In a blur, Fenn appeared above her, fangs bared and snarling. Claws slashing in a golden arc, the gilded tips of his armored talons tore cleanly through the scorpion. The severed halves flew through the air, crashing against the sides of the tunnel.
More creatures surged forward. One launched from the wall, landing squarely on his back. With a hiss, its pincers clamped around his arm. Venom dripped from its tail as it slammed against his armor.
A spear of shadow burst from Serenna’s palms as she scrambled to her feet, obliterating the beast. Grinding her teeth, she unleashed a wave of darkness, engulfing the rest of the pod that rushed down the tunnel. The scorpions vanished into the shadowy depths, hisses silenced one by one.
“File my fangs,” Fenn growled as he shook off the severed pincer, ichor dripping from his gloves. “I hate scorpions.”
Vision swimming as she gasped for air, Serenna’s legs trembled while she reeled in her power. The air was suffocating, thick with the putrid tang of entrails strewn across the ground.
The snarls of the reavers behind them reached a guttural crescendo, shaking the walls. Serenna spun around, breath catching as cracks splintered across her shield. The barrier flickered, glowing fissures spreading.
Before she could reinforce it, the ward exploded in a burst of violet light. The reavers surged forward—a tidal wave of fangs, claws, and death hurtling straight for them.
CHAPTER 17
SERENNA
Serenna threw her palms forward, unleashing another crackling wave of light. A shimmering dome encased her and Fenn, but it was too late to barricade the wraith further away again as they swarmed from every direction. The shield wasn’t a protective wall—it was a cage.
The mindless reavers slammed into the barrier with bone-jarring force, their talons raking against her shield. Snarls and shrieks ricocheted through the tunnel as they battled the ward, a frenzy of flailing limbs and snapping fangs.
Teeth clenched against the strain, Serenna channeled every ounce of her power into reinforcing the shield. Their survival now eclipsed any need to conserve Essence for Lykor.
Churning like a living landslide, the wraith tore at each other in their rabid rush to reach them. One clung to another’s back, biting deep into its throat before being yanked down and trampled under the surge. Their numbers choked the tunnel, blotting out the faint light at its mouth, smothering the dome beneath a mountain of gnashing jaws.
“Serenna.” Fenn’s voice cut through the chaos as he stood like a pillar of fortitude at her side.
Gulping in air, she spared him a glance. He chewed a lip ring, studying the reavers clawing to breach her shield. Something told her that they were thinking the same thing—there was no way out unless she risked expending all her power on rending.
Fenn unsheathed a pair of long knives from his spine. Gold-plated knives.
“Stab them through the shield,” Serenna gritted out, her arms trembling as she poured more strength into the ward. “I’ll repair it as you go.”
Fenn’s brows shot up, his attention snapping between her and the snarling creatures smashing against the barrier, their red eyes burning in the dark. “Can you hold it long enough?”
“If you start now,” she urged.
A grin spread across his face. “It’ll be easier than shearing a napping pocket goat.”
Fenn strode forward, knives flashing in the violet light. The gold ripped through her magic as he plunged a blade deep into a reaver’s eye. The wraith spasmed as he yanked his weapon back, collapsing in a twitching heap. Fenn didn’t hesitate. His other knife struck the next as it lunged to replace the fallen, talons scraping across the dome.
The reavers shrieked, undeterred by the growing pile of corpses under their feet. Brutally efficient, Fenn cut them down one by one, blood spraying in black arcs across the shield.
The metallic stench burned Serenna’s throat, turning her stomach. But she had to help—she couldn’t hold the shield forever and the battle was far from over. The humans would soon arrive if they didn’t collapse the tunnel, and stars help them all if Essence-wielders followed.
Fingers trembling, Serenna tied off her magic and reached for the daggers strapped to her thighs. She drew a sharp breath as she unsheathed them, her grip on the leather hilts unsteady as she approached the writhing wall of wraith.
It was one thing to attack with magic, somewhat detached from the act, but taking a life with her own hands…
“She-elf,” Fenn said, his voice breaking through the overwhelming haze of her mind. Blood dripped from his face, his grin gone, replaced by quiet worry. “You don’t have to—”
Serenna thrust her golden blade through the shield, driving it deep into a snarling reaver’s neck. Flesh tore and blood spurted in a hot, sticky spray, drenching her arm as the creature crumpled. Yanking the blade free, she stretched her magic to bolster the ward, muscles tensing as she forced herself to move to another.
The reavers had chosen this path long ago, their fate sealed. The memories of Fenn nearly slaughtered by them on multiple occasions stoked her resolve. Baring her teeth, Serenna focused on the next.
Her world shrank to the relentless rhythm of striking and slashing through the shield. Stab. Thread her magic back into place. Stab. Tighten the shield. Always moving to the next. An endless torrent of enemies closing in.
Time blurred. She couldn’t tell how many she’d killed—only that her lungs burned and her ward thinned with every breath.
