Chapter 53 #2
She lay unconscious. She was crumpled on the ground, her hair matted, her wrists bound. Her skin was sickly, her lips parted as if she’d been trying to speak before her strength ran out.
Blake strode toward us, but as his fingers brushed the ropes, the entire cavern shuddered.
The air split with a shriek that curdled my blood. A hulking shadow scuttled from the depths of the cave into the flickering light of Auron’s flame.
It was a colossal Thirst demon, ten times the size of the others, mouth filled with needle-thin fangs, and its tentacles tipped with claws that scraped against the cavern floor with an ear-piercing screech.
It lunged.
I didn’t think.
With a snap of my wrists, my flaming thundervein ribbons unfurled in twin arcs of storm-laced metal and fire, the air crackling as they slashed toward the demon.
The first strike caught it across the face, snapping its head sideways with a whipcrack of raw force.
The second wrapped around its clawed wrist before it could reach Blake or Edith, the veins of storm energy searing against its decayed flesh.
With a feral snarl, Flame launched herself at the demon’s legs, her fangs sinking deep into its sinew. It howled, trying to shake her off, but she only twisted deeper, her claws anchoring her against its thrashing.
Don’t let it suck your blood! I cried. It’ll drain you.
“Blake!” I shouted, dodging as the demon’s claws swung for me. “You need to fix the Anchor—now!”
His gaze flicked between me and the failing diamond, his jaw tightening. “Kingsolver, help them!”
The war-scarred tyger let out a guttural roar and charged, his powerful body colliding with the demon’s chest. The force sent the creature staggering back, dislodging Flame for only a second before she twisted midair and sank her claws in again, using Kingsolver’s impact as a second assault.
“Now!” Blake shouted, sprinting for the Anchor.
Vidor followed, releasing the water whips where they’d tied up one of the arms of the Thirst beast. Calla bounded after them both, shifting back to human form as they got closer to the Anchor, while Auron’s fire continued to burst toward the demon, unwilling to stop fighting even as he stepped back toward the others.
I stayed in front of Edith.
The fight blurred, whips lashing, claws rending, the tygers moving in lethal tandem with me between them. I needed to buy Blake and the others time.
The demon screeched as my thundervein burned through it, its flesh sizzling where the ribbons struck. But it seemed different from the Thirst demons we had faced in the city attack. It was relentless, clawing and snapping, its body regenerating with unnatural speed.
Behind me, the cave pulsed with an entirely different kind of power, the united dominions all pressing their magic into the Anchor.
Blake’s magic surged into the Anchor with the force of ten thousand storms, buoyed by the others.
Even though healing the Anchor required every dominion’s magic, this was the Silver Anchor, which meant it drained his magic most. Metal shuddered, bent, melted at his will, sinking into the diamond’s core.
The cavern trembled, stones and dust falling as the cracks in the diamond were sealed perilously slowly.
I just had to keep the demon at bay long enough for Blake and the others to finish.
Easier said than done.
I twisted, dodging, my whips coiling around its writhing body, slicing piece by piece off as Flame and Kingsolver dragged it down, their combined strength slamming the beast onto the cavern floor. But it regenerated too quickly.
Behind me, magic poured from Blake in waves, the metal veins of the diamond drinking in his power as he reforged what was broken, his face drawn in fierce concentration. But I could feel it—he was burning through his strength too fast.
I held the line and pushed whatever I could through our Pairing back to him. We could do this.
Just a little longer.
The entire cavern exploded with a rainbow of red, azure, silver, and onyx light.
The combined magic of the dominions surged one last time, a tsunami of raw power sinking into the diamond’s core, forcing the fractured veins to fuse, the corrupted glow purged in a violent burst of molten silver and searing white.
The cracks sealed over like veins knitting back together.
It pulsed like a heart reborn, its light no longer sickly and erratic but pure and radiant, casting prismatic reflections along the jagged cavern walls.
Then Blake collapsed.
He crumpled to the ground, his body limp, breath ragged.
His skin looked damp and pale in the light, his usually sharp gaze unfocused before his eyes fluttered shut.
Kingsolver let out a low, fierce growl and ran to his rider, nudging him, but Blake didn’t stir.
He had given everything. Calla, Auron, and Vidor didn’t look much better, swaying on their feet as they circled Blake, trying to revive him.
But I had no time to reach him.
The Thirst demon let out an ear-piercing shriek of fury, sensing its doom. It lunged, faster than it had any right to move, claws sweeping toward me in a final, desperate attempt to take me down.
I snapped my wrists, and my thundervein ribbon whips coiled like living lightning, their storm-laced metal humming with energy.
I would not fail.
And I wasn’t alone.
Calla joined me, her bear form plunging claws of thundervein into its stomach. Auron stayed close to Blake, guarding him, but fire burst from his hands across the cavern toward the head of the Thirst demon. Vidor’s shadowsteel ice whips appeared and lashed out at the demon.
Sweat poured down my back, and I moved completely on instinct.
“Again, Rubi,” Auron shouted. “Its weak point is not the head, but the heart!”
I raised my arms with a fiery determination—one flaming ribbon whip wrapped around the demon’s neck while the other arched downward, slicing straight through its chest.
The impact sent a deafening boom through the cavern, thunder cracking. It let out one last, rasping wail before it finally died.
Calla nearly collapsed, shifting back to her human form, nodding at me in silent acknowledgment. The others started to pour in.
Malissa, blood-smeared but unbroken. Jace, his bow still drawn, Venom snarling underneath him.
Lian and the other firens, flames flickering in their hands, the Azures battle-worn but standing.
The other Onyx male. They all halted, their eyes locking onto me and the twin storm-laced whips still crackling with fire in my hands.
Malissa exhaled sharply as she spotted Blake and moved toward him, wiping her blade against her sleeve. Jace lowered his bow, looking at me with something like awe before the body of the giant dead demon withered to ash.
I rolled my shoulders, extinguishing the fire and letting the thundervein ribbons flick back into their coiled state, my breath coming hard and fast. “Blake—”
I didn’t get a chance to run toward him before a figure began to emerge from the ground.