were more red-brown than green, and the slush of our steps in the grass had little to do with the mist of the falls.
“Watch out,” Emelia shouted, diving to her left to spear a copy at my rear. Smoke crawled up the edge of her glittering halberd, and she offered me a sadistic grin before spinning on her heels to parry another monster. Iov flanked her side, and he buried his ax without fault into the forehead of a copy.
I grunted my thanks before shooting another flurry of blades. Another showering of smoke as copies faded. A few snuck through and battered against Wynn’s shield, and four eyes closed.
Two left. My gaze slid past him to Leena. Motionless aside from her eyes, she followed the path of her Myad across the battlefield.
Crouching low into the ground, I prepared to sprint toward Wynn, delivering a series of blades along the way so when the barrier broke, I would already be on top of him.
I never made it.
The sick splattering of claws embedding in flesh sang through the air. A few feet away, Iov dropped to his knees. With a heavy roar, a beast retracted its nails from his shattered shoulder and reared back to finish the job.
“No!” Emelia shrieked louder than the falls. Gripping her halberd with two hands, she propelled herself forward and impaled the beast’s side.
Instead of mist, blood poured to the earth. The force of the blow knocked the cat to the ground, and the remaining copies shattered.
Leaving Mika pinned, Emelia retreated to her wounded brother. “Iov. Iov, no. Iov…” Tears bisected her face. A dribble of blood trickled from his mouth to his chin, but he managed a shaky wave as he slumped into her body.
“Mika!” Raven bolted from her place behind Wynn, rushing to her beast’s side and casting the air around her into deep-red light. The rest of the Council froze, their beasts slinking back to their masters. Instead of returning to the Council’s side, Raven and Mika vanished. Sanctuary. The beast realm would provide.
My assassins didn’t have that luxury. I couldn’t raise them again.
Rage fueled me, and my blades flew true, crashing into Wynn’s shield and breaking it entirely. He stumbled, wild eyes spearing me from across the clearing, and I couldn’t help the manic grin tugging at my lips. “Got you.”
Wicked and dark, he laughed. “Not yet.”
Barreling toward me with otherworldly speed, seeming to burst from the shadows themselves, the Myad launched himself into the air. Wind pulsing under his wings, he gained momentum and targeted my chest, fangs and claws readily poised. He must have thought I was aiming at Leena, because nothing but sheer rage burned in his eyes. It was the kind of fierce loyalty reserved for protecting his own.
Time slowed to a standstill as I realized there was no escaping this. I had only enough time to get my blades up to skewer the beast—and that I would never do.
Glancing back at Leena, I drank in the sight of her one last time. I’m sorry. For everything.
Bracing for impact, I kept my weapons at bay—but the hit never came. Flesh ripped, but no pain arced through my body. No lancing heat. Only the dank and metallic smell of blood coupled with a body slumping to the ground at my feet. The Myad retreated out of reach before I could fully understand what had happened. My gaze dropped to the ground.
Calem.
My entire existence narrowed to him. To the stupid grin on his face and his brilliant-red hands as he held his abdomen together. Intense ringing seared through my ears, and I sank beside him in wounded shock.
“What are you doing?” Veins twitching along his neck, tears brimming in his eyes, he gripped my hand. “Go get her.”
A sob caught in the back of my throat. Kost and Ozias sped toward us, sliding on their knees as they dropped beside him, everything else forgotten. Agony, hot and terrible and all-too consuming, burned me from the inside out.
Not Calem. Not my brother.
Life dwindled from his gaze, and his head sank heavily into the ground. The pocket of his jacket sparked to life, and Effie appeared in a fluster of shrieks and mint-green magic. She took one look at me—one piercing look filled with heated betrayal—before positioning herself over Calem’s wound.
The Council murmured, but none of it mattered.
All I could see were Calem and Effie. She wailed, clacking her beak to the heavens and spilling tears across his chest. Trying to save her