A glow flared behind me. I reached into my pack and pulled out my piece of the Key. Its pages ignited with brilliant light, just as the first tome had. When the glow faded, new scripture shimmered into view, etched in a language meant for me and Fallon alone.
I slipped the Key back into its sheath and fixed my eyes on the Mareki.
“I’ll be back,” I spat.
Then I turned and stepped into the hall.
Shayde was at my side in an instant, questions tumbling from his mouth. I didn’t answer. I just kept walking. He mentioned he couldn’t feel Rhodes through theirmarekem. Drithan said Noemi couldn’t feel him either.
“They’re gone,” I said flatly, my voice hollow as we descended the turret stairs. “For now.”
The Great Hall was still flooded with Tyrians as we entered, but I kept my eyes forward. The enemy surged around us, and Shayde unsheathed his sword, cutting through bodies to our left and right as we moved down the main stairway, side by side.
A troop lunged for Shayde—I flicked my wrist, summoning air. His neck snapped with a crack, and he tumbled down the stairs, head twisted at a grotesque angle.
Shayde drove his blade into another’s gut just as a woman lunged at me. Another flick of my wrist. Another broken neck. She crumpled atop a growing pile of corpses.
We made our way out of the Great Hall unscathed.
Overhead, Lakota soared, unleashing fire in sweeping torrents across the battlefield as Shayde and I descended the front steps. A Tyrian charged from my right, swinging his blade and channeling weak, thorny vines to strangle me.
“Duck.” I flicked my wrist. His body dropped.
Another came from the left, aiming at Shayde.
“Duck.” Her neck snapped mid-lunge. She fell at his feet.
A troop vaulted from his horse, blade raised high as he aimed straight for me.
“Goose.” He was dead before his feet could even touch the ground.
We didn’t break stride, moving toward the battlefield where the bulk of our people fought the rest of the Tyrians. I reached deep, calling on the core of my air element, pulling every last thread of power it would give.
Then I flicked both wrists.
“Let’s play a game.”
Every Tyrian soldier in our vicinity dropped dead.
Epilogue
The blinding light dimmed slowly.
I lowered my arm from my eyes, blinking until Fallon came back into view. The obsidian crystals in the ceiling still glistened as the glow faded, casting a silvery sheen on the pedestal between us.
The Mareki Gem was gone. And so were the etched runes.
Everything was still. Everything was quiet.
Fallon coughed, breaking the hush, and together we scanned the chamber for anything amiss. The sconces had burned out; the only light came from the crystals above.
What in the elements just happened?
“Everything okay out there?” I asked Noemi.
No response.
I reached for Shayde through themarekem. “Do you see Scarlet yet?”
