Agony ripped through me. Channeling my power, I wrenched open the beast realm door and sent her back to safety. The realm would provide, but there was no way of knowing if I’d sent her back in time. If her heart had already stopped for good.
My gaze snapped back to Lola. Her gleaming red scales had lost their luster, but they’d insulated her enough to keep her heart beating. Knees buckled to the earth, she wheezed in a heap and shuddered beneath the Vrees.
Yazmin’s laugh was more horrifying than the Vrees’s stare. “Nice try, Leena.”
Behind me, a guttural cry escaped from Oz. I whipped my head around for a moment to find him crumpled on the floor, and Noc locked in battle with a wounded Kost. Calem’s form still trembled, but he’d moved an inch. Somehow. His feral stare was locked on his brothers.
Calem. Oz. Kost. My beasts.The threats were too much. I snapped my attention back to Lola, and willed the door to the beast realm to remain open. “Lola, go back. Now!” Concern and pain and fear cleaved through me. But Lola refused to budge. She swiveled her head in my direction, eyes soft and fiery at the same time, and a soft call rattled from the back of her throat.
She would stay and fight. For me.
“No!” I’d already jeopardized Reine. If something were to happen to Lola too, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. Hadn’t I promised Onyx that I would protect my beasts,allbeasts, with everything I had? If I let Lola fall here, I’d be going back on my word.
I’d no longer be worthy. In his eyes, in all my beasts’ eyes, inmyeyes.
Mist surged from beneath the Vrees’s feet and curled around Lola. This time, he would succeed. He’d blanketed her with enough fog to suffocate her, and she extended her neck so she could still meet my tear-streaked gaze. After a moment, she looked past me to her son. Jax had taken several steps forward, desperate wails echoing through the room. Lola responded with a soft groan that sounded too much like a goodbye.
The Vrees hesitated. Only for a fraction, but I caught it. A minute wince at the obvious display of love.
Yazmin bellowed from the dais. “End it!”
“I’ll distract Yazmin. Save your Laharock!” Gaige took off, extending his hand outward and summoning a B-Class monkey-like beast called a Boxismus. Incredibly nimble and fast, it would be able to safely maneuver through the mist without being struck by lightning. For the most part it was covered in orange fur, but silver plates protruded from its shoulders and knees and along the backs of its hands and knuckles. They were volatile creatures that often fought for sport.
And while a punch would do little to a Vrees, it would certainly knock the wind out of Yazmin.
Gaige sent it after Yazmin, and the beast screeched at the top of its lungs as it barreled toward her. She shouted and tried to protect herself, but the creature landed on her chest and began wailing hits left and right.
I turned back to the Vrees. The air was swollen with static energy waiting to be ignited. But in that moment, all I could think of was the beast’s hesitation. It reminded me of Wynn’s Scorpex when it’d battled us on the sand dunes outside of Ortega Key. Doing the bidding of a master it didn’t believe in.
And suddenly I was running. Right into the thick of the mist. A flurry of shouts erupted from my comrades. Gaige, Kost, Ozias, Calem. All of them. I charged right into the storm, and every hair on my body stood on end. Even my locks lifted upward as I came to a stop between Lola and the Vrees.
He stared down at me as blue sparks surged from his rib cage and flickered in the space around us. A sharp stinging prickled against my skin like I’d been caught in the tentacles of a jellyfish. I could take it. I would take it to save Lola. To save the Vrees.
My voice cracked. “You don’t have to do this.” A soft, rosewood glow pulsed from my body. The Vrees’s maw peeled back to reveal rows of teeth. A guttural warning growl simmered from somewhere in his cutout form. More lighting flickered around us, and I winced.
From somewhere, I heard the groan of the beast realm door opening, followed by a vicious snarl. Yazmin’s voice registered, commanding something to attack, and then Gaige was screaming at his beast to retreat.
Focus.Extending my hand forward, I offered the Vrees my palm. “You don’t have to hurt anyone. Especially not Lola.” I tilted my head toward my beast. The Vrees lowered his snout, dwarfing my body and showering my hand in a fine spray of heated mist from his nose. Blue currents raced down the space around my arm. Waiting. Testing. Ready to strike at a moment’s notice.
A blip of doubt surfaced in my brain. I’d done this with a Scorpex. AScorpex.A B-Class beast. This beast was S-Class. Why did I think this would work? Because he’d hesitated? He could’ve just been calculating. Shoring up power before making his next move. I knew nothing about this creature or what limitations and talents it had.
Slowly, I touched my chin to my shoulder and picked Noc out from the snarling mess of shadows that made up him and Kost.
“I’m so sorry. I promised I’d save you,” I whispered aloud. Tears crashed down my cheeks. Noc’s eyes were wild and lost, and he fought against his brother, his oldest friend, without an ounce of recognition in his gaze. I’d never get to see him again. I’d never get to truly experience a life with him like I’d always wanted.
And yet… I brought my gaze back to Lola. Back to my beast. Placing my hand against her chest, I channeled everything I had into my symbol. Rosewood light fractured from the place where her scales met my fingers, and I heard the door open. She tried to hunker down, to stand by my side through the end, but I wouldn’t let her die for me. My muscles shook as my will battled against hers, and she let out a low whine.
Again, the Vrees targeted her with a curious stare. The swell of electricity receded a fraction.
Racked with fatigue and drowning in mist, I struggled to breathe. But Lola wouldn’t budge. A lone tear dropped from my chin into the plume of fog surrounding me. A ripple of blue radiated outward, and the Vrees’s ears flicked up. Lola lowered her head toward mine and rubbed her nose along my cheek.
The Vrees leaned forward and sniffed Lola, just behind her headdress. My whole body froze. If ever there was an opening to try to break his bond, it was now. Maybe his concern for Lola’s life would be enough. The rosewood light around me radiated with renewed strength, and I brought my hand down and rested my palm on the Vrees’s snout. White eyes locked with mine.
“You don’t have to do this.”
Somewhere behind me, Kost screamed, and then there was a loud thump, like that of a body falling to the floor. I didn’t have the chance to turn and investigate. The Vrees held all my attention.
He huffed. Static built again until I could hear nothing but the crackle of electricity. I could just barely decipher my name shouted at the top of Kost’s lungs. How he had the ability to break away long enough from Noc to search for me was a mystery I didn’t have time to investigate. The Vrees studied me without moving, sending more waves of electricity racing down my arms. They singed my hair and left trailing welts, but I held strong. I waited. I believed.
