He flung out his hand. A crimson dome wrapped around us, and through it I felt him—his fear, his love, his absolute determination to keep me alive.
Lightning struck. The impact split the air. Light seared through my eyelids. The dome shuddered and cracked but didn’t break.
Kairos panted hard.
“Are you okay?”
He grunted.
The gates rose before us. Twenty yards. Ten.
“Get ready,” Kairos said.
Skaldir soldiers poured from the gatehouse, blades drawn.
Mist erupted from Kairos like wings unfurling, slamming into the first two and sending them sprawling. He leapt from Morvaen, broadsword materializing in his grip.
Uther was right behind him, his axe cleaving through shields as Elwen moved like water, her twin blades opening throats.
I clung to Morvaen’s saddle as Kairos cut through the line. One Skaldir soldier went down with a wet crunch. Another flanked him, and Kairos drove his blade up under the fae’s jaw.
The sky boomed.
A massive bolt snaked through the vortex. I shrieked, throwing my hand up as the blinding light struck Morvaen’s flank and arced into me. I hit the ground, convulsing. My fingers clawed dirt as pain crackled in my skin, branching through my chest.
Kairos hauled me upright. “Aelie!”
“I’m fine,”I gasped.
Morvaen limped closer, a scorch mark blackening his flank.
A whistle split the air.
Kairos twisted, yanking me aside as an arrow stabbed into the mud where I’d stood. I looked up.
Archers lined the battlements. Dozens of them, nocking fresh arrows.
“Kai!” Uther bellowed. “Above!”
The volley arced overhead and electricity snapped between them, weaving into a net of searing energy that spread like a web. Then it pitched down.
“Incoming!” Kairos roared. “Shields!”
His arm swept up, forming a shimmering dome.
The arrows struck. Lightning screamed across the barrier, hunting for cracks, and the shield flickered.
Kairos’s arms shook, veins bulging in his neck.
“The gate!” Elwen shouted. “We have to move!”
“Working on it,” Kairos snarled.
Another volley. The archers weren’t stopping.
Uther grabbed my arm. “Can you break the rune on the gate?”
Runes gleamed on the massive iron doors—a lattice of interlocking magic.
