A spark of hope fills my chest. Seeing his power before, I thought there was no hope of beating him in a fight. But now… It might not be a shot in the dark that I could do something to help us.
Daimon takes a step forward, a whirring of magic raging behind him, though he doesn’t seem to be fazed by it.
“Are you going to help us?” I shout over the rumble in the air.
He tilts his head to the side and pauses. “With?”
A growl rips from my chest, and I shove myself to my feet, my arms trembling as I aim my magic straight at him. Heknowswhat we need help with.
“To release souls from the Vale that shouldn’t be there,” I snarl.
A slow smile spreads across his face. He doesn’t answer, but he doesn’t have to.
He’s playing with me—likely laughing internally at the stupidity of the notion that we thought we could ask for his help. There was a part of me hoping to bargain with him, find something he needs or wants and then do what I needed to do to give it to him. He was never going to help us out of thekindnessin his cold, dark heart, but everyone wants something.
Everyone but Daimon, that is.
He won’t help us—he’s nothing but a monster lurking within this evil domain.
The ground beneath me trembles, nearly sending me to my knees once more. Fear that my magic won’t hold grips my heart, but I shove the feeling away. Graylen needs me, and panic won’t help me get him back.
My gaze narrows on Daimon as my body tenses for whatever magic he’s about to unleash on me.
But his eyes widen—just slightly—and his shadows race for me, almost desperate in their need to get to me. Tendrils of darkness snake around my body, and I realize heallowedmy magic to push him away, because this grip is unrelenting. Suffocating. Is he toying with me again? Giving me a false hope only to prove to me how weak my magic is against his?
His nostrils flare, and he strides toward me, shadows billowing off of him as his shield remains in place at his back.
The ground groans so loudly that I hear it over the warring magic behind him. It splinters, and, like the realm is cracking in two, a split forms between us. In the same breath, a wall of rock, grass, and clay shoots up between us.
Daimon’s magic is severed as he disappears behind the solid mass of earth.
Zeph leaps to my side, her scales burning hot as she shoves me back with one of her wings. I jump on her back in one swift movement, watching as my friends do the same in my peripheral vision. My shoulders loosen slightly as we take each other in.
We need to leave before Daimon breaks through. I don’t think he’ll be asking any more questions this time.
The skies are dark above us, but it’s light enough that I can still make out the forest.
“We have to go,” I scream over my shoulder, seeing nothing but sheer determination mirrored in everyone’s faces.
I don’t know where the wall came from, but we’re not sticking around to find out. Dirt flies into the air as the force of a hurricane slams into it. Daimon is trying to get out, and it’s clear we won’t have long.
“Now!” I pat Zephyr’s neck, but instead of stretching out her wings, she simply looks up at the sky.
A growl rumbles from her chest as a massive, dark shape emerges from above.
My heart thrashes against my chest, each thump slamming against my ribs in a painful beat. We need to get out of here. Fast.
The air around us shifts, and a clicking noise pierces through the roar of Daimon’s shouting. With each shout, his magic rams harder against the barrier, causing the ground beneath us to rumble. Rocks pelt my face and my back as another punishing wave rolls into the wall.
Zephyr bolts into the air—straight toward the massive figure waiting there.
I hold on for dear life, the wind knocked out of me by the sudden velocity.
My eyes adjust as Zephyr stops her ascent to hover, her wings beating slowly as the rest of my fleet joins us.
But we aren’t alone.
In front of Zeph and me, another creature awaits. Soft, light blue scales shimmer through the darkness, framing black eyes and a spiked head.
