Chapter 61

Holy gods.

There were seven beasts, as black as if they'd been belched from the depths of the Pit.

No, eight, as another twisted monster leapt through the shattered window, dragging in a swirl of black ash that infested the walls, the spreading black tendrils rotting paintings and silk draperies.

The only reason we were still breathing was Anaria's shield locking out most of the blight, but as she and the wyvern disappeared, I gave that another minute before her magic failed.

I was nothing but a fucking liability, weaving precariously on my feet, trying to keep my godsdamned balance with these wings.

To my right, Bex screamed again, then the mage was gone in a flash of light, a field mouse darting between the clawed, stomping feet and disappearing into the darkened hall, one of the creatures lunging after him, claws tearing gouges from the wood floor.

"Fucking coward," Raz growled, surrounding us both with a shimmer of blue-black power. "We need to get Tavion out of that fucking rotten air before the bastard collapses."

The wolf, tangled with what had formerly been Lord Whitehall, was well outside Anaria's shield, black ash and blood coating his white fur, blighted veins already spreading over his back and head.

Four of the creatures circled us in perfect, synchronized steps as if they were accustomed to hunting in packs. "The Whitehall guards," Raz muttered as he crouched lower, a knife gripped in one hand as he surveyed the room, angling his body as the rest closed in around us. "Every single one of them, from the looks of things."

Because more and more monstrosities leapt into the library, turning our former refuge into a gauntlet of cruel, snapping jaws and lethal taloned feet. Ten, fifteen, twenty, and they still kept coming.

Raz sent out a frenetic burst of magic, shoring up Anaria's shield, but rot coated my tongue, stinging my skin as Raz's back pressed to mine, a move we'd done hundreds of times before, but with my wings, it turned into a death trap.

"We're not going to make it, Raz," I muttered, weaponless, magicless, barely able to keep my fucking balance. Every time I turned, I overcorrected. Twice I sideswiped Raz with a wing and nearly knocked him to the floor.

I was an incompetent fucking menace.

The absolute worst kind of ally in a fight like this.

But I could damn well become a blunt instrument—and these fuckers' worst nightmare.

"I'll make you an opening. Get to Tavion and fly him out of here. Take him to the palace and regroup with Tristan and Anaria." I straightened, every strained, aching muscle making me work for it.

"She needs you more than me." I took a deep breath. "You know I'm right. With your magic…you can help her fight, Raz."

"I'm not leaving you here," Raz said steadily, nothing but cold death on his face as he spun, snarling at the growing pack surrounding us. Too many to fight our way through, and the second this shield dissolved, they would crush us.

The castle shook beneath their weight as the creatures circled and snapped, Tavion pinned down by three of them, claws splintering the floor as he fought to throw them off. But they were too heavy.

The wolf's blood-flecked fur was nearly black now, tongue lolling from gaping jaws, eyes rolling wildly. His jaws snapped, his body strained, but he was pinned down by too many taloned paws.

My blood began to roar. No.

The library shook, the air outside our shrinking bubble choked with ash, stained by that creeping darkness as if these beasts had been spawned by Corvus himself.

The room was crammed with so many bodies they could hardly move, jostling for position until Raz and I were crushed by a solid wall of snapping jaws and narrowed eyes, every clawed swipe opening up a rent in the failing shield.

Blight flowed in, my eyes burning as I grasped my friend's arm.

"Listen to me, Raz. I don't matter. But Anaria needs you and Tavion." I gripped him tighter, willing him to listen for once. "Get her as far north as you can. Don't let her lose faith in herself. Help her to finish this, Raz. She's the only one who can."

"Stop. Talking." Raz lashed out with his knife, then drew back his hand, his forearm slashed to the bone. Then they were on us, a black wall of death. I was knocked backward, barely stopping a set of gnashing jaws, holding those teeth a scant inch from my throat.

Half the library was ablaze, the burning rug illuminated the stalking creatures' eyes, those curved fangs, and I half wondered if this was what the Pit was like.

The creature sank its talons into my shoulder, pinning down my wing until no matter how hard I twisted, I couldn't move. My knuckles turned to pulp as I pummeled my fist against the thick, blighted hide, fire scorching my side, my feathers, my face.

Beside me, Raz kicked and slashed, fighting like mad, but this was over.

Like the blight itself, we would be smothered beneath this tidal wave of black, and by the time these creatures moved on, there would be nothing left.

Blue light flashed overhead, barely visible between the churning bodies, and the room shook from a powerful surge of magic. The creature so determined to eat me retched then slumped over, legs twitching. I caught my breath, let my hands slip from its face, and watched the light fade from its dark eyes.

"Commander Vayle." Bexley's voice floated somewhere outside the chaos. "Zorander. Over here."

I struggled to my feet, was knocked off balance, but managed to peer across the room. Bex stood in the doorway, blue magic glowing at his fingertips holding several snarling creatures at bay. "Hold up your hand and catch."

I'd barely wrapped my head around what he'd said when he lobbed something through the air. Small and white, the object flew over the snapping mouths, through the swirling ash, past Raziel pinned down by one of the monsters gnawing on his bloodied forearm.

I lunged—too far—the thing almost bouncing out of my fingertips before I curled my hand around the warm, glowing stone and clutched it tight in my palm.

Power hit me like a lightning bolt, shaking the entire castle around us and cracking the library walls, books spilling down over the fighting beasts.

I couldn't see. Couldn't hear. Magic coated the inside of my mouth, rocketed through my veins, my spine, and flooded into my newborn wings the same time the vision slammed into me.

I stood on a cliff overlooking a city I hadn't seen in eons, our home world as lush and beautiful as it had been before the twins destroyed everything. I leapt off the cliff, my muscles lifting my wings up then out, snapping them tight to catch the updraft.

Like muscle memory I'd forgotten, my body mimicked the move, and my wings opened, sending razor-sharp feathers slicing through thick, black hide with unnerving accuracy.

"Raziel. Catch." Raz's blood-drenched hand shot up out of the pile of churning bodies, and the second the stone slammed into his palm, bodies blew through the air, carried on a storm of blue-black magic exploding from him as he staggered to his feet.

Our attackers slunk back, eyeing us warily as they sniffed their dead companions.

But this wasn't a win.

Over by the fireplace, Tavion was down, one of the monsters ripping at his shoulder, until Raz sent his death shadows hurtling like spears, pinning the thing to the wood-paneled wall.

Raz threw me a wild, feral grin.

The same one he'd given me a hundred times before on a hundred different battlefields.

We erupted at the same time, death and war, our final reckoning roaring through the room with deadly precision. Bex dove, hands folded behind his head as the wave sundered through flesh and bone, sending blood splashing up the ruined library walls, pooling on the floor, and suffocating the small fires.

Even the blight was blown away, eradicated, perhaps, by the sheer force of our magic.

Raz coated the room with a layer of magic, shoring up the gaping hole where the windows had been. The upside was I could breathe again. Unfortunately, he'd sealed in the foul scent of all these steaming carcasses.

But…I stared at the keystone cupped in my bloodied palm.

My entire life, I'd known something was missing. A hollowed-out, gaping emptiness that gnawed away at the deepest part of me.

I'd told myself it didn't matter. That I'd train harder, practice more, become the deadliest soldier in the Shadow King's army. But no matter how powerful I'd become, I'd never filled that hole.

When I closed my fingers around the stone, magic overflowed that formerly dark chasm, flooded my bones, my veins, filling me with cold, endless power. Raz crawled through the carnage, breath sawing in and out, a haze of frenetic power swirling around him as if he was struggling to wrestle back control.

The entire room warped and buckled beneath our combined power, the chilled air sharpened by the strong scent of ether like the library had been struck by lightning.

I took a deep, steadying breath, raised my wings experimentally, then ran my finger down one of the feathers, finding the razor-sharp quill at the center surrounded by soft down. These weren't just for flying…they were fucking weapons.

"Godsdamn it, wolf, shift back so I can heal you." Raz sent a blazing shaft of light over Tavion's matted, black fur. The wolf was tethered to the library floor by thick veins of rot spreading outward and up the wall behind him.

Tavion wasn't moving, his pale eyes half open and staring, mouth gaping while Raz worked on him. I went to my knees, watching Raz's magic slide right off the blight, leaving the rot unaffected.

"He's as corrupted as Anaria's legs were. Your magic won't help him, Raz. He needs witch magic. Bexley, get in here and fix Tavion. He's in bad fucking shape."

The mage picked his way delicately around body parts and sticky pools of blood, a look of distaste on his face. "Must you two always be so brutal?"

"You're the one who tossed me this." I brandished the keystone before stowing it in my pocket, where it burned against my palm. "So this is your fault, really. Next time, we'll ask them nicely to leave."

"Barbarians," he muttered on the way past, hoisting his robe up above his knees to avoid the carnage.

One of the half-dead beasts snapped at Bexley's ankles on his way past, sending the mage dancing away. I had my boot on its throat in an instant, and the second those eyes locked with mine, I recoiled. There was sentience in that malevolent gaze.

The beast's mouth opened, hissing, "The Oracle sends her regards."

I froze, wondering if I'd imagined the words, but then the thing laughed, a wheezing hiss that I cut off by plunging the tip of my wing through its chest into the floor below. Bex gagged when I yanked the feathers out, splattering blood everywhere.

This wasn't some random attack caused by the blight or the wall coming down.

This was a trap, orchestrated by the Oracle to separate us.

Raz and I traded a look. Slow us down.

"Bexley. Hit Tavion with everything you have. Once the blight is gone, Raz will treat his wounds." I was so full of magic I panted, sucking in mouthfuls of air like I was drowning.

But this raw power filling me…this was how we'd beat Corvus.

Ancient and consuming, serene and chaotic, this was the key to everything. My flesh knew the truth as my hand gripped the stone and another vision swept me away.

I soared over the city we'd built for Amalla, letting the warm air buoy me, my wings stretched to their limit. Magic lifted me even higher on a warm, buoyant current that sang through my veins like the sun's rays, my power flaring as the cool mist of the clouds wrapped around me.

This was where I belonged. In the air.

But down below my queen waited. I spiraled down out of the coolness of the clouds, down through the warm updrafts, until my boots hit the white stone of our home, the quartz blindingly bright in the sun. I took a deep breath and every muscle relaxed, that sense of calm seeping into my bones.

Amber and jasmine.

I was home.

Wherever Amalla was would always be home.

I formed my grip around the keystone and flared my wings wide, feeling the tensile strength contained in every feather, every steel-hard bone. One experimental flap lifted me off the ground, another had me hovering midair, every movement as natural as if I'd been flying my entire life.

My newly tested muscles strained, but magic surged through me, making up for what I lacked in strength.

Raz's mouth fell open before he went back to working on Tavion.

I was staring out through the black night, to the east. "Once the wolf is healed, we head to the Wynter Palace."