Screaming against the soul power tugging at my chest, I gather another blast of nightmares, this time drawing on more of Koda’s bliss before I release the shot.
Without knowing Esta’s true fear, my power doesn’t have as much force. I learned during my training with Roman that in order for me to find the fear of powerful beings like my siblings, I need to be in physical contact with them. Right now, I’m barely managing to stay on my knees. The only way I’ll come close to touching Esta is if I draw her closer to me—which is not a viable option when I’m so physically weakened.
Esta jolts when the blast hits her. A shout rises to her lips as she slides backward a few steps.
“You. Can’t. End. Me!” she shrieks, as if I didn’t understand her the first time.
With screams that sound muted in my damaged hearing, I blast her again. And again. Over and over. Emptying the breath from my chest as I exhaust what remains of the power from my body.
Mine and Koda’s.
Each shot drives Esta farther back until her silhouette isn’t as clear and—finally—she gives a scream of rage, and her power falters.
The air clears.
It’s only for a second, but within that heartbeat, another power cuts across the space between her and us, a force so wild that it knocks us to the ground.
I struggle to rise, my head spinning as I focus on the new threat in front of me.
CHAPTERTWO
Ivory dirt streams upward a few paces away, as if it has been liquified and is flowing from the battlefield into the air between us and Esta.
I brace for it to hurt us, but every grain of dust and moss that rises continues to meld together, forming a gorgeous, pearly shield that arcs up, around, and over Koda and me.
As fast as I can blink, the substance shapes itself into a dome around us, sealing us in, except for a small gap on the right-hand side—and even that sliver is closing fast.
I gasp with relief when a stream of amethyst runes flies through the opening, straight for the dome’s inner surface, adhering to it.
Roman’s runes!
As suddenly as the runes line the dome around us, the clawing sensation within my chest stops.
The air clears and it’s like a fog lifting.
A second later, the patch of earth immediately in front of us kicks up, dust sprays, and I tense again, but my heart leaps with happiness when Malia appears, crouched and facing away from us, as if she’d translocated herself into that very position.
My voice is hoarse. “Malia!”
“Nova!” she calls with an urgent glance across her shoulder. “Hold on! I can shield you. Roman and Taniya are right behind me.”
Circlets of runes spin around Malia’s body and light up her lithe form, making her golden-brown skin glow. She’s wearing dark amethyst armor like mine—conjured by Roman before the fight. Her dark-brown hair has come loose from its braid, and it flies about her head as she extends her hands toward the shield.
With a brief movement of her palms, more earth rises from the ground, forming another layer that begins to cover the runes on the inner surface of the dome.
The pain in my chest lessens further still.
The golden sunlight of Esta’s power is quickly being replaced with near darkness that is lit only with the pearly amethyst glow from the shield.
I don’t think I’ve ever welcomed the shadows so much as in this moment.
Despite the increasing darkness, I can see more clearly than I could moments ago. My heart jolts to find Ace lying silently about ten paces away on my left and slightly behind so I have to turn my head to see him. He is my most fearsome demon wolf, the one who insisted on following me into the battle with Arga.
The ruby-eyed wolf lies beside him. Surprisingly, she’s nestled against his side. She must have crawled toward him during Esta’s attack because when I saw them last, they were lying separately, and it doesn’t look like Ace has moved. I’m surprised that she would have moved closer to him, but perhaps some instinct told her she was safer with him than on her own.
Both of their eyes remain closed, but their chests rise and fall steadily.
“Ace!” My cry is barely more than a whisper as I reach out toward him, fully intending to make it to his side, but my legs won’t obey me.
