“No,”I whispered, my grip tightening painfully on the reins.“Aster…”
The wind tore the word from me.
I remembered the way the darkness had peeled from fallen bodies, leaving empty shells behind. This was what it did. It consumed, discarded, and moved on. And Aster was standing between it and everyone else without hesitation.
I had to make it count.
I pressed low against Acelin’s neck again and forced myself forward, tears stinging my eyes as the ground shook violently behind us. Strangely, ash was falling thick as snow now, coating my lashes, burning my throat with every breath.
And then heat slammed into us without warning.
Acelin screamed and veered sharply, and the world tilted violently as my grip failed. There was no time to scream, no timeto brace, only the sickening fall and the earth rushing up to meet me.
I hit hard and rolled, pain exploding through my body as momentum carried me through dirt and stone until everything stilled.
I lay there gasping, clawing for air, the sky spinning overhead.
Then the light vanished.
A shadow fell across me, vast and suffocating.
It was not a cloud but something unholy separated from nature.
A threat unlike any other…
It was the Typhon.
The Typhon filled the sky.
Even sprawled on the ground, even with my vision swimming and my lungs still struggling to draw in air, there was no mistaking the enormity of him. The Typhon towered overhead, a vast, obscene fusion of flesh, shadows, and nightmares. His wings torn and ragged yet still powerful enough to hold aloft the impossible weight of what writhed beneath them. Serpents coiled and uncoiled along his form, thousands of them, their bodies grinding together with a sound like stone dragging across stone. Their triangular heads lifted and lowered as one.
They were watching me.
Every single one of them.
Their eyes were wrong, empty, hollowed out by the same darkness I had seen crawl from broken bodies all across the battlefield. It lived inside them, animated them, made them patient in a way that sent ice sliding down my spine. They did not rush. They did not strike all at once.
They waited.
My fingers curled into the dirt beneath me as I forced myself to breathe. Pain throbbed through my ribs and lungs, my shoulder screaming in protest when I tried to push up, and for one terrible moment, my body refused to obey. Fear lockedevery muscle tight, pinning me there beneath the weight of his shadow.
Move!
The word screamed through my head, but my limbs shook uselessly, my heartbeat roaring in my ears so loudly it drowned out the sounds of war close by. The Typhon’s massive, humanoid head tilted slightly, and something like amusement flickered across his face. His lips curved, not into a snarl, but into a smile.
He was enjoying this.
One of the serpents struck without warning.
The ground exploded where my head had been a heartbeat earlier as I rolled hard to the side, the impact sending a violent jolt through my spine. I scrambled to my feet and ran, boots slipping on churned earth as another head lunged from behind. Its jaws snapping shut close enough that I felt the rush of foul breath against my back.
I didn’t stop. I didn’t look back. I ran until my lungs burned and my legs threatened to give out, until the world narrowed to the ground ahead of me and the pounding of my heart.
Another serpent dropped from above.
I barely saw it in time. I twisted, throwing myself sideways as its body slammed into the earth, cracking stone and soil alike. I hit the ground hard, pain flaring bright and sharp. I rolled again as another head snapped where my torso had been moments before. Needless to say, this was not a fun game.
I came up on my knees, my hunting knife already in my hand.
