Jakobav spun around her and met it head-on, blade flashing, a single vicious strike that carved through its lunge and forced it sideways.
Another scream split the air. A second Leach spilled out, taller than the first, its claws gouging the stone as it righted itself.
Something echoed down the length of the seam, a distant shriek carried from far beyond the courtyard as if answering the one inside the hall.
Fuck.How many other creatures are crawling out of this tear across the realm?
“Savina!” Jakobav commanded without turning.
Savina appeared next to him and lifted her hands. The floor didn’t just respond. It bowed to her. The marble convulsed, heaving upward with a force Ella felt in her teeth. Black pillars of stone erupted from the ground like the jaws of the gods. One Leach was caught mid-lunge, trapped before thought could even form behind its faceless skull.
The black pillars slammed shut with a sound like mountains grinding, like the realm itself snapping its teeth. When they toreapart again, nothing was left—only a smear of shadow and a rain of crushed stone dust drifting down like black snow.
Ella’s breath punched out of her.
The shockwave rippled outward, cracking the marble into a spiderweb that raced across the room. Savina stood at the center of it all, jaw clenched, chest heaving, the floor still trembling beneath her boots. Guards stumbled back with strangled cries, as though the ground might rise again and devour them.
Shit. No one here has ever seen Dravaryn stone power.
The Veil truly had cracked—Savina was able to use her soil-forged magic here in Orchid.
Gods. Ella had watched breaches tear through the world like paper. But she’d never seen a mortal woman command the ground with that kind of strength.
More Leaches climbed from the tear, dragging themselves over the broken marble. Fights erupted everywhere at once, Orchid guards and Dravaryns locked against the creatures in a dozen frantic clashes. One broke free of the chaos and lunged for Ella, its glowing seam splitting open as it came for her.
She didn’t think. She only moved.
Her hand closed on the hilt of the blade Thane had gifted her. The serpent-carved handle fit her grip with unnerving perfection—still far too regal to have ever belonged to Thane.
She slashed upward in a clean arc. Steel sang, and when the Leach met the Velmirian edge, its shadowed form split apart—riven into two staggering halves that twitched and tried to knit back together, only to fail and collapse into ash. A spray of black ichor struck her cheek, hot and foul, stinging where it touched her skin.
“Damn,” Thane muttered, appearing beside her, awe softening his grin. “I always suspected you two would get along.”
The Leach’s death scream funneled back into the breach, and the seam yawned wider as though dragged open by its echo.
Jakobav had moved to the far end of the dais, pushing her father back from the tear. His sword was drawn, his commands cutting through the chaos as he forced the remaining guards into a line to shield the throne—to protect her father.
Her breath caught. The man destined to rule her kingdom’s oldest rival was now standing between her father and death.
Another creature came, and the breach convulsed, tearing wider as something immense forced its way through. The whole hall seemed to hold its breath. A sound rose from the depths, a layered shriek that raked across the stone. For a moment it sounded like one monstrous thing clawing its way upward.
Then the darkness broke apart.
Not one creature. Many. A cluster of Leaches crawled over each other, their limbs tangled, their seams glowing as they dragged themselves toward the surface in a single heaving mass.
Screams tore through what remained of the crowd. Orchid guards rushed forward, forming a line at the base of the dais. The moment the first Leach broke free of the tangle, they struck, flames surging from their palms in a unified blast.
Ella moved before she could think. She threw out her hands and poured her fire into theirs, forcing the line higher, hotter, brighter. Heat surged across the marble in a blinding wave.
At first, it seemed to work.
Then the Leaches began to swell.
Their bodies expanded as if filling from within, black sinew stretching over bulging ridges. Their seams brightened, glowing a sickly, pulsing gold. The creatures shuddered, drinking in the flame like starving animals.
One of them lifted its head, distended and glistening, and let out a wet, gorging hiss.
They were feeding.
