Cassia’s head snapped toward the smoke. A knot in her chest loosened. “Cade!”
Out of the smoke, her brother appeared. He strode forward, golden eyes alight with power. The air seemed to bend around him, heavy with energy that made her bones vibrate.
“Get out of here, Cass,” Cade growled, launching another piece of rubble at one of the creatures with a flick of his wrist. “Delphine is waiting for you behind the train.”
“Impeccable timing,” Castor said, halfway grinning. “If we have any chance of keeping them out of the city, we need to reactivate the spell.”
Cade turned his head, as if searching for something. He flicked his wrist again. Seconds later, a twisted piece of wreckage lifted from the ruins. Thepiece, Cassia assumed, that Marin had been trapped under. With another pulse of power, it shot forward and struck the beast square in the chest. The monster staggered and growled. But no matter what Cade continued to throw at them, the creatures didn’t seem to be deterred.
“Take Marin and go,” Cade told Castor. “She’s free now. She’ll know how to get inside and fix the rune, but she’ll need your help.”
Determination etched on his features, Castor nodded. He squeezed Cassia’s arm, then whispered in her ear, “Do what you can.”
It wasn’t hard to miss his hidden meaning. Herpowers. She’d almost forgotten. Before she could argue with him or say she didn’t know how to do it again without him, he’d disappeared in the rubble of the train.
Cassia turned to Cade, just in time to see another wave of magic surge through him. A section of the shattered wall cracked loose and shot toward the second creature, slamming it into the dirt. Dust clouded the air. Cade staggered slightly, and blood began to drip steadily from his ear.
“You need to run,Cass,” he said through gritted teeth. His voice trembled with strain. “I’ve got this.”
Cassia opened her mouth to argue, but a movement in the trees caught their attention. Especially since the creatures suddenly stilled. A man, at least, he might’ve been once, emerged from the dark. His body was skeletal, his skin stretched tight over bone, veins pulsing black beneath the surface like poisoned roots. His face was sunken and hollow-eyed. Black sludge clung to his jaw, sloughing from his fingertips in thick, oozing drops. Long black fingernails dripped blood as he raised his hands. The moment he did, the creatures growled in tandem and charged forward again.
Cade titled his head. “It’s not Quinn controlling them.”
The man, or Wraith, or whatever the hell he was, raised his hand again. Not to control the beasts, but to attack. A jagged shard of twisted metal hovered in the air and then launched straight at them.
Cassia reached for Cade. “Watch out,” she gasped. Without thinking, she pulled. Unlike with Castor, it didn’t take her long to find a sparkof magic within him. The moment she touched his shoulder, something within him responded. Magic leapt from his skin and surged like lightning up her arm. It waseverywhereinside him, thrumming just beneath the surface. Cassia seized and redirected it.
Seconds later, the shard veered off-course and slammed into a pile of debris beside them.
Cade’s arms dropped to his sides in stunned silence. “How did you do that?”
Cassia snatched her hand away from him and cradled it against her chest. Her palm still tingled from the contact. She didn’t answer. She couldn’t. How could she explain something she barely understood herself?
Her brother, too busy staring and trying to breach her mind for an explanation, didn’t notice the shadow uncoiling behind him. One of the beasts had scaled the wall, its blackened claws digging into stone. Its teeth glinted in the dim light as a snarl peeled from its throat.
Suddenly, silver flew through the air. The beast shrieked. It twisted violently and toppled from the wall with a sickening crunch. A dagger jutted from its shoulder, slick with black ooze. Whimpering, the creature dragged itself toward the waiting Wraith, its strength fading.
Swallowing hard, Cassia searched the trees behind the Wraith for the source of the dagger. For an explanation. For some kind of rogue soldier that had been hiding in the Elder Woods.
Then, out of the darkness, stepped Bridget.
Chapter seventeen
Bridget
Bridget’s entire body froze at the sight before her.
Seconds ago, she’d been in the snowy woods of Connecticut. Now, a hellish landscape similar to the one she’d briefly seen in Stellan’s vision pierced her eyes. Grey stains littered the city’s stone wall, a once imposing sight of the brightest brick and metal. A giant hole gave her a clear view into the chaos happening inside Astraeus. Three creatures seemed to be in charge of the ruin.
Bridget’s breath caught as her gaze locked on the two creatures prowling just inside the breach. Their appearance sent a wave of déjà vu down her spine, like she’d come across one before. Maybe in a dream. Or a past life.
Or maybe they were just the type of a creature everyone couldn’t help but envision in a nightmare at some point.
They were… wrong. Built like wolves, but taller. Their fur, soaked and clotted with filth, hung from their frames like rotting moss. With every movement, their muscles rippled with unnatural speed. Black foam dripped from their fangs, and when they snarled, she caught a glimpse of too many teeth.
The other antagonist was more human-like. The skin that hung on its skeletal frame was a patchwork of scars and blisters. It wore no armor. Its head was bald, and what might’ve once been tan flesh now burned with open sores and oozing rot. Long black nails curled from its hands like talons.
Bridget pushed Nylah behind Stellan and turned to him for an explanation. Isthiswhat they had seen in his vision before they’d left? Were they already too late, despite Nylah’s use of the Tuathan artifact? Something shestillneeded an explanation for. But Stellan’s answer was drowned out by her own heartbeat when she spotted the back of a head. One she’d know anywhere, even with blood and soot caking his temple. One that was too busy pounding loose rubble and saying something to his sister to notice a beast slowly creeping up the ruined stone wall behind him.
