For a heartbeat, hope flared. It could be hurt.
But then the Starved shuddered.
The decay did not spread like it should have. Instead, the rotted sections sloughed off, peeling away like dead skin, revealing fresh, unblemished bone beneath. The arrows fell away.
Jace swore, already loosing another shot, his golden hair slick with sweat. “It’s regenerating too fast!”
“You cannot win.” The Starved’s voice was a chittering nightmare, a grotesque chorus of scraping mandibles and hissing decay. Its abyssal maw quivered, as if tasting our fear. Its words were not spoken butexhaled, slithering through the marrow of my bones.
“Give me the woman of prophecy.”
Auron unleashed a volley of flaming phoenix phire arrows, each one bursting into firebirds mid-flight. The birds screamed as they dove toward the Starved, their fiery talons searing into its bones. The eagle-shifted Azure dove in and out at the Starved with his thundervein-tipped talons, as the other firens shot flames. The combination of corrosion and fire began to take its toll, forcing the creature to stagger back, its focus split between the relentless attacks.
“Jace!” Auron shouted, but Jace didn’t need the reminder, already reloading his corroding arrows.
Auron’s flame veil surged as he leapt forward, firing another arrow that exploded into a blazing firebird, while the veil deflected attacks on him.
Lian’s hands crackled with power as she summoned a scorched earth, the ground beneath the Starved bubbling with heat, firestorm winds whipping around her. Her flames surged.
Flame’s presence swelled in the back of my mind, a steady, determined force cutting through the chaos.
Flame.There was an urgency and desperation in my thoughts.
Without hesitation, her response echoed through me:I’m here.
I watched as Flame bounded forward, her lithe form weaving through the battlefield, her golden eyes gleaming with purpose. In the distance, Kingsolver, Venom, and Xane growled low, circling the Starved. Flame roared, the sound reverberating through the cave like a call to arms.
The tygers responded. Kingsolver surged forward, claws raking through stone and earth. Venom followed, his brute strength colliding with the Starved as Xane darted in and out, using speed to attack the Starved. Even through the chaos, I could feel Flame coordinating them, pushing the tygers to fight together as a unit.
Don’t let them fall apart, I urged her, feeling her determination swell in response.
We won’t lose, she growled back.
But still, the Starved regenerated.
I ran to where Edith and Blake lay unconscious by the Anchor.
“Quinn!” I shouted, already scrambling to lift Edith. My arms slid under her back, but I couldn’t carry them both. “Help me!”
He appeared a moment later, his slate blue hair soaked to the roots, blood streaking his temple. His eyes went straight to Edith, then to Blake. “Great Nuwa,” he breathed. “Axefire is still down?”
I nodded once. “We have to get them somewhere less exposed.”
He didn’t hesitate. He crouched beside Blake, slung his arm over his shoulder, and hoisted him up with one brutal motion. I dragged Edith, her limbs trailing in the dirt, but we only needed to make it to the rocks near the inner wall. Enough cover to shield them from the worst of it.
We laid Edith against the wall, Blake next to her. Edith’s hand was still warm in mine. I couldn’t even feel a whisper of Blake in our Pair bond now and tried to suppress my panic. I quickly patted him down for anything I could use. Not a single thundervein weapon, only one plain dagger remained. He must have given everything in the fight.
Quinn crouched low, staring down at them. “They’ll be safest here. You stay with them.”
I gripped his arm. “Quinn, wait—”
He didn’t look away from Edith. “Tell her I’ll keep it at bay. Tell her I’m with her until the end.”
Then he stood. His body shimmered. For a second, the air bent around him, and he shifted into his massive wolf. He didn’t wait for me to answer. He ran. Back toward the Starved.
As I stood in front of Edith’s and Blake’s unconscious forms, Quinn attacked. Auron moved, his flame blade glowing brightly as he swung it in perfect arcs, slicing through the Starved again and again. His flame veil shimmered around him, that second skin of fire that protected him from the Starved’s ravenous touch.
Malissa’s eyes narrowed, her hands raised as she began throwing her thundervein knives.
