They burst free from the darkness—winged figures, long and jagged, their skeletal forms twisting unnaturally.
Their wings are wrong—thin, almost shredded, yet somehow keeping them aloft. Their elongated claws glisten like obsidian, and their faces are nothing but slits of seething black.
Calryx’s wings tighten beneath me.“Kethraki,”she snarls.“They should not be this far north.”
There are too many. I count at least twelve—maybe more.
Circling. Watching.
Waiting to strike. Predators closing in. Then, one screeches. And they attack.
Adrenaline floods my body. My magics answer before I can think, all instinct and heat.
The first strike comes fast. A lash of shadow arcs toward us, sharp as a blade. Calryx twists sharply, diving low—just enough to avoid the strike. One dives from above—claws bared.
I raise my hand, summoning fire, hurling a bolt of white-hot flame. The flames hit its chest, and this time—it screams. The blast rips through its chest, searing with a brilliance that tears it apart. The Kethraki shrieks, twisting violently—then collapses into nothing but ash.
The stench of rotting flesh floods my nose.
But they don’t stop. Two more come at our flank, one from behind. Calryx snaps around. Jaws open. Fire surges. The first doesn’t even have time to scream—her teeth sink into its neck, tearing through the shadowed flesh. It bleeds.
The second Kethraki tries to strike from behind, but I see it. My training kicks in.
I spin, thrusting my hand outward, a whip of water slashing clean across its throat. It chokes, convulses—then crumbles into black mist, dissipating.
Three down. The rest are circling. The winged beasts adjust, coming from every direction.
One slashes toward me—I counter with fire. Another dives from above—Calryx twists sharply, raking her talons through its chest, sending it plummeting. A third barrels toward her side, jaws snapping. She roars, fire igniting her entire body as she slams her tail into its head. The force cracks its skull, sending it spiraling.
I grit my teeth, fury and adrenaline still burning hot in myveins. We can finish this. The Kethraki are falling, one by one—Calryx scorches through the pack. I cut them down, one by one. The battlefield reeks of burning shadow, the sky thick with the remnants of what we’ve already destroyed.
We are winning.
Calryx dives low, then twists hard, her tail lashing out, snapping through a Kethraki’s skull. The creature convulses violently, its body shattering into ribbons of darkness before disintegrating into nothing.
Another one lunges for our flank. I see it—too late. A blur of claws, a rush of motion—then fire across my ribs.
My vision flickers, and for half a second, I can’t breathe. I barely register the winged creature spiraling away, its claws slick with my blood.
Calryx feels it instantly.“You’re hurt!”
My vision pulses with every heartbeat. I refuse to look down. If I see the wound, I’ll feel it. And if I feel it, I’ll fall.
“It’s nothing,”I lie, even as my fingers dig into her scales, struggling to keep my balance.
Calryx isn’t fooled. Her wings adjust slightly beneath me, more protective, more cautious.“We must leave now.”
“No!”I snap. I hurl fire at another Kethraki, sending it shrieking into oblivion.“We can finish this! We have the advantage!”
Shadowed wings dive toward us, its claws stretched wide. I twist sharply, kicking off the side of Calryx’s saddle, grabbing at the air—summoning water, freezing it mid-strike. A jagged spear of ice slams into its chest. The creature chokes, screeching, trying to fight it—but I shatter the ice with fire, and it disintegrates into nothing.
Calryx dodges another attack, her body twisting, shifting, her fire blasting through the sky. More fall.
But I feel it now. The slow pull of exhaustion. The way mymagics strain, pulling deeper than I should let it. The way my lungs fight for air, dragging it in like they’ve turned to stone. The burn of blood seeping into my clothes.
“You are bleeding out.”Calryx’s words slice through me harder than the wound itself.
I shake my head, furious.“If we let them go, more villages burn.”
