The enchantment struck like a pulse—Mindstrike—and Fane’s body stuttered. His grip faltered.
One second.
Rell didn’t hesitate.
The second Fane’s grip faltered, Rell seized his arm and used the momentum to launch himself upward. His boots found Fane’s chest, and he kicked off with brutal force, snapping the bounty hunter’s head back with the impact.
Fane stumbled, grunting as his balance gave way, while Rell flipped backward in midair, landing lightly on his feet with the grace of someone who’d made a habit of doing the impossible.
Elora gaped for half a second.Damn.Even mid-chaos, it was hard not to admire the fluidity in his movement—controlled, efficient, and lethal. He made it look effortless.
But Fane was far from finished.
Snarling, the brute grabbed a vial from his belt and hurled it at the ground between them. It exploded on impact, splattering a thick, viscous black goo that surged outward in all directions.
Elora dove left. Rell rolled right. The barn floor vanished beneath the slick trap.
Elora scrambled upright, her boots slipping as she fought for traction. Her claws clicked against the boards and then pain shot through her.
The crackling coil caught her ankle.
Her scream tore from her throat as a surge of electricity jolted through her body, muscles seizing violently. Her claws vanished, her fangs receded—her entire shifted form buckled under the overload. She hit the ground hard, limbs spasming, vision splintered by pain.
“Stay down,” Fane snarled, dragging her in like fresh kill.
She gasped, tasting copper, her hands clawing at the floor as the barbed coil ripped through her skin. Her legs trembled, nerves misfiring from the shock, but she kept fighting—kept dragging her fingers through dirt and blood in some desperate crawl toward nowhere.
Fane’s shadow fell over her.
“Let’s end this quickly,” he muttered, voice cold and final.
Through the white noise of her panic, she heard Rell—swearing, struggling—pinned by the black goo near the loft. He thrashed violently, stuck like prey in tar. His expression was wild, furious, panicked.
“Damn it, hold on!” he barked.
But Elora couldn’t. Her strength was gone. Her limbs refused to work. Her thoughts scattered.
Fane loomed closer, his hand reaching for her.
This is it, she thought, despair choking her.I’ve failed.
Then—twang.
The sharp snap of a crossbow bolt sliced through the chaos.
The electrified coil around Elora’s ankle jerked once, then shattered with a flash of blue sparks. Her leg dropped limply to the ground, the pain giving way to a jarring relief. She gasped, blinking through the haze, heart pounding.
Both she and Fane whipped toward the barn doors.
Violette stood framed in the broken entrance like a judgment delivered late. Her cloak billowed in the wind, one knee bent from the recoil of her shot, the crossbow already reloaded and leveled with terrifying precision.
“Step away from her.”
Fane snarled, lips pulling back to show his teeth. “You’re becoming a nuisance.”
Violette cocked the crossbow again—click. “Good.”
She fired. Fane barely dodged, the bolt tearing past his shoulder and burying itself in a support beam. He twisted, reaching for another vial at his belt.
