I threw back my arm to see a wood plank before my eyes, complete with Darrien’s arrow and wrapped in a peculiar, green vine. The same kind of vine that had now looped around my waist several times and was yanking me up. All at once, Ozias, Calem, and I were hauled into the air, each of us lassoed in vines and being pulled to the safety of the plateau. Leena stared up at us from the rock altar. Her Charmer’s emblem throbbed with power, and beside her stood Tok. Two spheres covered in bark made up the Drevtok’s body, and he produced endless vines as a means to safely secure his food. And in this case, safely rescue us. Tok’s vines receded, and we landed on our feet behind the first rock pillar marking Tyrus’s ruins—for a moment, out of our enemy’s reach.
Calem’s face was parchment pale. “I have never been happier in my life to be on solid ground.” Reaching out, he gave Tok a gentle pat on his head. The beast responded with a happy call that was reticent of leaves scraping together.
“Me too.” Ozias grunted as he slouched against the wall, cradling his arm.
Leena crashed into me and buried her face in my chest. “Thank the gods.”
“Thank Tok.” I glanced at her beast. If only we’d had time to pack our bags and store them in his lower, cagelike sphere. The bars could snap open on command to store both people and belongings in the beast realm without disappearing. Now, even if we made it out of this alive, we’d have to stop in town to resupply before we could move on to the next site.
“Him, too,” Leena said warmly. She moved to touch him and then winced, her hand immediately going to her side. Blood had bloomed across her cornflower-blue blouse, and her fingers came away red.
I kneeled before her and peeled back her clothing. “You’re hurt.”
“So are you.” She nodded to my shoulder before glancing at both Calem and Ozias. “We all are.”
“Someone needs to set my shoulder.” Voice raw, Ozias lumbered our direction. “Quickly. Before the muscles freeze up or they attack.”
“Do it now,” I said to Calem as I peeked around one of the rock pillars and spied Yazmin, Darrien, and the Sentinels. None of them moved. Certainly Yazmin had a beast that could cross the canyon to us, and Darrien and his men could send more blades our way. And while the Sentinels’ magic weakened with time and distance away from the capital, they must’ve had enough power to call on their beams of light and teleport to us.
A deep, pained grunt from Ozias signaled that Calem had set his shoulder, and the two of them sidled up to a column a few feet away. “What are they doing?” Ozias asked.
“I don’t know,” I replied. Yazmin turned her head and said something inaudible to Darrien. A grin split his face, and he disappeared into the throng of assailants only to reappear with a limp, body-shaped sack.
Leena looked out from behind the same pillar as me. “What’s that?”
My blood ran cold as Darrien undid the twine holding the burlap together. An unmoving form fell by his feet. With heightened senses thanks to my powers, I focused on the motionless body and listened for signs of life—a beating heart, a shaky breath—and found none. But there was an unmistakable pull, an energy of sorts, that radiated from his form and told me I still had the ability to raise him, if I wanted. Which meant he’d only recently passed. I was no stranger to the dead, but this was just…wrong. What was their angle? Had they killed someone just to bring them here? For what reason?
Beside me, Leena blanched. And then her eyes went impossibly wide. “Noc.”
“Yes?”
“How long will it take you to receive your blessing from Tyrus?”
Across the way, Darrien placed a booted foot on the back of the lifeless body.
“A few minutes, maybe,” I said.
“Do it. Do it now.” Thrusting her hand outward, she called on her power and showered us in rosewood light. The beast realm door groaned open, and she sent Tok home while simultaneously summoning Onyx. Likely feeding off her energy, he appeared before us with hackles already raised and deadly yowls slipping from his maw.
“Leena? What’s going on?” Calem asked.
“We’re about to meet the Prentiss.”
With a wide smirk, Darrien kicked the lifeless body over the edge of the canyon. Eons passed in the silence that followed. Adrenaline rushed through me, each minute more terrifying than the last. We never heard a thud. No indication that the body hit the ground. No sign of any danger at all. And just when I thought we’d finally be able to breathe, it happened. An unsettling, distorted howl—like that of a raging wind whipping through a confined space—bellowed from somewhere deep in the canyon.
Darrien, Yazmin, and the Sentinels bolted away from the ledge. Their unwillingness to stay, to be anywhere near the eerie sound that kept repeating on a loop, growing louder every second, told me everything we needed to know.
Death was here.
Eleven
Leena
Fear flooded my limbs. That sound, that awful, terrible intonation, was a death knell I wasn’t sure we could escape. Every fiber of my being screamed at me to run. To flee. Yazmin had tamed a Vrees. She was going to try and raise Ocnolog. And shestilldidn’t want to be within striking distance of the Prentiss. And here we were, isolated on a butte with nowhere to run. Our enemies had played us well. Yazmin likely knew I didn’t have a beast large enough or fast enough to fly us out of here all at once. They’d come at us from all sides, backing us into a corner they knew we couldn’t avoid.
But not all of us had to die. I had to get my familyout.
“Noc, now!” I pointed to the rock altar. He took off, sliding to a halt before the slab in the center and then kneeled on the ground. Pressing his chin to his chest, he closed his eyes. Again, the Prentiss howled, and this time, a gust of wind shot up from the deep. The stream cut through the sky and kicked up dirt. A red, dust-filled haze settled around us, obscuring our surroundings and turning the sun into a bloody orb.
