“I know.” I nodded. “But we have no choice.”
The pendant at my throat pulsed again.
Keegan stepped closer to the balcony doors. His shoulders blocked part of the opening, and the blue firelight from the tower windows carved him in hard lines. His hands flexed once at his sides, ready to shift if the darkness moved in the wrong direction.
“Celeste,” he called gently. “It’s Keegan. Can you hear me?”
For a second, the only answer came from the battle raging around us. A burst of magic shook the far wall. A howl sliced somewhere across the courtyard. An orc horn sounded again in the distance.
“I’m here.”
I looked around…it came from the center of the room.
No, her voice was from behind the room, farther than it should have been.
I shook my head, realizing I truly couldn’t place where Celeste was calling from.
The tower stretched sound the way the Academy sometimes stretched hallways, but the Academy did it with mischief and purpose. It often felt like a delight and revelation. But this compound performed these tricks with hunger and something more sinister.
I swung one leg off the broom before Twobble grabbed my hand and nearly yanked me sideways.
“Are you out of your mind?” he hissed.
“That’s my daughter.”
“Yes, and I’m very fond of her continued existence, which is why we do not fling ourselves into murdering architecture without a plan.”
Keegan glanced up, and the look he gave me had no anger in it, only understanding, which was somehow worse.
A shadow shot across the balcony before either of us could take another breath. Keegan shifted so fast I barely saw the change. One moment, he stood in human form, and the next, his wolf slammed into the dark shape with a snarl that rattled the broken railing beneath him.
The creature hit the far wall and exploded into a spray of sparks, but they lingered, scattering across the stone as they wriggled toward the door like tiny, furious insects.
“Absolutely disgusting,” Twobble muttered.
I lifted my hand, and hedge magic shot from my fingertips before I even shaped the command. Vines burst from the cracks in the balcony stone, pale and quick and edged with tiny thorns. The leaves wrapped around the crawling sparks and squeezed until the embers hissed out of existence.
Keegan looked back at me, wolf eyes bright in the low light, but his ears flicked toward the compound below.
The Priestess had opened another gate.
I felt it before I saw it.
The courtyard beneath us rolled with figures as they climbed out of the openings. Their movements were jerky and unnatural. These weren’t the shapeless creatures we’d been fighting since we arrived. These were soldiers, or what had once been soldiers, wrapped in old armor stained black by magic and time.
Their helmets covered their faces, and each carried a hooked blade, gleaming with shadow magic. The first line turned where the orcs held position.
The second line faced the wolves.
The third set looked up at the witches.
A chill ran through me. We didn’t have much time.
“They organized,” I said. “Quickly.”
The masked fighters raised their blades.
“Shields!” Nova’s voice rang into the air as witches throughout the sky threw up barriers just as blue light erupted from the soldiers’ weapons.
