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I stepped forward and reached into the throng, shoving a body out of my way before I clutched her shoulder. The fire snuffed out the second I touched her skin, and the flames were replaced by frost. The marvel left white spiderwebbing in its wake when it crawled across her skin and onto the fabric of her dress.

I’d never seen anything like it and had to assume it was angel blood magic in action. The mix of different types could interact in many ways, so I couldn’t be certain for sure. She raised her eyes and looked at me, nearly as surprised as I was.

I pulled her inside the circle and the two of us examined the crowd though she gave me intermittent, fearful glances. “Are you going to hurt me?” She asked, pressing her knuckles on her lips.

“No.” Honestly, I wasn’t sure why I helped her, but I had. “You need to leave. I am going to kill all of them.”

Her gaze widened. “Why? Are you going to eat them?”

“No, I’ve had my fill.” One section of the crowd appeared thinner than the others. “Go over there. I’m going to lower the barrier. That will be your one and only chance.”

She wavered, twisting in a circle as I pulled both swords from the harness and over my shoulders. She glanced at the weapons and scurried off in the direction I pointed her.

“Thank you,” she said. “My name’s Kate, by the way.”

I leveled a gaze at her, and she turned her back to me. When I lowered the barrier, I realized I was going to have to drink more. There were now hundreds of angry bodies looking to take me down.

By the time I was through, the number of beating hearts in the once thriving village was significantly lowered. The road was full of copper-scented mud, and the sun had risen again, highlighting smoldering piles of flesh.

I tossed one last torch on a stack of flesh and exited through the rear gate, with my stomach satiated and my energy replenished.

The forest thinned, with the clusters of trees lessening right before the landscape began an upward tilt. The sky remained clouded and dim, with the occasional bright flash of blood red lightning. There were a couple rumbles of thunder, and I started navigating the tundra.

The atmosphere turned thicker, sticky with a cloying electrical charge as I neared Annalise and Wyvon. I was more than well-aware I may never make the trek back to Cassia.

My mortality had never been a concern for me in the past. For one, I couldn’t be easily killed so I’d never thought about it in depth. Then, as the years stretched by, they all blurred together and death became a completely foreign concept.

Now, I was being forced to consider a possible end. Knowing Annalise and Wyvon, they would extinguish me rather than kill me. Extinguishment meant true death, the loss of any type of consciousness. I would simply cease to exist and return to pure energy.

If I was fortunate enough to merely be killed, I would find myself in another Realm. The way death and the fates worked together, the Realm would be the sort that allowed no path anywhere else. And it would be an unknown world.

Either way, my chances of being reunited with Cassia were highly unlikely. What I faced was a scenario that would test me beyond anything I’d ever dealt with. Both Annalise and Wyvon were extremely powerful and the combination of the two could bring the gods to their knees.

The air all around me was charged with their magic, making the hair on my arms and the back of my neck stand on end. Annalise was prowling, sending out feelers and trying to infiltrate my mind. I had her locked out, but I could feel her knocking at the door.

A thick haze laid over the crest in the distance, lightly tinted with red. I was almost there.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted some of their scouts. Kakian demons dressed in military fatigues in shades of green and white, designed to blend into the landscape. Humans were the only species that may have missed their near-clandestine hiding spaces and movements.

A wave of magic washed over me from behind and I drew my sword, spinning around. There was nothing for several moments, other than the invisible clash of opposing power that sent a shot of adrenaline into my system.

Then I saw it. An overwhelming cloud of black swooping down from the sky. A blur of feathers rushed past me, and I was surrounded.

Crows.

Kiam.

A smile stretched my face as a burden slid off my back. The flock of birds circled around me and then continued forward, numbering in the thousands.

Just then, I got an impression of contentment from Cassia. My boots almost skittered to a stop. Had she contacted Kiam for me? If so, how? While warmth filled me over her care, dread flooded my stomach. If she had interfered, she was no longer confined.

Cassia was outside the safety of my magic and vulnerable to more ploys and manipulations than she could possibly fathom.

I broke into a run, keeping pace with the crows, until I leapt over a line of rocks.

In front of me, Wyvon sat in a chair that appeared wholly out of place on the near-barren and rocky ground. It was a leather armchair with thick, curved metal feet and trim. Annalise stood staring at the upper slope of the mountain behind him, her translucent layers of seafoam green fluttering in the stiff breeze.

Their soldiers rushed me, many of whom I recognized. I slashed ten necks with my nails and sword before Wyvon told them to stand down.