“My magic is almost nonexistent,” I muttered, Stormlight pulsing weakly across my fingers before sputtering out. “But that thing absorbs it.”
Zander exhaled hard, sweat gleaming along his jaw as he lowered his hand, the last of Hein’s fire dimming in his palm. “Hein’s pulled back,” he said, voice tight. “He’s helping Kaelith. We can’t rely on our magic anyway.”
The creature’s head twitched at that… like it understood.
Cade narrowed his eyes, his blades catching the torchlight as he slid into a defensive stance. “Well, my magic is fine,” he said with grim sarcasm. “But if I’m just feeding that thing like a gods damned snack bar… let’s not.”
“Agreed,” Zander said, shifting closer to our side, spear now held in both hands.
The creature hissed, mist curling from its maw like breath from a frozen lung.
I swallowed. “Then how do we kill it?”
No one answered at first.
Because this twisted fusion of blood magic and death was more than just an enemy. It was a warning.
A taste of what was waiting for us on the Blood Isle. And now, we had to survive it without the only thing we usually relied on.
Our dragons.
And their magic.
The creature continued to circle, red eyes flicking between us like it could hear our thoughts, and smell our fear. The wind had died. The air was too still. Even the dragons circling above had gone silent in the bond, watching.
Then Major Ledor’s voice cut across the field, cool and sharp.
“The only way to kill a shadow creature is to pierce its heart,” he said. “Simple in theory. The problem, of course, is getting a blade close enough. They’re faster and stronger than both human or fae.”
The creature hissed, as if in smug agreement.
Cade’s eyes narrowed, and then he leaned in toward me and Zander, his voice hushed. “I have an idea.”
He spoke quickly, but Zander and I both nodded.
“Let’s do it,” I said.
Cade peeled off left. Zander went right. I rushed center again, blades drawn, pulse hammering in my throat. We struck all at once.
Zander lunged high, spear tip aimed for the throat. I ducked in low with a swipe at its legs.
And Cade appeared from the creature’s blind side, driving his blade toward its chest.
But then the air shifted.
And a second shadow creature stepped from the mist. It shrieked, blocking Cade’s strike with a swipe that sent him skidding back across the stone.
“What the—” I shouted, backing up.
The first creature turned toward the second with a guttural snarl just as Cade lunged again.
This time, his blade sank into the heart of the first creature, and then shimmered.
The second creature’s form rippled,magic breaking like glass.
The glamour fell away.
It had been Cade.
