“Evira!” I bellowed across the distance. “Evira! No!”
I staggered and called my shadows.
I sent them rushing into the army, downing two dozen of them and clearing the way.
Evira... my little dragon… I needed to… she was… I needed to reach her now.Now!
I caught sight of Grandpa bursting up from beneath twenty attackers at once, sending them all flying out in different directions.
I saw his skin was healed now, but he kept being rushed, the enemy knowing all too well how dangerous he was.
This wouldn’t stop all the while I remained here.
Even overcoming this onslaught… more would come.
Grandpa thought spiriting me away to a safe haven would be enough.
They all did.
Everyone who loved me.
But this… it was proof of the direct opposite.
It was proof that the hope had gone out there.
It was done.
Ruxnoth had seen to that.
It was fuckingdone.
I knew what I had to do.
But first I needed to make sure Evira was okay. Needed to lay eyes on her, touch her, hear her voice.
One last time.
I wanted that with Zayn and Vax, too, but that wasn’t possible right now.
I pushed across the battlefield, using my shadows to continue to clear the way, then blasts of my Wraith frost for particularly stubborn opponents.
But then a fusillade of blasts hit my back.
I gritted my teeth as they jolted me and threatened to drive beyond skin deep.
Fuck. I had no choice.
They didn’t see that they were bringing this about. I didn’t want this. I never fucking had.
I sucked in a breath, then called on the very thing they were so afraid of—my Necromancy.
My power flared violently on either palm, then I slammed my fists into the ground, sending out a shockwave that ripped into sixty soldiers like a brutal tidal wave. It drove them all back with heavy force, knocking half of them out on contact.
I snapped my hand up and invoked Undead Domination, latching onto every single hostile with death-touched natures.
I levitated them high into the sky, noting over thirty of them held there at my will in my amber film.
At my mercy.
