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Claws slashed, carving deep gouges into plate mail. Horns gored. Panicked yells cut off in curdled screams.

And soldier after soldier fell.

Cold ran through Kit’s insides as she called shards of ice to the palms of her hands—frozen throwing daggers with tips as sharp as any blade. She flung them into chests and limbs, let them tear into the creatures’ wings, sending them careening back to the ground.

Not everyone was running. Rallying cries came from the ground, where Tristan and Captain Gaius were both trying to re-form the lines from opposite sides of the chaos, attempting to rally the humans to arms. Two monsters that had been chasing after a group of fleeing soldiers eyed them, reversing course in midair. They split, each one zooming after one of the knights.

Kit’s heart seized as the one that had marked Tristan dove, and the knight narrowly leapt aside as the monster lunged for him. Tristan slashed back, black ichor spraying when his blade connected with the creature’s side. Brambles shot up through the blood-spattered snow, reaching, trying to snag the monster’s feet and pin it in place as Jocelyn came to Tristan’s aid with her own sword held high.

The abomination flew up, tearing itself from Jocelyn’s hold. It circled once, then dove again.

And this time it was not alone.

But neither were Tristan and Jocelyn.

Ollie was a storm soaring over the chaos. Water spouts launched from his hands—high-pressure whips that tore into multiple monsters, blasting them back—as he cleared a path to Tristan and Jocelyn. Ollie drew his short sword from his waist just as Tristan ducked out of the way of another set of slashing claws, plunging it deep into the beast’s back as he collided with it in midair.

Gaius was not so lucky.

The monster that had set its gaze on the rallying captain descended with an otherworldly cry. It hooked its ragged limbs under Gaius’s arms, sweeping him into the air with inconceivable speed. Kit’s stomach lurched as she flew forward, reaching for him, but she wasn’t fast enough. The creature dropped the captain, and he was still shouting, still trying to marshal his soldiers as he fell to the earth, his body breaking with a heart-stopping crunch.

Launching herself at the abomination, Kit pulled twin daggers from the sheaths at her sides and stabbed at its back, its wings—everything, anything. The creature screamed as it careened out of the sky, landing directly in the middle of the fray below.

Kit watched in horror as the monster leapt up from where it landed, black blood leaking from the holes she’d ripped into his leathery wings, and thrust its scythe-tipped tail through Scarper’s chest. The dwarf was still bellowing a war cry as he swung his axe and cleaved the tail from the beast’s body, then fell to his knees with a final, wet breath. Nearby, Thraigg roared, swinging his hammer with crushing force that caved in the abomination’s skeletal face.

He swung again, the hammer whirling around his stout body, a tornado that slammed into monstrous limbs, cracking knees and elbows. Kingsley, Ludov, Georgie, Pious, and Onyx each fought at the perimeter of Thraigg’s wild swings—a circle of dwarven fury.

But it wasn’t enough.

Georgie’s scream was bloodcurdling as a creature grabbed hold of his arm, claws digging into his forearm, then ripped it from its socket. Onyx and Pious leapt on the creature, battering it back, as Ludov dragged a half-conscious Georgie back, blood gushing from his shoulder.

“Over here!” Hooves thudded as Shep barreled through the chaos on Polonius’s back, green light already spinning from his hands. He dove off the horse’s back, one hand immediately shooting to Georgie’s wound to stem the bleeding. Together with Ludov, the two tried to shove the wounded dwarf onto Polonius’s back, but the horse was tall, Georgie was heavy, and both men’s hands were slippery with blood. Kit quickly descended, sheathing her daggers to snag the wounded dwarf around the waist and haul him atop the horse.

With no time for anything more than a nod, Shep leapt onto Polonius’s back and cantered away.

Kit sucked in a breath. It seized in her lungs. Because—quartered fucking hell—if Shep was here, then where was she? Kit shot back into the air, her gaze raking manically over the field as she searched for Tenny.

She didn’t find any sign of her, not a glimpse of strawberry hair nor Fjaethe’s champagne coat, and that might have brought Kit relief, if not for what she did find instead.

Cedric and Elyria were still fighting at the front of the line—her above, him below, wielding her shadow-spiked staff and a blazing Ashrender, cutting and cutting and cutting. The enemy was driving them farther and farther apart, multiple monsters descending upon them as they fought to get back to each other.

Kit could see the panic crest on Elyria’s face when a particularly huge monster that Kit had already knocked out of the sky, one wing half-torn from its back, descended upon Cedric. But two more enemies swarmed Elyria as she defended a group of scared soldiers, and she could not get to him.

Not that Cedric knew it. The knightling’s back was turned, Ashrender embedded to the hilt in the shoulder of another beast.

The abomination reared back.

Elyria screamed Cedric’s name.

Kit gasped.

But just as Cedric spun to see claws raised over him, the monster went sprawling, and a humongous black volacarnii stood snarling in its place.

Not quite black, actually, Kit realized. The beast’s dark fur had a slight greenish tinge. And when another volacarnii landed next to the first, the two of them standing vigil at Cedric’s back while the knight returned to slicing through another monster, Kit understood.

Zephyr and Sid spread their feathery wings wide, the latter leaping back into the sky to head off another beast, the former turning toward the enormous monster she’d just saved Cedric from. The creature had recovered from her initial hit. In fact, it now seemed more enraged than ever, reaching back with grasping claws to rip the remaining fragment of its own wing clear off its back.

Zephyr’s volacarnii jaw opened to reveal sharp teeth already coated with black blood. She roared.