Marina
Marina gasped for air.
“Welcome back, bitch.” Finnian wrenched a syringe from her chest. “About time you return to the living.”
An agonizing pinch shot up her neck and into her jaw as she blinked up at the sky, her lilting vision slowly returning.
Explosions rumbled through the ringing of her ears, the sound of snapping trees and debris being plucked from the ground. She felt its earthquake under her weight.
Her senses returned, and the realization snapped her out of her slurred state.
She reared up. “Ash?” An excruciating jolt of pain struck down her chest. She winced and hunched over, rubbing at the spot on her sternum.
“Careful.” Cassian knelt at her side, his golden gaze scouring her in concern. “Finnian used an antidote to Ash’s blood to bring you back. It’s new, so we aren’t sure of its effects yet.”
An aggressive beat of wind ripped her hair in all directions as she looked up at the medley of gnashing waves, spiraling like anopen cut in the atmosphere. A black hole threw jagged pieces of the earth down like comets.
Above it all was a transparent barrier containing the catastrophe from spreading to the rest of the world.
Monsters filled the land under its arch. The Daemons sprinted on all six limbs and smashed against the transparent barrier. The Heralds gathered along its boundary and rested their hands against its structure, infusing surges of their divine power into its walls.
Marina’s eyes followed the trail of the dome’s magic down to Finnian.
He stood with his back to her, one arm lifted, palm up, his silver rings glinting in the glow as he commanded the spell. “Consider yourself my test subject.”
She blinked at her little brother in awe.
“Ash is safe,” the familiar voice of their sister called out from behind.
Marina twisted to look back, the motion swaying her equilibrium.
Cassian supported her by the arm.
Naia was crouched beside Ash, holding the child as her silver hair slapped all over the place. She acknowledged Marina with a look, as if to ask if she were okay.
Marina had no idea how to reply. Her skin felt cold and her insides even colder. The machinations of her muscles and brain stammered, like a system slowly reconnecting after a long rest.
Tears and snot ran down Ash’s blood-stained cheeks as he watched Marina. The poor child would be traumatized by what had happened.
Ronin stood over them, both arms up, with slivers of scarlet magic stretching up from his palms and into the barrier, assisting its fortification with barbed defense.
Kneeling on the other side of Ash was the winter god, his focus on the destruction ahead of them, unease pinching his brows.
She turned her attention back to Finnian and the swelling storm, her heart sinking at the sight of Acacius’s absence.
“You can thank your unhinged boyfriend for this fucking nightmare.” Finnian signaled her to come stand at his side with a crisp flick of his free hand. “According to our nephew, it appears that when he saw your corpse, he lost himself to his Chaos.”
Marina’s face fell as dread coiled in her stomach.
Oh, Acacius, no.
Marina rose to her feet with Cassian’s aid, her pulse like a sputtering engine from the physical movement. A wave of vertigo assaulted her vision.
She set her jaws, fighting through it as she started to her brother, slipping her arm from Cassian’s hand.
She stood at Finnian’s side, observing the murmuration of monsters. Their sinisterclickingechoed over the harsh amalgamation of noises. These Daemons werereal, not mere illusions crafted by Soren.
“Soren,” she said. “Where is he?”
