Chapter 30

30

T he sound of Mike’s yell colored the air around us, loud enough to cut through the roaring wind. His shield disappeared and left us vulnerable.

In an instant, I reached for Livvy, to grab the weapon from her hands. It split apart and formed two pieces, the weight of it natural in my hand.

I didn’t think. I couldn’t.

Not with Laina bleeding out on the stone.

The guardians closed in around us and I swung the sword of light, taking out the arms of the one closest to her.

I swore I heard a scream as I charged.

The shadows threw themselves at me but I refused to slow down, calling to Noren as I moved. He was motion itself. The shadows seemed to bounce off of him.

Something about the Unseelie direwolf made it impossible for the guardians to wound him. They may have gouged out chunks of hair but none of their attacks penetrated his skin.

A part of the land itself, Laina had said once, culled from its magic. His strength was mine now.

With him at my side, the two of us deflected the attacks. He was my army, cutting through the shadows.

My lips pried back at the shock on Mike’s face when I brought Livvy's weapon down on the nearest guardian and it burst into pieces. I drew it on a second guardian and yelled as it ducked aside to avoid the swing of the blade.

The guardian used its weapon to try and knock the weapon out of my hand but Noren pounced on it and drove it into the stone beneath us with a roar.

My strength flagged. There and gone in an instant. My head lightened under a pulse of dizziness and I was going down. Noren wasn’t fast enough to catch me but a blast of air magic somehow managed to knock me into the wall and away from the attacking shadow guardian.

An agonized cry rattled through the ruins and I glanced over to see Mike curling his body over Laina. He’d left the sword in her shoulder, blood pouring from the savage wound.

Alarm paralyzed me.

If someone with the queen’s power could be easily taken down, then there was no hope for the rest of us.

The shadows swarmed in the unnatural wind, dark lances of power nipping at my skin and pulling my hair.

Noren leapt on one of the guardians and sent it crashing away. Before it had a chance to recover, he bit down around one of its insubstantial limbs, and the shadows evaporated again.

Bronwen and Livvy sent spears of their magic in a circle around me, around Onyx, around Mike and Laina, the points slamming down through several of the guardians and pinning them in place until Noren could move.

The wind lessened but didn’t die down.

I glanced over to Mike and he met my gaze with an arched brow that required no explanation. We needed to end this quickly.

The guardians were relentless. Several of them wrenched free of the spears of magic and hurled themselves at us. I went to move and my numb fingers dropped the weapon, the light guttering as darkness, like sharp teeth, bit down on anything they reached.

My head spun around and the vertigo bent me in half.

Of call the times for this shitty virus to take me down?—

My magic was there—I thought it was there—but I couldn’t access it. Like a blockade had formed around me to keep me from the very thing I needed to get us out of this.

Noren, luckily, still had every bit of his magic. And these fuckers couldn’t touch him. He towered over me and growled.

I dropped to my knees with my arms over my head and gritted my teeth, summoning whatever strength I had left to form the shield a second time.

I had no way of knowing what would have happened if Mike hadn’t erupted when he did. His magic, negligible during our classes, never showing beyond the trickle he used to get by, exploded out of him.

His head fell back on his shoulders and his chest swelled, a green aura pulsing out of him.

The cavernous ruins filled with the green glow of spring growth, of old forests, and the first buds of the year. The quality of the air changed and grew sweeter, like a breeze blowing away stale air.

I stood straighter. Noren quieted, shuddering, before he dropped down to all fours.

I pried my eyes open as the guardians evaporated one after the other. The last one held on longer than the others, howling in agony before the glow split it into two pieces and Noren slammed his massive paw down on it.

The roaring silence disappeared and left my head empty and aching.

For a long moment, no one moved, and the ruins were simply that. Empty, waiting. Nothing but stone.

The spell was broken by the dying glow and Mike’s harsh breathing. “ Mom . Talk to me.”

“Is she okay?” At least that was what I wanted to say. Nothing came out. My lips moved but the words were impossibly far away.

Pressing my palm to my temple did nothing to dull the ache. I watched through a narrow tunnel of vision, blackness creeping in around the edges that had nothing to do with the shadow guardians.

Mike shifted onto his rear and dragged his mother up from the ground into his arms.

Her head lolled to the side, with her face already pale and her mouth slightly open.

Her eyes fluttered open. “Michael.” She tried to lift her arm to touch his face and failed.

“We need to get her help immediately.” Livvy straightened, her expression clinical as she stared down at the wounded queen.

In the next beat she was on the ground as well with her fingertips probing the wound. She hissed when the point of the sword touched her skin.

“We should take the sword out,” Bronwen said. She wrung her hands.

Livvy shook her head. “It’s the only thing keeping the bleeding to a minimum right now. None of us are strong enough to cauterize the wounds if we pull it out, and I’m willing to bet something in the shadow guardians’ magic will prevent us from doing so anyway. Those weapons are meant to kill.”

Bronwen limped closer and the motion drew attention to her own wounds. The dark pain in my calf throbbed in response.

“In her dire condition, she needs to be taken to a fae hospital immediately,” Livvy added.

Laina tried to speak and coughed up blood. “No fae hospitals,” she warned. “They won’t know how to care for this. They’ll report us to Cosmo.”

Mike curled around his mom without touching her. “I know where to take her but it’s far.” He let out a harsh laugh. “Of course it’s too far.”

“You have to go with your mother, to get her to safety. We can’t leave her here and we’re wasting time debating it,” I told Mike. “Bronwen can fly ahead and find help, bring them here. The minutes count. She’s connected to this place now, right?”

Onyx shrugged, unsure what to say.

Bronwen pursed her lips. “Shifting might be able to help heal my own wounds. It’s only a small nick.”

I shot her an appreciative look. When the chips were down, she was always willing to step up to the plate to help. “Come back for us when you can. I’m sorry to ask it of you—” I began.

“Stop.” Bronwen swiped her hand through the air. “We’re all doing what we have to do. We all have a part to play. I’m proud to do mine. For the pack.”

Her gaze encompassed everyone, from Onyx to Livvy and Noren, to Mike and Laina. The swell of pride surprised me deeply. For the pack .

Before I could say anything, before the tears pooling in my eyes sprang free, Bronwen screwed her eyes shut and shifted. Magic pulsed and in place of her body stood a crow.

Beady black eyes met mine and she squawked before taking off through the break between stones.

“I hate this,” Mike admitted. He tried to help Laina up and she screamed, stopping all movement. “I hate that we’re splitting up again.”

His voice splintered.

It was necessary. Parting ways was the only logical step to take but we were on the same page. Hating every situation that pushed us apart rather than drew us together.

I held his gaze for a beat longer before I bobbed my head. “You’ll be okay?”

“I have no choice.” He tried to muster up a grin and failed miserably. “Go on. Hurry back to me.”

I made no promises but my heart stayed behind with the two of them even as Livvy tugged at my elbow to get me to move. Mike and Laina remained behind while I, Livvy, Onyx, and Noren headed deeper into the temple.

I swallowed hard, my throat dry. Why did it always have to happen this way? I limped along until Noren moved forward to help steady me.

Why did someone always get hurt?

The ruins were deceptive. From the outside, they resembled a henge-type ring with an empty space in the center and no roof. But the further we hiked into the gloom between towering stones, the more the walls constricted and a ceiling formed out of the play of dark on light.

It had woven from nothing into substance before I realized anything changed.

An opening in the floor way up ahead led to a staircase winding deeper into the heart of the temple, whatever was hidden on floors below this one.

I tensed, waiting for another round of shadow guardians to come at us. When nothing happened, I touched my toes to the first stair riser.

“Waiting for the booby traps, Indiana Jones?” Onyx teased breathlessly.

“You never know. You said people don’t want to access the Abyss, but it seems to me like someone has gone through an awful lot of trouble to protect the entrance. So who knows. Maybe there are more people trying to get in than we assumed.”

But nothing happened on the first step, or the second or the third.

In a lot of ways, descending through the temple reminded me of the Trials, my mind drawn back to them again and again. Except here, there weren’t all-seeing orbs and a panel of judges to dog our steps.

Distracted, I tripped on the last stair and stumbled forward. My heart lurched into my throat.

My hand slapped against the wall to stop myself, Livvy and Onyx yelling behind me. A panel slid backward and the floor heaved, stone grinding against stone.

The staircase slid back into the wall and disappeared with a dusty sigh.

Noren made the leap down but Onyx wasn’t nearly as fast. He dropped, catching himself on his forearms before his skull hit stone, and he winced in pain. Livvy tried to help him up but he waved her off.

“I’m okay,” he insisted with a groan. “It took me by surprise.”

His muscles trembled, dark veins standing out to attention as he pushed himself to his feet.

Weary to my own bones, I stood apart and watched him gather himself. The stairs had melded seamlessly into the stone and left us with a view of the open temple above but no way to reach it. Especially not with our powers down to the dregs, and whatever issue I had keeping me weak.

Besides, did we want to retreat? We’d come this far.

“I suppose this proves that there is only one way forward.” Livvy pointed ahead toward the winding tunnel. Her voice remained deceptively tranquil.

No escape.

Onyx shouldn't even be here. He should be in a hospital, comfortable in a bed while he received the kind of treatment necessary to manage his pain. Except we both knew there was no end to his ordeal.

I’d broken something inside of him. It was a miracle he’d made it this far. And I couldn’t leave him behind because he was the only one who knew where we needed to go.