I turned to Aria, looking at the seed in her hand, then at the door where the scratching of claws had begun.
"Put it away," I ordered. "Guard it with your life. But do not break it unless I tell you."
"And if you're dead?" She asked, her eyes fierce.
"Then burn it all down," I said.
FOUR
Elias
"Burn it all down," Aria said, repeating Kaelen's words. The echo of her voice, rough with exhaustion yet sharp with intent, lingered strangely in the vast, dusty air of the hall.
I looked at her, really looked at her. Her skin was pale, translucent like parchment held up to a flame, and the golden markings of our bond were pulsing with a frantic, uneven rhythm. She stood with the rigid, trembling tension of a bowstring drawn past its breaking point. She was magnificent. She was terrifying.
And she was vibrating apart.
"Incoming!" Flynn roared, his voice cracking the stillness.
The high, domed ceiling of the Hall of Muses shattered, exploding inward.
Heavy glass and bronze framework rained down in a storm of shrapnel. With the debris came the Harpies. They descended in a screeching vortex of molting feathers and the stench of carrion. They were hideous things, torsos of emaciated women fused to the bodies of vultures, their talons dripping with a black, viscous ichor that hissed when it hit the marble floor.
"Form up!" Kaelen’s command was a blast of heat, his sword igniting with dragon fire that painted the falling glass in strokes of violent orange.
I moved instinctually, my mind calculating the trajectory of the falling debris. I raised a hand, expanding a field of kinetic dampening above us.Probability shift.The shards of glass diverted, flowing around us like water around a stone, clattering harmlessly to the floor.
"Thane, the east flank!" I shouted, my voice calm despite the chaotic thrumming of my pulse. "They are targeting the pillars!"
Thinking was my weapon. While Kaelen burned and Flynn bled, I saw the math of the slaughter. The Harpies weren't just attacking; they were herding us, trying to drive us toward the unstable section of the floor where the Devourer was already gnawing at the foundation.
A Harpy dived at Aria, her screech piercing enough to rupture eardrums.
Flynn intercepted it mid-air, a blur of leather and steel. He slammed into the creature, driving his daggers into its wing joint. They tumbled across the floor in a ball of feathers and fury.
"Get behind me!" Kaelen roared, shoving Aria toward the base of a massive statue of Calliope. He swung his sword, the long blade cleaving a Harpy in two. The smell of burnt feathers and ozone flooded my senses, choking out the dusty scent of the archives.
Aria stumbled, clutching the hilt of Hades’s sword. She looked disoriented, her eyes tracking too slowly.
"I can fight," she gasped, raising the blade. The shadow-metal drank the dim light, heavy in her hand.
"Don't!" I warned, seeing the fluctuation in her aura before she even drew breath. "Aria, do not pull on the bond!"
She didn't listen. She never listened. She was Pandora's heir, after all. Curiosity and defiance were woven into the very essence of her being.
She thrust her hand forward, aiming a blast of force at a Harpy diving for Thane’s exposed back. I felt her reach into the collective well of our power. She grabbed blindly for Kaelen’s fire and my gravity.
But the conduit was stripped bare.
The sound that tore through the room wasn't a roar of magic. It was a sound I had not heard in aeons. It was the high-pitched, resonantpingof crystal failing under pressure.
Aria didn't scream. She simply folded.
Her knees hit the marble floor with a sickeningclack, like two stones striking together. The sword of Hades clattered from her grip, sliding away across the polished stone.
"Aria!" Kaelen’s shout was pure, unadulterated panic. He abandoned his guard, turning his back on the flock to reach for her.
I was closer. I slid across the floor, my robes billowing, and caught her just before her head struck the base of the statue.
