“Slow down, Casanova,” she says, her cheeks blooming a delicious shade.Casanova?I don't know what that means, but it doesn't matter. She grew up in the Mundane World, and if there’s one thing I know, it’s that they do things differently over there.
“Slowing down won’t change a thing. But fine, let’s start with you being my date to the Grianstad Eve Ball.”
“That’s a good start,” she murmurs, pleased, and that warms me. I amsoscrewed.
“Up for a dance, Princess?” I ask.
The spark in her eyes is all the answer I need. I lift her gently and rise to my feet, but I don’t even get the chance to think. Instinct takes over. In a heartbeat, I’m diving, shielding her with my body as the world around us explodes into chaos, wood splintering, glass raining down, as if someone just kicked the hornet’s nest of Hell.
51
Kai
THE CITY’S LAST THRESHOLD
I jump backon my feet before whatever just blew up can catch me off guard again. Flipping the table, I shove Vi behind it, as gently as the situation allows. She’s clearly ready for this, katana in hand. Where the fuck did she get that? Then I catch the faint violet shimmer on the blade.
Aetherium?
I pause for a second; that sneakylittle terror’s been hiding things. A chorus of chilling screams fills the air as demons close in. How the hell did they get through the gate without setting off a single alarm? Either someone left their post, or history’s repeating itself, and a traitor’s walking among us.
Before I can think further, a norous slams into our cover. We’re thrown across the room, crashing hard against the stone wall, vision flickering, head spinning. I reach for my blade and hurl it up, burying it deep in the demon’s skull on instinct.‘Tha thu deamhan, tilleadh saoi-diabhal,’on my lips.
It vanishes in a hiss of rotten eggs and smoke. It was about to go for Caleb, but this one doesn’t waste any time thanking me. Raising his gun, runes glowing, he aims it straight at my head. The shot misses me by millimetres, slamming into the demon behind me. A cloud of sulfur lingers in the air, the only sign thedemon was ever there. I sweep the room quickly, eyes cutting through the wreckage, trying to gauge how bad the situation is.
The tavern, once alive with warmth and laughter, now lies in ruins. Stone walls reduced to jagged fragments. Splintered beams jut out as shattered bones. One side of the roof has collapsed, its timbers scattered across the floor. The air hangs heavy with acrid smoke and the faint cries of those trapped beneath the wreckage. Caleb and I move without thinking, our sixth sense kicking in. My lycan strength and his elven agility make us an efficient team as we dig through the debris.
The weight pressing down is brutal, but we push through, one beam at a time, one life at a time. Some we pull out are barely conscious, eyes wide with fear and pain, others don’t make a sound. The halfling from earlier, probably the owner, moves swiftly through the wreckage. His small frame weaves between fallen structures as he makes sure everyone gets help. His voice cuts through the chaos, guiding the few survivors to safety. Nearby, the dryads follow Sakura, helping with healing spells. Despite the destruction, there’s a quiet, stubborn determination in the air, a refusal to let this be the end.
A knot tightens in my chest, and panic threatens to rise; the rest of our group is nowhere in sight. Charging outside, Caleb on my heels, my heart pounds in my ears. The realization hits me as the call of the moon, how easily we have escaped, leaving others to face the worst. This side of town is now a battlefield. Houses and shops lie in ruin, their frames shattered and collapsed as though they were no more than toys. Beneath the wreckage, the trapped cry out, struggling for freedom. Their voices muffled by the weight of broken stone and wood. Before I can decide what to do, a massive shadow lunges toward me from the smoke.
My dagger slams against the norous’ hard skin, the angle wrong from being taken by surprise. The creature lets out a distorted howl. Its mouth stretches far too wide, lined with razorteeth. Black saliva hisses as it hits the ground, eating through stone. I duck low and, with one fluid motion, I drive the blade upward beneath its gaping jaw, where I know the tissues are soft. My skin hisses and bubbles from the acid, but I grit my teeth, too focused on the exorcist. Magic surges through the steel, crackling hot in my grip. The creature stiffens, then lets out a final, tortured scream before it vanishes in a cloud of dust, sucked back into the abyss it came from.
I barely have time to breathe when another demon crashes into me from the side. I feel my right rib crack before flying in the air, smashing through a wall with a bone-rattling crunch. I land hard, dust choking me, blood filling my mouth as I spit on the ground. Pushing my hair out of my eyes, the ground trembles, the warning I need before I throw myself sideways. Just in time for the norous to barrel through, pulverizing the wall in its path. It doesn’t hesitate, it doesn’t care, it just wants to kill.
Releasing some restraint, my lycan unfurls from inside me, and a deep, ancient howl rises from behind my ribs. My senses sharpen, vision enhances, power floods my limbs like a storm, healing me as time slows. Everything refines into survival, leaping higher, faster. The world blurs beneath me as I drive my blade into the demon’s back. Thesaoi-diabhalspell ignites on contact. I hit the ground hard, but my eyes snap to movement.
Another demon, smaller and faster, skitters across the stone roof like some twisted insect, its empty eyes locked on a figure ahead. A flash of red curls cuts through the chaos.
Avilyna.
My hand moves on instinct. A throwing star whistles through the air and buries itself in the demon’s skull. It drops mid-charge, landing at her feet.
She doesn’t flinch.
With effortless precision, she finishes it off, yanking her bloodied sword free. Vi flows back into motion, her steps fluid, a deadly dancer forged in steel. Her katana slices through the dark, each arc marked by a flash of the aetherium, casting off demons. Fuckingbeautiful,the fury in her eyes makes her as terrifying as any deathless beast.
My little terror.
The battlefield shifts fast, but my mind sharpens. The wolf stirs beneath my skin, power coils, waiting to be fully unleashed. I snap back into command, pulling the earpiece from my watch, and put it in place.
“Bloodhowl Unit, report status. Over.”
“Roger, Sergeant. All clear. No casualties. Holding position with Nalaka. Over.” Wyll’s voice crackles through the comm, steady even amid the chaos.
“Avilyna here. I’m good. Tracking multiple targets... Anyone seen Van? Over.”
I scan the street, my eyes slicing through the shadows, searching for a flash of silver hair, but nothing. Just the crawling tide of demons creeping ever closer to the village’s edge. If they breach the line, Kallahan falls.
