Creation first? The gemstone heats in my hand as I imagine what might work, trying to funnel the power toward Killian.
Those shimmering-white threads of magic erupt from me again, reaching where Killian stands and burrowing down into the ground like flowing roots.
Around him, a massive thornbush shoots up. It reaches toward the sky and multiplies until it eclipses Killian and he’s completely trapped inside it.
He laughs, the sound wild. It sets my teeth on edge.
In a whirl of darkness, he vanishes from inside the thorns and reappears outside of them.
“That power will be an interesting addition to my collection.” He smiles wide, fangs extending. They glimmer in the strange light, daylight slashed into ribbons by the shadow power that still swirls around us.
“Destruction, then!” Anassa shouts in my mind. My magic rises to answer her.
With a wordless yell, I unleash the full force at my enemy, and the yawning emptiness the Tear creates seems to explode into being. A hellish black abyss opens beneath Killian and he’s sucked down into it, disappearing from view.
I use the small pause in fighting to check in on Stark, and flashes of his vision come through as I slam my consciousness toward his:
The Phylax wall is in tatters. Stark and Cratos fight with blade and magic both. Slashes of shadebending power cut through two Phylax wolves as Cratos rips a rider to shreds. Stark parries attacks from three other riders, spinning to sink a dagger deep in the guts of one before bearing down with his sword on another. There’s no sign of Noemi, though.
“MERYN!”
Anassa calls me back to myself, and dread courses through me.
From the widening black gash in the ground, Killian is rising slowly. Acloud of shadow power buoys him aloft, and in his hands are two swords of shadow, shadebending made physical.
I need to buy myself time to figure out what can possibly reach him.
I open my mouth, not even sure what I’m going to say until the words come out.
“What does Alistair think of your relying on my Sturmfrost magic, Killian? How you hit back with magic youstole from meinstead of using power of your own?”
His face twists with rage, and for a moment, I think I’ve miscalculated as the shadow holding him in the air rushes forward, pulling Killian toward me at frightening speed.
“You know—” he cries, but then his face twists and strains, and he falls to his knees on the dark platform beneath him.
Magic swirls around crazily as I watch him fight that battle in his head, holding back the ancient Siphon inside him. His fists clench as he struggles for control.
I grip the creation and destruction Tears tight, ready to lash out again while he’s distracted, but a familiar voice stops me short.
“Meryn, help!”
Anassa and I swing around toward the direction of the sound, and Noemi and Ephyse are there, the dusty wreckage of a tent around them. Ephyse is on the ground, leg twisted at a strange angle, and Noemi is bent over him, groaning.
In a heartbeat, I’m off Anassa and racing over.
“What happened? What can I do?”
I flash back on Venna’s wolf, Skaia, in the woods, and desperation spikes inside me.
Not again.
“Anassa, can you help them?”
Anassa lopes around to Ephyse’s other side, looking for the wound, and I put a hand to Noemi’s shoulder. “Noemi, stay with me,” I plead.
She turns her tearstained face toward me, and something strange flashes in her eyes. “Meryn,” she says, and her voice comes out strangled.
She reaches up toward me, and I lean closer.
