He’s dying. And he’s dying fucking fast.
There’s no time.
No room for anything. Least of all hesitation.
Certainly not weakness.
I’ve been a victim before. I’ve been powerless, dragged through the dirt by witches like my sisters and warlocks like Galen, used, discarded, abandoned. I know what it means to lose, to have everything stolen from you, to see the light ripped away until only shadows remain. But I refuse to let it happen again. I will not watch Kade die. I will not let him take Kade from me—not him, not anyone, never again. I’d rather burn this entire godforsaken world to ash than carry on without him.
The blood weave inside me roars to life, fraying at the edges of my consciousness. It wants to devour. It wants to destroy. It’s fucking furious and it refuses to be contained. Galen’s stoked a beast that knows no limits, a monster of unfathomable darkness. The magic inside me surges and it’s an unimaginable, indescribable horror of death and destruction that refuses to be quelled, and itsmaelstrom of malevolence defies comprehension.
The ground beneath me quakes as I rise, and I force myself to stagger forward, the weight of my limbs heavier than lead, my body trembling with the effort it takes to simply remain standing. But there’s no time. Not for me. Not for Kade.
Darius is still on the floor, his breath ragged as he tries to rise to his feet. He’s losing consciousness, but I can see the fire in his eyes. He’s not dead yet, and neither is Kade. Not while I can still move.
My eyes shift to Galen, who’s still standing, basking in the destruction. There’s a brief flicker of something even darker in his eyes—a hunger, a primal need to finish what he’s started.
I don’t wait.
I don’t think.
I just do.
I throw myself toward Kade, my fingers stretching out to his bleeding form. Magic surges through me, primal and uncontrolled. I don’t care what it costs. My hand hovers just above his chest, trembling. I feel the deep ache inside me, the strain of controlling the magic that thrums through my veins.
And then, with a scream of my own, I release it.
The blood weave explodes from my hands, a violent, unrelenting torrent of energy that screams through the chamber, shattering the planes of existence I thought existed between reality and oblivion. My fingers crack with the strain as I force the magic down into Kade’s chest, pumping it into his veins, flooding him with everything I have left.
Galen’s attention snaps toward me, his eyes widening in a flash of disbelief. But it’s too late.
The magic roars through Kade’s body, forcing the blood back into his heart, stitching together the torn and shredded flesh. His body jerks, convulses as if he’s battling the forces I’m using to pull him back from the edge of death. I can see the life flickering in his eyes once more.
Galen’s power moves, charging toward me as his magic swirls through the air like a tightening noose. He’s enraged. He’s close enough to victory to taste it and he doesn’t want it to slip from his grasp.
“Foolish girl,” he sneers, twisting his hands into the air. “You cannot save him. You cannot save yourself.”
I throw up a desperate barrier, flickering a shield of emerald light forged from the ebon chain. It trembles under the force of Galen’s attack but holds long enough for me to finish pouring healing magic into Kade. His chest rises with a deep, shuddering breath as life floods back into him and his eyelids flutter, those dark eyes of his finding mine.
He’s confused and weak, but he’s alive.
I’m relieved and exhausted, but I cannot stop.
Galen pushes harder and his magic shatters my defenses, sending shards of glass flying through the room. I sprawl backward, slamming into the blood-stained wall, and pain explodes through my side. But I refuse to cower, and I won’t stay down, scrambling to my feet and stumbling forward to position myself between Kade and Galen.
“You think you can stop me? Alone?”
I don’t answer.
“You’re nothing but a pathetic little witch. A whore who needs putting in her fucking place.”
The blood weave flares to life and I let it take hold, letting whatever madness connects me to Kade consume me. I surrender, as I always ought to have, as I was always going to, and sorcery burns through me until there’s nothing left but raw, unfiltered power. I launch it at Galen, releasing a torrent of magic that slams into him like a tsunami and he staggers, his sneer twisting into a vicious snarl as he counters with a blast of his own.
Our magic clashes and the force reverberates through the room, shaking the walls and cracking the floor beneath us. My limbs scream in protest, my body barely able to contain the force of the blood weave, but I don’t relent. Each step I take is a sacrifice,each strike a piece of myself that I know I’ll never get back.
Galen is a darkness that consumes everything it touches and I refuse to let it take me. I don’t stop, leveling attack after attack in a relentless onslaught, each one buying Kade and Darius a few more precious seconds to recover.
“Zara, move!” Darius’s voice cuts through the chaos, sharp and commanding.
