MJ and I moved faster.
I white-knuckled the hilt of my sword as I blocked elemental attacks, dodged flying weapons, claws, and Glory. I threw out waves of power.
Still, we weren’t fucking close enough to help.
Alexei noted our distance, then looked at the Dread near him. He stared at Xavier longer than he should have, something silent passing between them.
The message cost him.
The infected closed in.
“Alexei!” I bellowed.
The infected’s faces and bodies morphed into Alexei.
There were thirty of him.
They all paused in confusion, and Alexei used that moment.
His rain poured harder, flooding the ground. Not just around him, but farther out, encompassing more infected and blood-banded than I could count—and our larger targets, the Spinewalkers.
Something inside me stilled, a sickening realization carving through my stomach.
My movements turned chaotic, my shadows gripping minds and puppeteering them to turn. It took more energy to use them than to kill them. I didn’t have the luxury to waste power like this.
But I didn’t care.
They blocked a swarm of infected trying to reach me, and I materialized my wings, throwing myself to the ground as Dominions targeted them.
Then I shot into the air.
I flew.
Rain drenched me.
His lightning bolt came.
The world slowed.
It streaked through the air toward the pool of water.
“Alexei!” I shouted, dropping altitude and reaching out toward where I had last seen the real him.
He leaped into the air with a roar, wings beating uselessly as the infected clawed him back down.
Xavier was in the same state.
I latched onto Alexei’s hand.
His wind and my shadows pushed back the infected.
I wrenched Alexei free.
Xavier’s wings flapped, gaining altitude.
Alexei’s bolt struck.
Thousands standing in the water convulsed and collapsed, bodies snapping into the mud. Those closest to the strike were dead or about to be. Farther out, the infected locked up, stunned and immobilized.
