Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
WOLFE
Deathless.
The word rattled through my mind laced with terror.
We needed to get back to Vyrenth Hollow as quickly as possible.
This was a mistake. All of it.
I should never have let Elariya come here. But how could I have known?
How could anyone have known?
For several millennia, the Deathless had been little more than whispers and half-forgotten warnings. Ghost stories. Myth.
No wonder I felt out of my depth. Because I was.
“Wolfe, how are we going to leave?” Elariya stuttered. “If you take me, it will—”
“It doesn’t matter. None of that matters. We need to get out of here.”
Elariya’s eyes widened with terror, but she wasn’t nearly as afraid as she should be.
I needed to think. Fast.
The fastest way back was to portal, but the moment I did, all hell would break loose. The sentinels would come. And I was sure one of the Deathless or their acolytes would, too.
They wouldn’t want me to take Elariya.
An idea formed. A bad one. People already thought I was a mindless Deathwalker on the loose. It was believable that I’d breach the mortal lands to get my wife.
I looked at Elariya. “No matter what happens, do not use your magic.”
“But—”
“Don’t.”
She nodded. “My sword.”
“It should follow you. Hold still.”
I jumped into action straightaway and changed into the Deathwalker.
Darkness became me and merciless shadows rippled from my body in every direction, hungry for death.
It was the first time since I’d been restored that I’d changed, and I could feel the difference.
My control over the curse was still there. So was my Fae essence.
But the danger of using this power remained. The more I used it, the more it took away.
That, however, was a problem for another day.
Already I could sense the sentinels coming. And something else.
Summoning a ball of shadow magic, I cast it around Elariya to form a protective barrier around her. No one was going to take her from me if I had to fight. As long as the shadow remained around her, she’d return to me.
I opened a portal. And that’s when the sentinels came.
A shriek split the sky.
Cloaked figures swept across the heavens, tearing through the clouds like black arrows.
Their tattered cloaks streamed behind them, unraveling into black wisps before knitting back together. Though their hoods concealed their faces, I could feel them searching.
Hunting. For me.
They had no wings, yet they flew, descending toward me like a murder of crows made from darkness.
Fuck. There were too many of them. I shouldn’t be surprised. They would have scented me and known they had to bring an army to take me down. And take my girl.
That wasn’t going to happen.
I was still Death.
Another shriek split the heavens. The sentinels were almost upon us.
“Wolfe!” Elariya cried, panic stealing the color from her cheeks.
I forced my shadow barrier closer around her, then I shoved her through the portal, sending her to the dragon caves at Vyrenth Hollow.
I couldn’t even spare a second to acknowledge the way she screamed my name as the portal swallowed her. The dragons would protect her with their lives if anything came after her. Alaric and the others would also sense her coming.
The moment the portal closed, I turned, facing the nearest sentinel as darkness exploded around me, turning day to night.
One sentinel unleashed a bolt of darkness. I blocked it as it slammed into me, then directed the energy right back at him with a dose of death. It struck him and hurled him from the sky.
But he was one of many. More came, their shrieks echoing in a frenzy of black cloaks and twisting smoke.
I drew deeper on the Deathwalker within me and unleashed my wings, soaring up to meet them.
Shadows surged around my body and the world trembled.
The sentinels struck.
And I struck back.
Within moments, the battle between us ensued. Blow for blow.
I was at my usual strength, but having so many of them attacking would easily wear me down. I needed to put distance between us.
I gathered more death magic from deep within and released it in a violent wave.
Trees bent and the ground trembled beneath the force of it. Half a dozen sentinels were hurled backward, their cloaks twisting through the air like broken wings.
That gave me the chance to open another portal. I flew through it. They followed just as I’d expected.
Portaling through the mortal lands always took longer because of the absence of the Void, but we sailed through the magical current nonetheless.
Moments later, we were back in Galaythia, where the sentinels’ power seemed greater from the magic in the air. So was mine.
I cast a black tide from the heavens, baring my teeth, and lunged it at another batch of sentinels.
They exploded into smoke and ash.
But then a figure emerged from the ashes. It wasn’t one of them.
This was something more familiar to me. Zyrra rose out of the group of sentinels with skeletal wings spreading from her back. I’d never seen her with those before.
The sight made her more terrifying. She smiled wide and her teeth sharpened into cruel needles. She was looking less and less like my sister and more like the fiend she was.
Now that I saw her, it all made sense. She was never a ghost. Never some demon wearing my sister’s face. She was one of the Deathless.
The one who cast illusions real enough to feel real.
“You just don’t know when to stop, do you?” she taunted.
“Not when it comes to my wife.” I summoned my sword. Blue flame ignited it in an instant, and I dove for her.
She came at me, too, the sentinels in tow. Two enemies against one.
Zyrra and I clashed when we met. Fuck, she seemed stronger. And she knew it. The maddening smile that flashed across her twisted face said she’d gained something more since we last fought.
I didn’t let that sway me.
We clashed again, my sword against an invisible shield that covered her. The impact took down more sentinels. But more still came.
Their job was to keep coming until they’d retrieved their target. My worry was attracting the mercenaries.
Then I’d have to fight all three.
Zyrra hurled a spear of shadow toward me. I tried to sidestep.
Tried.
Fuck. Agony exploded through my shoulder as the magic struck home, rattling my bones. A curse tore from my throat. Then a roar split the sky and the world trembled again.
A massive shadow swept across the battlefield.
My heart leapt.
Pyrion.
My dragon had come.
She must have sensed my distress and portaled to my aid. I wheeled back toward her, and we met in the air, executing a maneuver we'd pulled in too many battles to count.
My hand found the scales along her neck. A breath later, I was astride her back.
Together, we dove toward Zyrra and the remaining sentinels.
We were still outnumbered. I didn’t know who possessed more power, probably not me, but fuck it, I was going in for the kill.
I ramped up my power, tapping in way too deep. A wave of darkness burst from my hands. Pyrion roared her blue flames at the same time, mixing and amplifying my attack.
The blast went straight toward Zyrra.
The smile fell from her face and that look of terror I’d seen back at the Citadel returned.
The blast should at the very least weaken her substantially, but just as it was about to hit, one clawed hand emerged from the darkness and blocked the attack. Then it slipped around Zyrra and pulled her into the darkness, similar to what happened when I was in my glass cell.
The sentinels came at me then, but Pyrion portaled away, cloaking us with her magic so we couldn’t be followed.
I changed back into Fae, my mind reeling from what just happened.
The war I’d been dreading was here, no longer at the doorstep.
It was here. And that was just one battle. One with no winners or losers, only lessons.
The Deathless were here.
For the first time in my long life, I was unsure of my abilities to survive.
There was a reason they were called the Deathless.
No one had ever defeated them.