The connection snapped taut.
My spine arched. I was physically acting as the pylon on this side. The bridge wasn't a spell; it wasme. My nervous system stretched across the chasm, humming with tension.
"Go!" I screamed, the word tearing out of my throat.
Thane moved first. He scooped Elias up with one arm as if the Phoenix weighed nothing and stepped onto the glowing lattice.
CRUNCH.
The impact traveled straight up my arm effectively smashing into my shoulder socket. It felt like a sledgehammer hitting my collarbone. Thane’s Titan-heavy weight pressed down on the bridge, bowing the light.
I cried out, my knees buckling, but I locked my legs. My boots dug into the ash-covered rock.
Hold,I told myself.You are made of star debris and stubbornness. Hold.
Then the sky broke open.
It started with a sound like shattering glass. High-pitched, dissonant shrieks echoed off the canyon walls.
Contact!Flynn yelled, his voice warping into a snarl.
Shapes detached themselves from the grey fog above. They looked like harpies, but they weren't creatures of flesh and feather. They were jagged constellations of void-glass and hunger, their wings made of razor-sharp shards that clicked and clattered as they dove.
SCREEEEEE!
"Defensive positions!" Kaelen roared.
The Dragon Prince didn't wait. He launched himself into the air, abandoning the bridge. He shifted mid-leap, his human form exploding outward into the massive, obsidian bulk of the Dragon.
Kaelen unleashed a torrent of dragon-fire. But this wasn't the red fire of the surface; it was a white-hot plasma that seared the air. He strafed the oncoming flock, melting the glass harpies into slag before they could reach me.
Keep moving!I projected into the bond, my mental voice strained with the effort of holding the construct.
Thane was halfway across. Every step he took sent a shockwave of agony through my skeleton. My radius and ulna felt like they were being ground to dust.
Heavy. So heavy,my mind whimpered, the thought traitorous and small.
And then the river noticed me.
The suction came from below. The myriad hands in the ash stopped clawing at the air and all turned toward the glowing gold bridge. They sensed the divinity. They sensed the life.
The ash rose up in a wave, lashing at the bridge.
No!Flynn shouted.
The Wolf Prince moved with a speed that blurred reality. He didn't run on the bridge; he ran on theshadowof the bridge, defying physics. He leaped at a tendril of soul-ash that was reaching for my extended arm. His fangs flashed, biting at the magic binding the ash together.
But the Devourer was hungry.
A massive suction force locked onto my chest. It felt like a hook sinking into my lungs. It pulled.
The bridge wobbled.
Thane stumbled in the middle of the span, Elias clinging to his shirt.
Aria!Thane’s panic flooded the bond.
"I've got you!" I screamed through gritted teeth.
