Chapter Thirty-Nine
From this height, the darkness crawling through the treetops is unmistakable—Nala’s plan is working. The Siphon is taking the bait.
“Go low,” I tell Versivius, and he obeys instantly, wings shifting as he drops in altitude. Ryder stands balanced on his horns, the beaker of obsidian glue clutched in his fingers, steady as stone. Skyphorah and Versivius have regained their strength since I funnelled some of my energy into them.
“Are you sure about this?” I ask, searching his face for even a flicker of fear.
There’s none.
Just pure determination.
“Yes,” he says firmly. “We need to stick to the plan. I’ll keep him away.”
Below us, the sludge creature finishes forming.
It rises from the earth in a violent surge, shadow congealing into mass, shape snapping into something hungry. Behind it, an army pours forward—writhing darkness flanked by enthralled soldiers, their bodies twisted into obedience, eyes hollow, movements unnaturally precise.
It lunges toward us with far more speed than I anticipated, drawn toward Ryder like a predator scenting blood—the missing piece pulsing in his grip.
“Be careful.” I meet Ryder’s eyes with discernment. “Please don’t die.”
He smirks, lifting an eyebrow. “And never see that pretty face again? Not a chance. Now go.”
I jump.
The wind whips past me as I tuck into a roll, hitting the ground hard but clean. Versivius spirals back into the air, looping away from the warehouse where the Siphon had everyone entranced. As he climbs, his form shimmers—
—and vanishes.
Invisible, he streaks across the clearing with Ryder still on his back, drawing the monster after him and away from me, away from the others.
And for a heartbeat, all I can do is run.
Then the ground begins to shake.
Ziek’s villagers fall into formation beside me, carried swiftly by the elions and Skypharoh.
The elions thunder across the soil, their massive limbs sinking deep before ripping free again, tearing whole trees from their roots as if they were nothing more than reeds.
They carve a path through the forest—raw, brutal, and efficient—clearing the way for the rest of us to advance.
The mindless students, teachers, and townspeople charge at us, moving with the same unnatural speed as the Siphon itself. Whatever fragment of its power it granted them has hardened their bodies, lending them its speed and its frightening durability.
We hold our formation, even though we’re vastly outnumbered—because breaking now would mean letting the darkness consume everything.
Craize runs beside me, his wing tilted just enough for me to scale his back. I haul myself up, gripping the thick fur at his shoulders, my power humming beneath my skin, ready to ignite.
“Remember—don’t kill them!” I shout, though the wind tears the words apart the moment they leave my mouth. Still, I hope he hears.
As we close in, the entranced opponents unleash their Gifts, flinging bursts of shadow and jagged beams of light toward us in a wild, mindless frenzy.
I raise the tenari shield in one hand just as a sphere of shadow hurtles toward my chest. The impact reverberates through the shield, but it doesn’t break. It never breaks.
The tenari hide absorbs the hit like it was made for this—like it was born immune to their Gifts. The captured light whips back at its caster, ricocheting in a sharp arc.
A few attackers are struck by their own powers, knocked off their feet and snapped momentarily out of their trance, blinking in dazed confusion.
Their minds flicker. Their humanity surfaces.
And for a breath, hope cracks through the chaos.
“It’s working.” I exhale as Craize dips low again and brace my fall into the ground below.
A girl I vaguely recognise from the academy breaks from the swarm and comes straight for me.
Not charging blindly
—but Hunting.
Her feet barely touch the ground as she moves, Gift flaring bright and unstable around her hands.
Shadow coils through the light like veins of ink, sharpening it, refining it.
The Siphon has done more than enthral her—it’s enhanced her.
Like she contains all the powers he has taken, a mixture of light and dark.
Just as the Siphon is a part of Nyxos, she is a part of them both.
And now it seems I am fighting one of my own. An engineered star. Once again.
“Asha!” she snarls, voice distorted, layered with something that isn’t her own. Shock shifts my features at the realisation that she can talk. “Hold still.”
A spear of compressed light tears toward my chest.
I throw the tenari shield up just in time. The impact detonates like thunder, hurling me backwards several steps. My arms scream with the force of it.
The shield holds—but barely—and the ground cracks beneath my boots.
She is way stronger than I thought, and it seems she does not tire. Does not hesitate.
And she’s already moving again.
I pivot as she blurs to my left, her Gift lashing out in whips of shadowed brilliance. One grazes my shoulder, burning cold and hot all at once. I grit my teeth and roll, coming up just as she drives a palm toward my face.
Too fast.
I catch her wrist instead, trying not to hurt her.
The moment our skin connects, power surges—violent and invasive. Her Gift claws at mine, trying to hook into it, to overwrite me the way the Siphon has overwritten her.
I snarl and twist, redirecting the blast into the shield.
Light slams into the tenari hide and rebounds, striking her full in the chest.
She gasps as she’s thrown backwards, skidding through dirt and broken roots. The trance wavers—but somehow it doesn’t break.
She screams as the black goo writhes violently at her ear, pulsing brighter, thickening, anchoring itself deeper.
“No,” she growls, forcing herself upright, eyes blazing. “It said I’m stronger this way.”
My stomach drops.
The Siphon is altering her mind, making her believe this is right.
“You can’t believe it. It’s lying. It wants to kill you.” I shout, but she shakes my words off as if they mean nothing.
“No. You’re wrong.” She says before hurling herself at me again, faster than before, Gift cracking like a storm breaking loose. The air warps around us. Trees splinter as stray blasts tear through them.
I barely block in time.
Each impact drives me back, my boots carving trenches in the soil. My arms shake. My lungs burn.
“Asha!” she screams again, voice fracturing. “Why are you fighting it? It fixes us!”
“I don’t want to be fixed!” I shout back, ducking under a scything arc of light. “And neither should you.”
She hesitates.
Just a fraction of a second, but it’s enough.
I slam my shield forward, not to strike—but to trap. The tenari hide drinks in her next blast, holding it, vibrating with contained force. I clench my fist, twist my wrist and watch as the stored energy snaps back into her.
She collapses to one knee, choking, the goo finally loosening—sliding free in thick, writhing tendrils.
I step forward cacooning the sludge with my newfound power and closing my hand.
It convulses violently, shrivelling, before sinking into the earth like it was never there.
She slumps.
“I—I…” She blinks hard, clutching her head. “What’s happening? Why does it hurt?”
I drop to my knees in front of her, gripping her shoulders. “You were controlled. It wasn’t you.”
Her breath shudders. “I thought… I thought I wanted it.”
“You didn’t,” I say gently. “You survived it.”
I push her to safety. “Go. Get back to the school. Don’t let them touch you again.”
She nods shakily and stumbles away.
I barely have time to breathe before something slams into my side.
An enthralled man barrels into me, his body warped by shadow, veins pulsing black beneath his skin. He swings with bone-breaking force. I duck under the blow, sweep his legs, and drive the shield down between us as he hits the ground.
He roars and unleashes his Gift point-blank.
The shield absorbs it and hurls it back into him in a violent surge.
His scream cuts off.
Then—
Silence.
His eyes snap open, wide and horrified. “Erm?” he whispers. “What happened—I couldn’t control— I was watching myself—”
“I know,” I say, hauling him to his feet as another blast screams past us. “You’re free now. Run.”
He hesitates only a second before obeying.
I straighten, chest heaving, shield raised again as the next wave surges toward me.
My arms ache. My power thrums.
Ziek snaps into place at my right, thick leather gloves already pulled tight over his hands. There’s no hesitation in him—no pause to ask permission. He reaches into his pocket, scoops out a pinch of crackling lightning dust, and blows it straight into Ciara’s face.
The spark lashes out like a living thing.
Ciara cries out as the charge hits her, her body jolting violently. The black goo erupts from her ear in a wet, writhing spatter, slamming into the dirt and hissing as it burns itself out.
She staggers, and I manage to catch her just before she falls.
“Ciara,” I say urgently, gripping her shoulders. “Listen to me. You have to heal the others.”
At first, she doesn’t seem to hear me.
Her gaze drifts over the campus turned battlefield—the fallen strewn across torn earth, the wounded crying out, the living still fighting for breath. Her brow furrows, confusion knitting deep as if she’s trying to remember how she fits into this world at all.
“I…” Her voice trembles. “I was—”
“Not anymore,” I cut in gently. “You’re here. You’re you.”
Something settles.
Her breathing steadies. Her eyes sharpen, focus snapping back into place like a blade sliding into its sheath.
She gives me a firm, unwavering nod.
Then the ground shudders.
Two enthralled burst from opposite sides, moving in perfect, predatory synchronisation. I don’t think—I react. I drive my palm toward the earth and release the new power coiled inside me.
Golden energy detonates outward in a tight, controlled ring.