Chapter Thirty-Two WITCHING MOON

Chapter Thirty-Two

WITCHING MOON

Week Three, Day One

Year 3000

They'd fought their way to the inner courtyard and the final rank of terrified guards when everything went wrong.

One moment, Zanya was dancing through the battle with Elevia and Malindra, the three of them forming a wedge to eviscerate everything in their path. In the next, Zanya stood alone as Elevia stumbled and crashed into a disoriented Malindra.

Both went down. A few paces behind them, a group of ravens abruptly converged into Ambrial, who tumbled out of the sky and hit the stone on her back.

A howl of rage twisted into a human scream of denial as Ulric's wolf form collapsed in on him. He hit the ground, too, next to Aleksi, who had simply stopped.

"It's gone," Aleksi whispered as his knees buckled. Zanya lunged to catch him—and barely brought her sword up in time to block the blow that an opportunistic soldier aimed at the Lover's unguarded throat.

"What's gone?" Zanya let Aleksi slump to the ground so she could dispatch the next attacker. A full circuit showed her the rest of the Raven Guard in various states of shock, some flat on their backs and some struggling to their knees.

"All the love. All of it. " Aleksi curled over his knees, burying his face in his hands, as if the pain was so crushing he couldn't breathe.

"Our powers," Elevia ground out as she regained her feet. She picked up her sword and swung around, effortlessly beheading someone who'd charged at a recovering Kardox. "Our connection to the Dream. Something has severed it."

Horror flooded Zanya as she gazed across the battlefield. Their trail of destruction was obvious, the number of guards left willing and able to fight down to a scant handful. The stranger in white fur keeping Naia and the Kraken penned in had been the only enemy of note left—and even she was on her knees, clutching at her head as the ice immobilizing the ship fractured.

The Betrayer wouldn't have deployed this weapon now unless something worse was coming.

Instinct pulled her gaze to the castle gates, and worse appeared. There were two of them, a tall, handsome man and a blonde woman, both dressed in battle-blooded leather armor. They moved with the easy assurance of trained predators—and the hot anticipation of people who didn't just savor victory, but the kill itself.

And they pulsed with power.

"Go, Zanya." Elevia dragged Ulric to his feet. "The top of the tower, that's where Sorin will be. He'll want to watch us be cut down."

"And he'll have Sachi with him," Ulric growled. "So she has to witness what happens to Ash."

The reminder pulled Zanya's attention to the darkening clouds above. She could only see flashes of scales as the three dragons dove through smoke and mist, exploding out of terrifying cloud banks to spit fire and lightning and rake each other with talons longer than her entire hand.

Ash, stay alive. Stay alive, please.

Elevia gripped her arm and shook her. "Climb, Zanya. You have to end this."

"I can't leave you! You're practically helpless!"

Elevia arched an imperious eyebrow. "Darling, I was deadly before I ever became a god, and that was thousands of years ago. I'm not about to learn what defeat tastes like now."

Zanya wavered, torn between conflicting duties. It would have been so easy before, bolting away and leaving them to near certain death if it meant saving Sachi. Frustrated tears stung her eyes. Why had she made herself so vulnerable and weak? Why had she split her purpose?

In the next heartbeat, Zanya rejected the notion. This terrible ache in her chest was the price she'd paid for opening herself to loving more than a single person. But the rewards had been beyond anything she could have imagined.

Elevia's and Ulric's friendship hadn't made her weaker. It had made her deadly, too.

She gripped the other woman's shoulder in return, trying to say with her eyes what she knew she could never put into words. Instead, she echoed the silent command she'd given Ash. "Stay alive."

Elevia nodded, her eyes shining. "Or die with glory."

Zanya spared her friends one last look. They were all on their feet again except Aleksi. Naia stood with him, her arms wrapped tight around him as she whispered something in his ear. The Kraken hovered over them both, his bloodied trident lashing out in defense.

They were strong. They were smart. They had thousands of years of experience. They would survive.

Zanya chanted the entire litany to herself over and over as she made it to the base of the tower and pulled two daggers. Slamming one into the rock, she hauled herself up high enough to smash a second handhold into place.

One furious thrust at a time, hand over hand, Zanya climbed.