The fire,I say.
I feel his confusion.There’s no fire.
Baffled, I blink and look over my shoulder. Sure enough, the spire is free of any flames. Stars, had I just imagined that? Or did Anahima somehow construct that whole intricate vision in my head? Gods, it had felt so real! I shove my mental shields up so hard that I nearly get whiplash, and I swear I hear the sound of mocking laughter.
Focus on what you need to,my simurgh cautions,then you can hunt her down.
The ferocity of the battle below us has grown, now that the massive revenant Scav forces—who are very hard to kill—have come through the portal. Thanks to me. But regret is a useless emotion without action. I have to help drive them back or kill them.
Raz directs a huge stream of fire at an ugly chimera when it gets too close for comfort with its talons and fire breath of its own. It lets out an earsplitting screech and tumbles from the sky, its wings shriveling to embers.
Brutal, Raz,I say.
This is war, Starkeeper. It’s us or them.
We need to do something to stop it.I peer down at the bodies, seeing so many fallen on the field. The death toll is enormous, the sight of slaughtered horses and mutilated warriors making my eyes sting and nausea rise in my throat.Where are my kings?
The king of Oryndhr is with his army, fending off the dead ones from the east. And King Darrius...He goes quiet.I see my mate but not her rider.
Heart pounding, I focus inward and follow the bond to find Darrius on the ground, his magic a vicious, ravenous whorl of shadows. He’s taking out whole lines of the enemy, but there are too many of them and he is expelling a huge amount of magic. But what makes it exponentially worse is that even though the king is pulverizing the dead to dust, the rot is alive and latching on to anything... including slain Aspacana and Everlean soldiers.
I stare in horror as Karânî ruthlessly removes the head of one of her own horde who has come back to life... and that’s not the only one.
The rot is spreading like a plague, just as Anahima had intended.
Raz and I swoop low to hand Helena off to one of Darrius’s guards before I leap off to land at Darrius’s side. My incandescent magic flares out in tandem with his to incinerate the revenants marching toward us. But the more we kill, the more they seem to spawn.
A blood-spattered kingsguard comes toward me, eyes riddled with purple smoke.
Fuck!I duck his swing and release a blast that bores a hole in his torso, and he still keeps coming. Maxur, in partially shifted wolf form, appears from nowhere and cleaves off his head. I exhale and nod my thanks. He jerks his head in return and disappears back into the fray with a battle cry of rage.
“Dare, we need to kill the source of the rot magic,” I shout with a gasp. “We have to find Anahima.”
“You’re right. Hold on,” Darrius says, snatching me about the waist and pulling me back against him. In seconds, we are enveloped by shadow, time and space rushing by, before we materialize on Indira’s broad back, and then suddenly everything goes preternaturally quiet.
The sound of clashing steel dissolves into a pregnant sort of silence, one that portends horrors unknown. The hairs on my arms stand straight, goose bumps rushing over my skin. A terrible roar pierces the air, and a three-headed flying nightmare appears.
“What the fuck is that?” I yell, watching the huge beast fly toward us.
Darrius stiffens behind me, arm flexing around my middle as if to keep me close. “An azhi, a demon I thought was dead. And my sister.”
“Ademon?” I choke out.
“Summoned from the abyss.”
Sure enough, Anahima is on the middle head of the massive creature, which has to be five times the size of Indira. “Is it an azdaha?”
Indira lets out a derisive snort.That thing is as much one of us as an ogre can be called a mortal. It is a merciless, ill-fated monster that only knows how to kill.
At her words, I stare at the incoming aberration, chills erupting all over my body. My breaths start to come hard and fast, and I force myself to calm. Panicking isn’t going to help any of us survive the next few minutes. But the terror sinks into my bones anyway.
“So, mindless and monstrous,” I say, going for bravado. “Got it. How dowekillit?”
Darrius grinds his teeth, frustration evident. “There’s only one thing that can harm that creature and it’s a god-touched sword. The center head is immortal.”
Of course it is.
“Let me guess,” I say, dread spreading through me. “We don’t have one.”
