The Starved kept coming. Vidor backed away from it but fell, causing a landslide of rocks. Calla, in her huge bear form, was caught up under the avalanche with him.
“Calla!” Quinn yelled, moving toward her. A moment later, the Starved surged toward him.
“Quinn!” I shouted.
He heard me and turned, leaping at the demon. I could see he snarled, but it was drowned out by the sickening chitter of the Starved as it struck. The Starved moved like a collapsing shadow, its limbs folding and unfolding in jerking, unnatural angles as it caught Quinn mid-motion.
I sprinted toward the demon, ribbons unfurling, desperate to stop the Starved.
Flame, Kingsolver, watch over Edith and Blake for me!
Flame slid in front of Edith, as Kingsolver bounded back to his rider.
But I didn’t make it in time.
Even as Quinn’s thundervein-tipped claws raked across the creature’s hide, the wounds vanished before they could deepen. It had Quinn in its grip.
He tried to tear himself free, but it was already too late.
The maw gaped open, wider than seemed possible, an abyss of writhing, jagged fangs.
Quinn yelped, the sound startlingly human, as the claws of the Starved pierced through fur and flesh, dragging him inward. His body buckled, his back legs kicking wildly, scrabbling against the ground, but the Starved’s hunger was an inescapable void. Quinn’s wolf form shrank as he shifted back, as if clinging to his last, desperate chance at survival—
And then Quinn’s human hand reached out, trembling, fingers curling toward us—
Before the darkness took him whole.
Not only him. His soul, too.
The Starved shuddered, its rib cage expanding, its jagged maw twisting in pleasure.
Quinn was gone.
I staggered, screaming—so loud it felt silent somehow. Arms wrapped around my waist, someone pulling me back, away from where the Starved still was, watching, waiting.
“Rubi, snap out of it,” Auron urged, before releasing me. “We need you. Blake, Edith—they need you.”
Calla roared, exploding out from the pile of rocks, her bear form crashing into the Starved with enough force to send it staggering back. Her giant claws tore at its limbs, but it reared back.
Blake and Edith were still unconscious. Quinn was gone. Flame stood over Edith, Kingsolver with Blake.
Flame’s mental link pressed reassuringly.You can do this, Rubi. You have always had the power to do it. End it.
Determination locked the pain and grief away behind an impenetrable wall. I ran toward the Starved.
“Now! Together!” I called to Jace.
He looked at me, eyes blazing with the same determination.
And then I started to sing, my voice rising, carrying the weight of my power and my emotions. The Starved hesitated, drawn in by the compulsion of my song.
It hungered for me.
I could feel an ancient, insatiable void, a hunger that went deeper than flesh, deeper than soul. It wanted everything I was. But I could feel, too, some ancient power to match its hunger rising in me, in my voice.
It lunged at me, a blur of motion, but Jace threw himself in front of me.
No!I screamed, the note high and piercing, my voice raw with terror.
