“Any magic wielders among those that have volunteered to stay and fight?” I asked.
My cousin huffed. “Not enough,” she murmured.
I tugged my gaze away from the arch. Carina’s light-brown eyebrows pinched up, the bags under her eyes heavy from the time she spent training the few she had found.
“We need more of a strategy,” Selvina pressed, her long arms crossing in front of her chest as she shook her head. “Sitting here and simply waiting does us no good.” Her thin brows narrowed, and she scrunched her nose as she scanned Kresida, who moved to crouch near a cluster of sentries.
A wave of defensiveness prickled through my skin as she critiqued my current second-in-command.
“No good?” I challenged, turning to face her. “We’ve prevented nearly a hundred different creatures from entering this realm since the Vael Lacrima opened. That’s a far cry fromno good. And perhaps if you spent more time figuring out how we can get the orb working to finally connect with Sultira, we could communicate?—”
“There is nothing wrong with the orb,” Selvina snapped. “It connects perfectly with the one in Lotrennia. Someone must have broken it in Aedrialis. Probably the stupid human who killed one of the last mortal beings who could have actually told us more about the Embodied.”
Rage pounced. An involuntary protectiveness rose at her criticism of Ronan, and my features hardened. A snarl escaped my throat before I could help it.
“Fighting will do us no good,” Carina snapped, her soft concern morphing into impatience. “We have no way of strategizing until Lyvia and the others return from the Arx. Hopefully, they’ll find answers?—”
Carina was cut off as an unholy wind surged from the center of the arch, ripping the sparse vegetation out of the rocks and through the air. My arm flew up to protect my face as I staggered, reaching my other hand out to steady Carina, whose tiny body tumbled backward against the force.
As fast as the wind had arrived, it vanished, and the air above the rocky wreckage stilled, as if the haunted island held its breath. Selvina crouched, her fingers grazing the dusty footing.
Kresida had disappeared behind the rocks, and as I regained my footing, I caught the tip of several glowing rubelline arrows peeking out from behind the rocks. My eyes snapped to the arch, still empty and black. Adrenaline rushed, and I took a slow breath in through my nose as I lowered to the ground, summoning the blazing white power that lived in me.
My nostrils flared at the strange scent lingering in the air, and I steadied my breathing. The Vael Lacrima had been open for over five months now. Spring still struggled to take hold in the unforgiving landscape of Kayj and Nivis. The creatures that attempted to cross into our world did so unannounced, their approach quiet and sudden, with no warning.
I steeled myself because I knew this scent. I cast to Aquila, urging him and his powers to return to Kayj. I pushed a wave of caution and preparation to Selvina, whose only response was to return it with raw hatred, not at me, but at the twin goddesses we prepared to meet once again.
I leaned closer to Carina to ensure she knew when two blue orbs burst through the archway in a blast of golden light. My eyes reeled, but I kept them pinned on the archway as the occupants of the blue orbs materialized into naked, humanoid forms. Renova’s body shone an ivory whiter than the Albyrn Mountains, and her twin, Ganmira, emerged in an ebony form darker than the night sky. Long hair stretched over their slender shoulders, with thin-pointed ears poking through.
Rubelline arrows fired from all directions, their glowing red tips permeating the round shield encompassing the figures for but a moment. The tips ripped through the outer layer like flames through a thin sail, only for the goddesses to swiftly fill the space with their endless power.
They stepped onto the stone walkway, their lips spreading into thin smiles as they scanned the wreckage and claw marks with their singular blue eyes before they stopped at the grouping of rocks.
Their smiles widened, as if registering Kresida’s hiding spot, and they lifted too-long fingers in her direction.
A roar escaped my lips as I leaped off the sheltered cliff edge, the sensation of empty air beneath my legs sending a surge of primal panic into my veins. Blazing light erupted from my palms, and I shoved my flames at the goddesses.
Heat blazed from me. The white flames licked at the round shields as I fell from the edge of the cliff, before an overwhelming sense of fellowship hit me in the chest, and I landed on top of Aquila’s smooth back.
My stomach surged at the change in momentum, and the goddesses let out an unholy snarl as they tore their gazes from where I should have fallen to where we now flew, Aquila’s wings moving too fast for them to track.
He looped around them, dodging their blasts of power as they unleashed themselves. Blue streams of power cracked from across the sky as Selvina attacked from Nishanth’s back on the other side of the crater. The power snapped against the Embodieds’ shields like lightning, enough to distract the twins from us.
A blast of lilac wind cleared the stale foreign scent, and my attention caught on Carina, who stood on top of the cliff edge, arms wide. She tipped her hands to the heavens as she raised them slowly, and several small boulders floated into the air. Her mouth formed a thin line as she narrowed her eyes at the Embodied before gritting her teeth and shoving her hands in their direction.
The boulders flew at an unnatural speed. Ganmira and Renova snapped their faces in Carina’s direction as she let out a war cry, sending sharp shards of rock following the boulders.
Nishanth and Aquila worked in tandem, the two massive hawks communicating with each other mind to mind, flanking the twin goddesses below so Selvina and I could attack. White flames and blue streams of power wrapped around the shields as the Embodied blasted apart the boulders and shards.
The goddesses’ shields buckled against the surge of power, and I caught the flash of a red rubelline arrow tip as Kresida climbed the highest ridge of the crater we fought in.
Feral growls erupted from the ridge nearest the beach, and the lone Nivis rider led a charge of massive white bears as they crested the edge of the crater. Renova snapped her face to the bears, turning so she and Ganmira stood back-to-back on the stone walkway, their shields merging into one.
Kresida is ready!I shouted into Aquila’s mind, who relayed the message to Nishanth and Selvina. The four of us rallied our strength once more, pummeling their shield with our power as Kresida released a single rubelline arrow from where she stood.
The arrow pierced through the layers of the shield, and Ganmira’s face contorted in rage as she turned, catching the arrow with unnatural speed before it could rip into her arm. The howl she released rose my hackles, and I readied another blast of Soleia when the goddesses below locked eyes with one another, tipped their heads back…anderupted.
My ears hollowed out as the world somersaulted. Rock and clear skies blurred beyond recognition as the force of the blast hurtled us from the sky, slamming our bodies against rock.
