hurry.”
My blood went cold.
Kharox growled, teeth flashing like scythes.“Then we do not delay. We prepare, we gather strength, and we strike with every creature that answers the call.”
I straightened, feeling the bond roar back to life for the briefest of moments—even silenced, it fought. “Then we move,” voice steady with purpose. “It’s time to end this once and for all.”
Chapter 37
Reverie
Trent slammed Selene into the stone so hard that the wall cracked around her outline, dust pouring down in sheets. Already, he had killed every last guard they brought with them in one fell swoop. Ubel’s lightning strike grazed Trent’s shoulder, causing him to spin sideways, but he didn’t fall. He twisted in mid-air, shadows wrapping around his arms like living serpents, and landed between them and us.
He was breathing hard now. Not from exhaustion—from fury.
“Tanya—just give me a second—” I muttered through my teeth, wrenching at the cuffs that bound her. I was trying to reverse my Aegisseal ability to get them off, but so far, I wasn’t having any luck.
“Reverie—leave me—” Tanya gasped, trying to push me away with bound wrists.
“Not happening.”
A crack split the stone near my head as Selene threw a bolt intended to decapitate me.
Trent’s shadow shield ate it mid-air.
He didn’t even look back at me. Trent was entirely in predator mode—the façade gone, the restraint gone, and thehonest Torren/Trent standing in front of me like a weapon sculpted by something ancient.
Ubel laughed—a broken, wild sound. “You can’t protect her forever. When I kill her, you’ll be destroyed along with her, and I’ll take control of everything.”
He raised both hands—his ability condensed into a single spear of white-hot annihilation—the kind that shatters souls.
“Watch out!!” Rue croaked, trying to drag himself upright.
“Stay down!’ I begged him.
Ubel turned the spear towardme?—
Trent moved without thought.
He moved to protect me with absolutely no hesitation.
He blurred into the spear’s path, no time to shield himself.
“NO!”I screamed. Loving and hating him at the same time.
The blast hit him square in the chest.
His body bowed backward, shadows exploding outward in violent arcs. He staggered, slamming into the far wall. The shadows tried to hold him together, knitting smoke into flesh, but Ubel’s magic burned through every stitch.
He dropped to one knee.
Selene froze.
Not in shock, but in horror. Because she felt it, they both did.
The curse that had enslaved Aurathia for centuries? That forced all Aurathions to rely on a ritual to access their abilities? That kept our people weak and dependent on finding a Nexus?
It snapped like a rope held too tightly.
