Greer is at his other side, with Wilder to my left.
What attacks aren’t rebels or ravagers. They’re beasts unlike anything I’ve seen before, climbing out of a lightning bolt split at the edge of the city. The creatures are carved from shadows. Only partially formed, with rotting faces and razor-sharp fangs. They slither across the ground, slipping in and out of shadows from one side of the street to the other.
“It’s not possible.” Wilder’s jaw tenses.
“What?”
“Creatures from the Well,” Callum answers.
One of the beasts opens its jaws, swallowing a large bite of a building and spitting it out.
“I didn’t think the Well reached Solace?” I hold up my daggers,my spine stiffening. “I didn’t even think the Well reached all of Rohldova. The map in the king’s palace shows the Well isolated at sea, not touching the continent in either realm.”
“It doesn’t reach them on the surface. But it’s started cutting pathways in the ley lines below,” Wilder says, flinging a spit of aether when one of the beasts sets its sights on a couple running past with their child.
The split in the ground thrums, as if it were a being itself. Awake and purring with the magic of another place climbing out. The empty void they escape is not a hole. It’s like the Gateways we step through. Rips in the very fabric of Lyrichia.
“Gods cursed.” Lochlan steps through a Gateway beside Wilder with an army at his back.
He and Wilder share a look, and when I try to toe the edge of Wilder’s thoughts, I find him closed off. There’s no time to ask what he’s thinking as a beast with wings as black as tar shoots from the tear in the realm and into the night sky. It stretches its neck to the moon, baring its teeth, before shrinking into a tight ball and plummeting back to the ground.
“Duck!” Greer shouts as Wilder pulls me behind a pillar, pressing my back to the hard stone.
Rocks fly through the city as the creature’s thick claws rip into the street. Lochlan holds out a hand, forming a wall of wind between us and the creature in an attempt to diminish the blow. And when I glance at Callum, I see he’s twisting into it with his own power, casting a shield around the group.
“Shouldn’t you be back in your manor before you leave your people without a leader?” Wilder’s aether reaches out when Lochlan creates a gap for it to slip through, tightening a noose around the creature’s neck.
“Shouldn’t you be doing the same for your realm?” Lochlan shoots back.
But they’re both grinning, and I sense this might be whyWilder said they were once friends. Neither seems like the type to sit aside while their armies fight on their behalf.
Wilder moves with Lochlan, pushing forward. The daggers in my hands feel small and useless in comparison to the brutal strength of magic swirling in the street.
The beast rips through the aether bind, tearing its teeth down the shield of wind like it’s a piece of silk. It rests its jaw on the path and opens its maw for a swarm of creatures to crawl out. Some burst into the sky. Others slither on the ground.
They barrel toward us and Lochlan’s army.
“Where’s the Crown Guard?” I ask as I drop low and shove my dagger through the throat of one of the creatures.
Thick red blood spills out. Black wads like tar pump out of its throat as it clings to its last breath. If it’s even breathing. What hums inside these creatures is not life. It’s not anything I can sense or draw a thread to. It’s almost as if they are empty vessels of death.
Callum swipes his sword, beheading one of the creatures before spinning to drive his blade through another’s belly. “They must be back at the manor.”
My gaze moves to Lochlan in time to see his eyebrow creep up. Because he was back at the manor—we all were. But for the Guard not to join the fight in defense of one of the king’s territories is a bold statement.
There’s no time to think about it.
We’re swarmed with a flood of birds. Their beaks snap at us as they dive low and circle all around. Wilder does his best to craft a protective web but falters when his magic draws the attention of a larger beast.
“I thought you were stronger than this, great aether wielder.”I smirk, shoving my blades into the sides of the creature’s neck.
“Is taunting me the best use of your energy, Elorie?”Wilder quips back.
He drops to a knee and touches his fingertips to the ground. It’s the gentlest movement, but it wreaks havoc from the sky. Bolts slice through the night, decimating half of the oncoming pack.
“Seems it’s a perfectly good use of my energy if it riles you up.”
He catches my gaze.“You have no idea.”
