“And on this night,” he shouts into darkness, “the Star shall be forever dimmed.”
Grabbing the staff with both hands, he raises it above his head, and I know at once what comes next. I can see it in his eyes—the victory he can already taste.
He’s going to bring it down on my head, split my skull in two, and end this once and for all.
On shaking legs, I force myself to stand up.
He may succeed in ending me tonight, but this little star is going out with a bang.
The pain in my head is so intense, my brains must be liquifying. I can’t remember how to form words, how to cast a spell. I have just enough energy to meet his eyes. To look into the face of evil and smile.
And to raise my hands and call on the last little flicker of magick inside me.
Judgment’s eyes fill with hatred, with darkness, with rage.
He lets out a bone-rattling roar, and with all his might, slams the staff down and…
Totally misses.
It whooshes right past my ear, and suddenly I’m on my ass.
Knockedon my ass, more precisely. My assailant grunts as we hit the ground together, his hands cushioning my head from impact.
I blink up into a familiar pair of pale green eyes, my heart racing. “Kirin?”
“Up, Stevie. Now.” He jumps up and hauls me to my feet, shoving me behind him as he spins around to face our attacker. Judgment is already charging for us, his fiery staff raised for another killing blow.
With one hand pushing me backward, Kirin raises his free hand and mutters a spell, calling the wind to life. White light explodes before my eyes, and in a brilliant gust, Judgment is blown backward, chased into the darkness until he’s nothing more than a speck of ruby-red fire.
Kirin turns around and grabs my hand, holding tight against the wind.
“Don’t let go!” he shouts, and I nod, my hair whipping my face, stinging my eyes. The wind buffets us hard, stealing my breath.
“I can’t control it!” he shouts again.
A powerful gust slams us together. Kirin wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me tight, his hold almost painful, but I don’t even have the breath to cry out. The wind roars in my ears like a wild beast, plucking us off the ground and tossing us into the sky as if we’re no more significant than feathers. Kirin is shouting and I try so hard to hold on, but the wind is too powerful, doing its damnedest to pull us apart.
He screams my name, and in a terrible, horrifying instant I’m torn from his arms, and then I’m falling, falling, falling…
Twelve
STEVIE
I hit the ground so hard it knocks the breath from my lungs. Blood fills my mouth and stars dance before my eyes, and for a minute I just lie there, flat on my back like an overturned bug, wondering how long the human body can stay conscious after breaking every bone.
I can’t feel anything. Just a faint buzzing in my veins. Maybe it’s not even real buzzing. Maybe I’m already dead, and I’m just having somephantombuzzing as I remember the good old times—like getting blasted to oblivion in the dream realm with…
Oh my Goddess, Kirin!
Breath and memory flood me in a rush. I cough and gasp as I figure out how the hell to breathe again, and memory after memory slams through my mind like a movie on fast-forward.
The very last frame is of Kirin, desperately reaching for my hands as the wind tears us apart…
Still gasping, I roll onto my stomach and push up onto my hands and knees, spitting out a mouthful of blood. My entire body throbs with crushing pain, but I need to find Kirin. I need to know that he made it back here with me, wherever “here” is.
I need to know that he’s okay.
Ignoring the desperate ache in my bones and the searing headache, I crawl gingerly across the terrain, calling his name. My voice is faint and broken, but I don’t dare stop. Not until he’s safe in my arms.
