Glooms and shades burst out of the shadows, their eyes glowing and their snarls ripping through the air as they joined us.
“Surround it!” I shouted. “We need to drive it away from the barrier!”
The night mares trumpeted, the shades howled, and the glooms screamed.
My prism warmed in my hand, as did my old charm bracelet artifact—which I’d taken to wearing under my long sleeves.
I can do this.
Using the prism, I forged the biggest ward I could make, stretching it far across the ground between the monster and the realm’s barriers. When I felt it had enough power I activated it, sprouting a shield, and then pulled it toward me.
I was hoping to drag the monster away from the realm barrier. It was a good plan, until my ward actually touched the monster.
Pain popped in my skull, and I shouted as it radiated down my arms and legs. I thought it was because the monster smashed its tail into my spell or something, but when I peeled an eye open I saw the monster had lumbered around and faced the barrier, its jaw hanging open.
It wasinhalingthe ward, making the magic evaporate.
I shoved more magic into the spell, but I couldn’t keep up. The monster sucked the magic down with too much greed, and the barrier grew smaller and smaller.
The pain continued, hot and electric. My spine arched, and the pain sloshed around in my brain until I couldn’t handle it anymore.
I let the sputtering ward go, sobbing with relief when the pain left.
Before I could draw myself upright, an arrow—blazing with magic—soared past me, striking the monster in its empty eye socket.
Rather than exploding, or reacting in some way with magic, the arrow disappeared into the shadows of the empty eye socket, and nothing happened.
Somewhere off to the side, Rigel swore.
He caught up pretty fast.“It’s eating magic, isn’t it?” I asked.
“Eating or burning it somehow,” Rigel confirmed. “It doesn’t seem to grow stronger from it.”
Thinking of the way I’d destroyed a couple of shadow monsters I forged a ward underneath the monster and activated it.
The ward sprouted into a barrier, and instantly evaporated when it touched the monster, leaving me with an intense wave of pain that made me stagger a few steps.
It seemed like my old tricks weren’t going to work on this monstrosity.
“How do we kill it?” I asked. “Would overwhelming it with magic work?”
Rigel shook his head. “Maybe Rime andallher siblings could, but it would take most of the Court to achieve the same effect here.”
The monster whirled around, dragging its tail across the ground and cutting huge trenches in the dirt.
Dust filled the air, and I coughed into my sleeve, but headlights cut through the smog.
Three trucks—the beds filled with armor-wearing fae warriors—pulled up behind us.
Chase popped out of the front seat of one of the trucks. “Into position,” he shouted. “Go!”
“Chase?” I shouted. “How did you get trucks in here?”
“The night mares helped me bring them in a month ago,” Chase said.
His men leaped from the trucks and formed organized ranks, unholstering what looked likehighlyaltered—perhaps even magical—rifles.
The monster took a swipe at one of the groups of guards with its clawed feet.
