26. Thyros
The vision shattered.
I slammed back into my body with a sharp intake of breath, my hand still pressed against the Shard of Echoes globe.
For a disorienting moment, I stood frozen.
Around me, the others reeled beneath the weight of ancient memory.
Ella was openly crying, tears streaming down her face as she clung to Zapharos.
Nadine stared at Dravok with stunned disbelief, as though every law of science she had ever believed had just rewritten itself.
Naeris swayed beside me, her eyes luminous and distant, overwhelmed by the emotions still coursing through her.
And I?—
I felt strangely empty.
The story I had witnessed was magnificent. Tragic. Vast beyond comprehension. But it wasn't mine.
I had seen Earth Prime fall. I had watched Zapharos hold back the first Mmuhr’Rhong, Valelion weave the Celestial Portal, and Dravok vanish into the shadows to hunt the Arkhevari out for revenge.
Yet all of it had happened long before I existed.
Before the Abyss had shaped me. Before I had drawn my first breath in the darkness. I was not one of them.
The old doubt slithered through me with poisonous familiarity. What was I, then? A substitute. A fragment. A lesser echo of the male Naeris had once loved. The thought struck with brutal force.
Through our bond, I felt the lingering enormity of what she had seen. The love between Ashera and Caelor had burned brighter than stars. What if that was what she truly needed? What if I was only the shadow of something greater?
My jaw tightened.
And yet Zapharos and Dravok had lived for millions of years without their Aelyth. They had endured. They had waited. Which raised a thousand new questions. Questions I did not have time to ask because, right then, the palace shook from an impact so strong, it made the walls and floor vibrate.
Crystal exploded inward. A wall of black shadow burst through the far side of the chamber.
Mmuhr’Rhongs.
They poured into the room in a writhing torrent of claws, teeth, and hunger. Every instinct within me snapped into place. I stepped in front of Naeris without conscious thought, my sword materializing in my hand in a blaze of silver light. “Get behind me.”
She did not obey. Of course she did not.
The first creature lunged, and I met it head-on.
My blade carved through its chest, and the shadow creature dissolved in a burst of black vapor.
Another came from the left. Naeris’ knife flashed, striking with impossible speed.
The creature shrieked as her blade pierced the glowing core hidden within its mass.
“Left!” she shouted.
I pivoted and severed the next attacker before it could reach her.
All around us, the chamber erupted into war.
Zapharos became the Praetor of War once again.
Golden fire exploded from his body as he cleaved through shadow after shadow, Ella at his side with light streaming from her outstretched hands, even though I had no idea when and how that happened.
Wherever her power touched, the darkness recoiled.
Dravok fought with cold, lethal precision. Nadine moved beside him as though they shared one mind, calling out patterns and weak points with rapid scientific accuracy.
“Energy concentration at the thoracic nexus,” she snapped.
Dravok struck exactly where she indicated.
More Arkhevari warriors poured into the palace from adjoining halls, their armor blazing as they formed a defensive line around us.
For one glorious moment, it seemed they might hold.
Then the sky outside darkened. Through the shattered crystal walls, I saw what waited beyond. Thousands.
No.
Tens of thousands.
The Mmuhr’Rhong descended in an endless tide. Arkhevari warriors streaked across the heavens like shooting stars, but for every shadow they destroyed, a dozen more surged forward. I felt the moment Zapharos understood. Even he could not win this battle.
Not today.
The Praetor of War drove his sword through a towering Mmuhr’Rhong and turned toward us, his voice amplified by command and ancient power. “Retreat!”
Another section of the palace collapsed. The floor trembled beneath our feet.
“Now!” Zapharos roared. “Back to the ship. I have the globe.”
No one argued. Zapharos swept Ella into his arms. Dravok caught Nadine around the waist. I turned to Naeris. She was flushed, breathing hard, her eyes bright with battle and revelation. The most extraordinary female in the universe. My Aelyth.
I wrapped an arm around her and drew her tightly against me. “Hold on.”
Her arms flew around my neck. “Always.”
Just as before, the word hit me harder than any weapon. Then I launched us upward as the palace around us began to fall.
The world blurred into streaks of gold and shadow. Behind us, Zapharos’ palace shattered beneath the assault of the Mmuhr’Rhong. Crystal towers collapsed into the void while Arkhevari warriors fought desperately among the ruins, their light blazing against the endless darkness.
I propelled us through the air with a thought. In Nox Eternum, our powers were far greater than in Auris Prime; movement obeyed will more than gravity. The stronger the Arkhevari, the more instinctive it became. I tore across the battlefield like a comet, with Naeris clutched tightly against me.
More shadows surged toward us, sensing the Shard of Echoes. I could feel their hunger for it. One of the Mmuhr’Rhong lunged from the darkness, all claws and shrieking hunger. I twisted sharply. The creature missed us by inches.
Naeris immediately threw a blade. Even while flying through the Abyss in my arms, her aim was deadly. The knife embedded itself in the creature’s glowing core. The Mmuhr’Rhong exploded into black ash.
A fierce grin spread across her face. “I'm getting very good at this.”
A startled chuckle escaped me. By the stars, I adored her.
Another explosion rippled behind us, killing any humor.
I glanced back and saw dozens of Arkhevari warriors forming a blazing shield wall to cover our retreat.
Their light illuminated the Abyss in pulses of gold and silver.
Still the shadows kept coming. Too many. Far too many.
Making me realize that we were losing. Not merely this battle. The war itself. Every century the Mmuhr’Rhong multiplied while the Arkhevari dwindled. Soon there would be no one left to hold the line.
The realization struck like a blade to the chest. Naeris must have felt it through the bond, because her hand slid against my jaw, forcing me to look at her.
“We’re not done yet,” she reminded me fiercely.
Her conviction shook me. She looked at me like victory was inevitable.
Hope.
That was what she carried into every room.
Into every battle.
Into me.
A violent roar ripped through the Abyss. Ahead, the others streaked toward the docking platform of the Celestial Portal. Zapharos carried the wrapped Shard of Echoes beneath one arm while fighting with the other, his sword blazing in massive arcs that vaporized entire swarms of Mmuhr’Rhong.
Ella clung to him without fear. Radiant power streamed from her palms as she reinforced the Arkhevari defenses.
Dravok and Nadine still moved together with lethal precision, weaving through the battlefield like they shared one mind. Around them, Arkhevari warriors fell. One vanished beneath a tide of shadows. Another detonated in a burst of celestial fire, taking dozens of Mmuhr’Rhong with him.
The surviving warriors did not break formation.
They held. Even knowing they were dying.
Rage burned through me. Not the poisonous rage the Harrowed One whispered into my mind.
Something cleaner. Sharper. Protective. I would not let these sacrifices be meaningless.
The docking platform came into view. Our ship waited with its engines already blazing.
“Move!” Zapharos thundered.
The remaining Arkhevari formed a rear guard as we descended toward the platform.
The instant my boots touched solid ground, I shoved Naeris behind me and swung my blade into another charging shadow.
The creature burst apart. More landed immediately after it.
An endless flood. Naeris appeared at my side instead of staying behind me, where I put her.
Why I ever thought she’d stay there is beyond me.
Her dark curls whipped around her face as she drove a knife into one creature while kicking another directly off the platform into the Abyss below.
“You know,” she shouted over the chaos, “for a cosmic horror dimension, this place is surprisingly exciting.”
I stared at her. Then I barked out a disbelieving laugh. The female was completely insane. I loved her so fiercely it bordered on agony.
“Inside!” Dravok ordered.
The ship doors slid open. One by one, we fell back toward the entrance while the remaining Arkhevari covered us. Zapharos entered last. The instant his boots crossed the threshold, the doors slammed shut behind us.
Silence crashed over the cabin. Only the sound of our breathing remained.
Outside the viewport, the battle still raged across Nox Eternum.
Countless points of golden light struggled against an ocean of darkness.
Naeris stepped into my arms the second I lowered my sword.
I held her so tightly it was almost desperate.
She looked up at me, breathless and glowing from battle.
“We survived.”
Barely.
But I touched my forehead to hers anyway. “Yes,” I whispered. “We did.”
The ship tore away from the collapsing battlefield in a violent burst of acceleration. Everyone staggered. Warning sirens blared throughout the cabin as the hull groaned under the strain.
“Shields at forty-two percent,” Nadine reported automatically, though her voice sounded distant and shaken. “Port stabilizers damaged. Multiple energy breaches along the outer hull.”