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Shit.
With a snarl, Casimir broke away from me, his chest rising and falling in rapid gasps. He sealed the wound on my arm quickly and then released me to swipe the back of his hand across his mouth. “Thank you.”
I nodded, striking out at another twisting creature of smoke. “You good?”
Tightly, he echoed the motion. “Oh, I’m marvelous.” His voice dripped with irony as he cast a glance at the wound left by the Voidborn. The gash was smaller but not gone, and blood still dripped down to make his sword hand slick. With an ease born of years of training, he switched his weapon to his other hand and slashed at one of the creatures as it tried to reach us. “What a lovely way to spend my first day in sunlight in three decades, yes?”
I exhaled with relief my gamble had worked, while Clay just scoffed like he appreciated the vampire’s sarcasm—because of course he would.
“We need a stage two for our plan, friends,” Lars said, still striking out at the Voidborn.
I swung at the creatures as they darted toward me, my mind racing. We were surrounded, we had only our swords, and coming in contact with these things would likely be bad on a scale I didn’t want to imagine, at least if the ashen terrain around us was any indication.
“I’ve got an idea.” Byron ducked to stay clear of a Voidborn. “Remember the sunlight protective spell?” He threw a fast look at Casimir and the twins.
They nodded.
“Like that, on my mark.”
I tossed a prayer up to the gods, even though I doubted it’d do too much good. I’d seen too many things in the war to trust any deities gave a damn about us. But whatever Byron was planning, it had to work. We needed something if we were going to make it out of here alive.
“One, two…”
A thud went through the air, like the pressure of a storm surging higher and then dissipating just as fast. A rush of light followed in its wake, ripping past me to slam into the Voidborn.
The creatures’ screams nearly took my legs from under me, and my hands clasped my ears on pure instinct, desperately trying and failing to keep the sound out. It felt like razor blades on my brain. Like knives in my insides.
I was distantly amazed I was still alive when it finally faded away.
Shaking, I straightened.
The creatures were gone. We were still here.
Maybe the gods gave a shit about us after all.
“Everyone all right?” I asked, my voice rough to my own ears.
The others nodded. Everyone except Roan. For a moment, the pale man just stood there, his eyes squeezed shut and his body trembling.
Clay followed my gaze. “Hey, Roan. You all right?”
Seconds passed. Worried looks flew between the others.
“Fine,” Roan said, not opening his eyes. The word came out gritted and strange, like a growl between his teeth.
My gut did not believe that response, and the nervous looks that still passed between the twins told me I wasn’t alone in that. But after another heartbeat, Roan straightened, his breaths coming short and fast, and he opened his eyes. “Anyone hurt?”
He sounded like himself now, even if he still looked paler than normal.
Murmurs of confirmation that they were all right came from the others.
Niko bent quickly anyway, retrieving a strip of cloth from a roll in his bag. The witches had put the packs together for each of us, and on some level, it alarmed me how much they’d known about us to stock them as they had. Healing materials for Niko. Small nuggets of ore to focus Byron’s magic. Food supplies for Lars to use with his replication spells. All those were just a few of the unique options they’d provided.
But then, they were witches. The gods only knew what they could detect about us.
“Casimir?” Niko asked. “Do you?—”
“I’m fine, thank you.” The vampire clasped a hand over the wound on his arm and muttered a spell under his breath.
