Chapter 76 Devora
Devora
Words caught in my throat at the sight of Rose and Leo. “What—how—”
“Nox,” Rose said simply.
Her eyes scanned the darkness behind me, and she raised a chunk of herbs to her lips, whispering a string of spells.
A fierce wind tore through the field. The toxic smoke around us rippled then blew back, spiraling upward like a cyclone as Rose held her arms out wide.
With a thunderous boom, a second magical blast of wind cleared the smoke completely.
Gasps rang out among our numbers as we could finally see again. Motion flickered in the corner of my eye, and I whipped around to see one of the mutated snake Shifters grip Tessa by the throat. It reared back, ready to sink its elongated fangs into her neck.
With a faint shimmer of light, none other than Chaz appeared next to her. He drove his long sword into the Shifter, shoved the body aside, then whirled toward us with a quick wink.
“What’s even happening right now?” I mumbled in awe. “How did you know to come?”
“Nox sent Arowyn to us a couple days ago,” Rose explained. “Told us he was preparing for something big and to be ready.”
“It nearly took her out to stride that far again, but it gave us time to get things in order,” Leo added. “And not a moment too soon, it looks like.”
“Finally!” a tired voice said behind us. Arowyn threw her hands in the air. “Fates, it took you long enough. Hey, you. Strider.” She jerked her head toward Chaz. “I need your help.”
“Hello, there,” he said, a smirk stretching across his dark features. “I’m all yours.”
The two of them blinked out of existence. Around us, at least ten more creatures appeared with gnashing teeth. They snarled, their muscles grotesquely stretched and veins glowing.
“What are these things?” Rose asked, her face screwed in disgust.
“Scarven’s experiments. It was worse than we thought.” I quickly explained the fatesprig mutations, and how it made them all stronger and more bloodthirsty, completely beholden to Scarven.
As I spoke, the remaining snake Shifter with wings landed at Rose’s feet. Leo jumped into action. His tail flicked out to wrap around its front leg, yanking it forward. Leo gripped the hilt of his sword and swung it in an arc at the Shifter’s neck.
“Wait! Don’t kill it!” I rushed out. Leo faltered, his sword hanging in the air as the beast’s serpentine head reared back to strike. With fast reflexes, Rose put something to her lips and muttered a spell, and the snake froze in place.
“Don’t kill it?” Leo repeated, pointing at the poison dripping from the frozen snake’s fangs. “Seriously?”
“They’re still human. They didn’t choose this,” I insisted. “We’ve found a way to cure them—that’s what Arowyn’s working on. So, for now, just…just incapacitate them. But don’t kill, if you can help it.”
Leo let out a sigh. “This is the most high-maintenance rescue operation I’ve ever seen.”
“Devora, watch out!” Rose yelled.
I whipped around to see a ball of crackling light aimed straight at me. I didn’t even have time to raise my shadow shield.
But I didn’t have to.
A wall of shadows formed within inches of my face, so strong it knocked me to the ground.
It swallowed the lightning sphere whole, then molded to the shape of the ball, growing and shifting with power.
A second later, it reversed direction and sped back through the open air.
With a powerful clap of thunder, it collided with the mutant Lightbender across the field, sending him and two others flying back into the forest.
Thecae emerged from the pool of shadows at my feet.
My mouth fell open. He wore deep red fighting leathers and a belt full of weapons, his hands outstretched with shadows dancing between them.
Shock overwhelmed me. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing right now. Even Thecae had come?
He quirked an eyebrow. “What’ve you gotten yourself into, girl?” he asked in that hard, gruff voice. I hadn’t realized how much I missed my shadow trainer until now.
I jumped and threw my arms around his waist. His muscles tensed at first, then he awkwardly patted me on the back. “Think we can save this for later?”
I cursed and gathered my bearings. “Right. Fates, okay.” I looked out at the horde of glowing eyes, the dark magic hanging thickly in the air, and the menacing growls from the dozens of mutants still left standing in the field.
I gestured at them. “So basically, we just need to—”
“I think we got it,” Rose said with a smirk.
Tessa and Kieran leaped toward us in their animal forms, shifting midair and landing at my side in a crouch. Tessa rolled her neck along her shoulders as she pulled a shortsword from its sheath. With a nod at the others, Kieran fell in line and brandished his weapon.
My heart kicked as I took in the sight of them. All of them.
“Through flame and ash,” Kieran said, raising his sword. “Form ranks!”
And they attacked.
The battlefield exploded into motion. Thecae shadow melted straight into the ground, appearing behind enemy lines with blades of shadows in his hands.
He carved a path through the chaos faster than I could keep up.
He aimed for nonlethal points—the legs, the arms, the occasional swipe at their sides.
All around him, creatures fell, and Thecae erected barriers of shadow to keep them firmly stowed behind until Arowyn or Chaz could get to them.
Rose and Leo each took on two Shifter mutants, wielding both daggers and spells in tandem.
Rose cast a rapid-fire string of spells, and vines ripped from the ground to wrap around her opponents.
She blew a powder in their faces that made them yowl in pain.
Thin pricks of blood trickled down their skin from thorns embedded in the vines.
I had to admit, the Alchemist was a little vicious. I liked it.
Kieran, fully shifted once more, lowered his antlers and plowed through a trio of creatures. Tessa’s snarls accented the night as she launched herself into the air to take on a wolf Shifter.
In between the fighting, Arowyn and Chaz were striding every couple of minutes to pull the incapacitated Veridians to the Hollow.
I summoned my shadows, and they swelled around me with new strength. The battle was no longer collapsing around us. It was turning. Shifting. Changing in our favor.
We could do this. Together.
But a small flicker of panic crossed my mind as I took in the field. Where was Nox?
A roar echoed over the grounds, followed by a flash of brilliant light to my right. Sounds of another battle rang out, taking place around the side of the mansion. My breath quickened. What if he was—
“Go,” Rose said at my back. “We’ll be fine. Get your boy.”
I nodded and took off as another roar sounded. When I could see around the edge of the property, I stopped short. A figure, both human and bird-like, shot into the air, feathers igniting as flames encompassed her body.
Vera blazed a trail across the sky, letting out a low, beautiful song as she dove back down.
Nox and Everett stood beneath her, weapons raised high. At first, I thought Vera was targeting them. I put on a burst of speed, ready to throw out a shadow shield.
But when she landed, she spread her glorious, golden-fire wings wide, blocking Nox and Everett behind her as a raging lion burst through the air.
She pulled her two long swords free, one encased in lightning and one in shadows. She was protecting Nox.
Did that mean he’d saved her? That the blood bead from Rose worked?
Scarven, in his lion form, swiped a paw at Vera’s face.
She dodged, and they began to weave around each other, him with his claws and her with her swords.
While he aimed to kill, I could tell she was merely defending herself, never taking an opening to do damage even though I knew how talented of a fighter she was.
Nox must have told her. Guilt swam to the surface. She was holding back for my sake. Because they didn’t want me to get hurt.
How were we ever supposed to stop him if we had to walk on eggshells for me? They couldn’t even get a hit in. Scarven had gotten exactly what he wanted, again. To be untouchable. Invincible.
We were never going to win with both hands tied behind our backs.
Scarven’s snarl of frustration brought me back to the moment. His anger made him sloppy, and when he swung his paw at Vera’s stomach, she lifted her light sword to block it.
A sting shot through my right hand. I looked down to see the singed edge of my thumb, with a thin trail of smoke rising from the wound.
We knew this bond, this curse, worked one way. If he was hurt, I was hurt. But what we didn’t know for sure was if…
I clamped my lips together and dug my other thumb into the burn, grunting against the stab of pain.
Several yards up ahead, the lion stumbled backward, holding his right paw to his chest—the exact same spot as my wound.
It worked.
My thoughts raced. Whatever happened to me also happened to him. My pain could be a weapon. A way to gain the advantage.
But before I could dwell any more on that, the lion shook out his mane with a growl, and then he began to change.
It was slow at first, and I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. But he was definitely getting bigger. In the same way Tessa could alter her size in her jaguar form, Scarven was making himself larger.
Within seconds, he towered over Vera. A single leg was twice the length of her entire body.
His shadow engulfed Nox, Everett, and Vera, dimming the light of her wings as his tail brushed the branches of the nearby tree line.
Fates, his paw alone could flatten a wagon, with claws as long and gleaming as a blade.
To her credit, Vera was unfazed. With a powerful flap of her wings, she rose in the air to meet him at eye level, swords crossing defensively in front of her face.
He caught the side of her leg with a paw, making her cry out and fly backward a few feet.
Rearing up on his hind legs, he batted at her with both paws, one after another in quick succession.
I jumped forward to try and send a shadow shield up right as four claws embedded themselves in her phoenix wing, shredding it to ribbons.
Her piercing wail was the most mournful song I’d ever heard.
The other wing flapped furiously, trying to compensate for its sagging counterpart. Vera barely kept control as she shot to the ground and rolled, then banished her wings. Everett sprinted to her and fell to his knees at her side.
Everything after that seemed to happen in slow motion.
Scarven raised his monstrous paw above Vera and Everett, its shadow swallowing their still forms. Right as he brought it down to crush them, Nox appeared in its path.
“Nox!” I cried, thrusting a solid wall of shadows at them.
Out of nowhere, a large jaguar leaped into action and planted its front paws on Nox’s chest, shoving him out of the way.
Tessa and Nox rolled on the ground as my shadows slammed into Scarven’s paw, shifting it just enough to crash into the ground right above Vera’s head.
Rocks went flying, the forest floor trembling with the force.
Tessa shifted into her largest jaguar form, which still barely reached Scarven’s chest. But she was faster than him. She reared up and swatted at his neck, drawing his attention away from the others. When he lunged for her, her claws caught him in the upper chest, and he let out another roar.
I gasped and staggered back at the sting.
Blood seeped from beneath my leathers. The fabric clung to my chest, digging into the claw marks that now marred my skin.
Nox finally saw me. His head snapped at the sound of my cry, and his eyes widened. “Don’t hurt him, Tessa!” he called out.
Tessa’s feline eyes found mine, and that was all it took.
Scarven pounced. His blade-like teeth wrapped around Tessa’s outstretched limb…
And ripped it clean off.
Devastation tore through my body, punching the breath right out of me.
I would never forget the sound that came from Tessa’s mouth.
It wasn’t a roar, but not quite a scream—it was a ragged, guttural bellow, the kind only spawned by gut-wrenching, unexpected pain.
Tessa’s jaguar form buckled and crashed to the ground, her wail morphing into a human’s cry as she was forced to shift back.
Blood flowed from the gaping hole in her arm, the wound too deep for even her Shifter abilities to heal her. She hunched over her knees in a ball as she trembled on the ground.
I had to get to her. Someone had to help her.
I raced across the grounds separating us, dodging Scarven’s larger-than-life paws and keeping my sights set on Tessa’s face, which was becoming scarily ashen from blood loss.
I was almost to her when the massive, bronze legs surrounding us disappeared.
Scarven landed at my feet in his human form. Before I could blink, his hand whipped out and closed around my throat.
He cocked his head with a smirk. “Hello, love.”
His voice sent a chill through me, echoes of moments at his side whipping through my mind. I swallowed them down and met his gaze.
“We both know you won’t hurt me,” I said, feigning bravado. “Anything that happens to me, happens to you.”
“That’s true. But I’m no stranger to pain.” He squeezed harder, enough to make the muscles in my neck clench under the pressure. I watched the column of his throat as he swallowed hard, his nostrils flaring with the same sensation.
“Why are you—doing this?” I gasped, struggling to breathe.
He loosened his hold and leaned in closer, that stench of sweet, slightly soured wine bringing back all the horrible memories I tried to bury. My arms trembled, and my lungs constricted. I hated the way even the sound of his voice invoked such panic.
“Because I tire of this insolence,” he rumbled. He swiped his nose along my jawline and into my hair, inhaling deeply. A familiar low snarl reached my ears from somewhere behind him.
“And because I know how to make it end.” His words were rushed now, heating my skin as his rough lips scraped me. “He’s always been so predictable, your dragon. You just have to know what nerves to strike. Three, two, one…”
Before I could register his words, Nox appeared directly behind Scarven, his eyes wild with possessive rage.
It happened faster than I could draw breath.
Scarven yanked my dagger from my thigh sheath, whirled in place, and plunged it into Nox’s stomach.