A breathtaking predator half the size of a dragon ripped the Skathe off me and shredded it. Flames rippled off her fur, and I swore the battlefield stilled, because my tiny, fragile creature had become a goddess of fire. Her polished silver coat swirled, and her big paws tipped with long black claws ripped through a pack of Skathes lumbering my way. Her molten eyes blazed with a ferocity that made my soul sing.
Pherin was beautiful and terrible, and she was mine.
“Firecat…Her,” Kira cried out from my right, her gaze traveling from Pherin to me to Trew. Her shoulders curled forward in defeat before she gave me a look full of a furious mix of emotions, the foremost one being rage. Without another look, she spun and attacked a Skathe, roaring as she removed its head with one swipe.
Her death adder had shifted into a python almost as large as my firecat and had coiled itself around a cluster of Skathes. It squeezed and squeezed until their heads popped off with a blast of ashes.
I turned away from them both.
Firecat, huh?I sent her way.
Not a beetle. Never underestimate me again.A hint of humor came through in her voice.
Promise. You’re…amazing.
That I am. Watch and see…
Pherin opened her mouth and let out a roar that shook the bones of the earth, a sound of untamed power. A Skathe she’d thrown aside scrambled up, hissing, only to be met by a swipe of claws that sent its head spinning away from its body.
While I scrambled to my feet, she braced herself in front of me, daring the world to try to get to me.
Even the smallest flame can set the world on fire,she sent to me.
Awe washed through me, so thick it drove my fear away. She turned her head, her copper eyes locking on mine, and a wave of protective love surged through me. This power and fire had been locked inside her all along, waiting.
I wanted to ask why she hadn’t told me, but there wasn’t time.
I scrambled out from behind her, snatched up my blades, and we fought side-by-side, defeating one Skathe after another.
Trew’s cinderhawk, who’d been ripping out Skathe throats with his claws, plummeted to the ground, where he expanded, shifting into the great cat with soot-gray fur and a black mane. When his ember-orange gaze turned my way, I recognized the firecat who’d saved me in the Rite of Bonds.
Kings guard kingdoms. I guard you.
Trew continued to battle Skathes a short distance from me. As if sensing me watching, he looked my way, giving me a quick nod.
Pherin and Gavelle moved with terrifying speed. Gavelle would crash into a line of Skathes, his weight and power scattering them like pins. Then Pherin would flow through the gaps he’d created, her claws scything through necks, her fiery breath turning the monsters to ash.
“On your left,” Trew shouted, and I spun, my blades whistling as they met the claws of a lunging Skathe. I ducked, twisted, and drove a hilt into its jaw before removing its head from its shoulders.
Trew rushed over and pressed his back against mine. “You’re amazing,” he grunted, parrying a blow that would have taken my right arm off.
“So are you.” I sank a blade into another creature’s neck.
We moved as one, him anticipating my lunges, me covering his retreats. Pure instinct. Two halves finding their rhythm in battle. He was all brutal strength and overwhelming force while I was speed and lethal precision. Together, we were unstoppable.
A short distance away, Lexie had left Levar and fought on the ground again with feral grace. Levar kept swooping in from above, scorching a path through the Skathes. A Skathe rushed her, and shedropped into a slide, slicing through both of its knees before rising to drive a blade through the back of its neck as it fell.
For every monster we killed, three more took its place. The tide remained endless, a sea of chittering hunger that was determined to swallow us whole.
We appeared to be outnumbered, and I started to worry we wouldn’t be enough.
Trew must have sensed it.
“Stay with me, love,” he said, his voice a low growl. “Don’t you dare leave me now.”
“Always. Even if the world ends, you’ll find me at your side.”
My gaze swept the field, looking for the next weak point in our line, and landed on Maddox. He was cornered, his war axe a great defense against the Skathes, but not with three circling him. Treane had been pinned beneath four others. Maddox roared, swinging his weapon in a wide, desperate arc, but the creatures were too fast. They darted in and out, leaving bloody slashes on his arms and chest. He was bleeding out. Slowing.
