I slammed my hands toward her.
BEAT.
I pushed the command with everything I had. I jump-started her system, forcing the blood to surge.
Aria arched off the Anvil, a gasp tearing from her throat.
I remember,I whispered into her mind, shoving the memory of the garden back into place, forcing the neurons to re-fire.I remember for you. Hold on to me.
Apollo threw the hounds off with a blast of dark gravity. He stood up, his nose bleeding black ichor, his expression twisted from mockery into pure hate.
"Enough games," he hissed.
He raised his hands to the hole in the roof, to the swirling vortex of the Devourer.
"Feed!" he screamed.
The black rain didn't just fall; it twisted. The oil droplets coalesced in mid-air, forming spears of solidified void. Hundreds of them.
"Shields!" Thane bellowed.
"I can't shield and hold her!" Kaelen shouted, his fire blazing white-hot.
"I got it!"
I didn't have a shield. I had speed.
I poured more energy into the bond, ramping up the friction in Aria’s body until she was glowing like a newborn star, thenI split my focus. I kept one hand aimed at her, maintaining the rhythm, and drew a dagger with the other.
The spears fell.
I became a whirlwind.
I wasn't intercepting them all, that was impossible. I was intercepting the ones aimed at the Anvil. For every beat of Aria’s heart, I slashed the air.
Beat. Slash. Beat. Parry.
Metal rang against void-glass. My arm was a blur. A spear grazed my shoulder, slicing through the leather and burning like cold fire, but I didn't stop.
"Left!" Elias warned.
I spun, batting a projectile away inches from Aria’s face.
"He's overwhelming the perimeter!" Hephaestus roared. "I need one minute! Just one minute to fuse the star-metal!"
"We don't have a minute!" Kaelen yelled. "He's charging a breaker wave!"
Apollo was gathering the darkness in his hands, compressing it into a singularity of pure entropy. He was going to drop a bomb on us.
"Thane!" I yelled. "Throw the hammer!"
"I am the Gravity!" Thane argued, sweat pouring down his face. "If I let go..."
"If you don't, we're ash!" I countered. “She held on before, she can do it again.”
Thane growled, a sound deep enough to crack the floor. He didn't let go of the magic, but he shifted his stance. He grabbed his massive war hammer from the floor with one hand, keeping the other locked in the channeling gesture.
It was impossible leverage. He shouldn't be able to lift it one-handed while anchoring a soul.
