Brontaios had two of them occupied near the center of the street.
Out of the corner of his eye, he tracked the triplets. Elian, Zara, and Liora had shifted position—subtly, carefully—edging closer to Asterion’s house.
Maldenis exhaled slightly. They weren’t fighters, but they were smart. They were staying out of the direct line of attack, keeping close to where the child was likely inside. Not safe but safer, and that was enough for now.
Another hunter charged, and he turned to meet it just as the door to Asterion’s house burst open, and the minotaur stormed out.
“You brought them here!” he bellowed.
Asterion grabbed the nearest hunter and threw it hard enough to send it skidding across the street before charging into the fight beside them.
The sound of bones crunching and stone cracking filled the cul-de-sac as the monsters continued the fight in full force. Massive bodies slammed into the hunters, horns and fists colliding with brutal efficiency. The intruders moved fast, but Brontaios and Asterion were stronger and angrier.
For a moment, it looked like they might actually push the creatures back. But then the door to Asterion’s home creaked open again.
Maldenis caught the movement out of the corner of his eye, and then his focus snapped to it fully.
A small figure stepped into the threshold. It was the minotaur child. She was slight for her kind, her frame still caught between calf and growth, all long limbs and unsteady strength. Soft tan fur dusted her skin, lighter along her throat and her arms, and her horns—just beginning to curl—framed aface far too young to be standing in the middle of a battlefield. Wide, dark eyes flickered with confusion more than fear, as if she hadn’t yet decided how dangerous this was.
Around them, the clash of strength and the crack of magic didn’t slow.
But something in the air shifted anyway, and Maldenis noticed that Asterion felt it. Even though Asterion was in the middle of driving a hunter back, his grip brutal, his strength undeniable, the instant she stepped into the open, his attention fractured. His head turned sharply, gaze locking onto the doorway to her.
“Korinnae—no!” Asterion shouted as he turned toward her.
That single moment of distraction was all the attackers needed. One of them struck him across the side, sending the large minotaur crashing into the ground.
For Maldenis, everything slowed, and he saw the exact moment it happened, the twist of Asterion’s body, the spray of soil as he hit, the way the air seemed to ripple with the force of it.
And then the girl froze. Korinnae didn’t scream. Didn’t run.
She just stood there, small and impossibly still in the middle of the chaos, her wide eyes locked on Asterion’s fallen form. The noise of the battle seemed to dull around her, like the world itself was holding its breath.
Maldenis felt it before he saw it, a pressure building, sharp and wrong, like the air before a storm.
The magic detonated.
A blinding burst of light tore from her body, swallowing the space around her in an instant. It wasn’t clean or controlled; it was wild, jagged, unraveling in every direction at once. Power screamed through the air, visible in violent arcs that twisted and snapped like something alive.
The ground beneath her hooves cracked, splintering outward as the force drove down and out, fracturing stone and concretealike. The shockwave hit a beat later, slamming into Maldenis with enough force to make him brace.
Hunters were thrown back like rag dolls. One of them hit the far wall strong enough to leave a dent before collapsing in a heap. Another tried to push forward, teeth bared, only to be caught in the edge of the surge, his weapon ripped from his hands as the magic tore past him.
At the center of it all, Korinnae stood trembling.
The light poured from her in erratic pulses, flaring and collapsing, as if she had no control over the storm she’d unleashed. Her small hands were clenched at her sides, her breathing shallow, uneven. “Make it stop,” she gasped, her voice barely audible beneath the roar of her own power.
One of the attackers lunged through the storm of light and struck, and the girl cried out.
Maldenis saw Liora move, just a blur as she sprinted straight into the chaos. “Liora?—!”
Another hunter broke through at the same moment, and the strike landed just as she reached the child. He heard Liora scream, the sound cutting through everything.
It hit him like a physical blow, sharp and brutal, stealing the air from his lungs. His chest seized, his pulse stuttering hard enough to throw him off balance for a split second. The world narrowed, sound warping around that single, piercing note as it carved straight through him. He felt it everywhere, under his skin, in his bones, a jolt of something raw and instinctive that snapped tight in his chest.
Not her.
The thought wasn’t even fully formed, just a violent, immediate refusal.
