It’s clear they want me dead.
The slit of the sky above me disappears as they close in.
Chapter 24
The nearest beast is suddenly wrenched backward.
Then the next.
The air above me rapidly clears, only to fill with black threads, each one arcing through the space above me like living ribbons as they wrap around every beast near me.
The spiderweb of razor-sharp ribbons rips backward, and the creatures are torn apart.
I try to focus on the male silhouette standing nearby, his arms raised, but a female figure rushes to my side, demanding my attention.
The golden light around them both is so bright that I can’t see more than their outlines.
“Asha!” The woman’s face comes into view. Silver hair frames her face, and her pale green eyes are filled with worry as she rapidly assesses me, quickly focusing on my wound. “You’re hurt!”
My lips part as I try to breathe. “Tamra?”
My sister presses her right hand to my cheek. “Lie still. I’m going to heal your leg. Then we need to move.”
I can’t seem to form coherent speech. I don’t understand how she’s here. “Tamra…”
There’s a flash of silver metal. It’s the medallion wrapped around her right hand as she leans toward my leg. Hurriedly, she rips the material, peeling it away before pressing her palm to my skin.
The pain stops instantly, allowing me to focus more clearly on the man in the background.
He weaves his metal in the air like threads, forming a perfect pattern. Just like my mother used to do. Shredding, cutting, creating deadly spiderwebs…
He must be Gallium. Iwillhim to be my brother, even though I know Gallium’s metal isn’t black.
“Tamra?”
Her right hand remains pressed to my leg. The pain may have stopped, but I sense the wound isn’t healed yet. Blood still leaks from it.
It takes time for flesh to knit.
“We don’t have much time,” she says. “I need you to listen. This land has turned, Asha. Something triggered it. We felt it all the way in the east. There’s no saving this city now. Do you understand?”
I shake my head. I don’t understand at all. “How are you here?”
She slows down. “I’m sorry, it’s a lot…” She glances at the man, who remains nothing more than a golden silhouette in my vision. “You saw the darkness in the east. That’s what’s happening here now. This land will be consumed soon. There’s no stopping it.”
I only saw the eastern blight from a distance, but it was a darkness that filled me with dread.
“The humans.” I gasp. “This city?—”
“The dragons will help them.” Tamra’s voice is earnest, but again, she pauses, pressing her lips together, her forehead creasing. “Asha… Whatever you did to trigger this event—andI’m certain it was you—every supernatural within hundreds of miles will have felt it. The fae, the dragons, the Valkyries, even the Einherjar in the north. They will have all felt it.”
Wake up.
Three Valkyries were present when I used my hammer to bring Erik back. So was Graviter Rex. And even a Celestial Star?—
The Celestial Star!I can only hope she flew clear of the storm up in the mountain.
I struggle to rise, but Tamra presses her left hand to my shoulder. “Don’t move. You’re not healed yet. Just listen.” Her eyes bore into me, compelling me to lie back down. “They all felt it, do you understand? It’s the kind of power that can start wars. Do you understand?”
