The caw of a birdlike beast splinters through the screams. I turn in time to see it charging toward Greer. Her back is to it as she battles a creature with black eyes and two screaming mouths.
“Greer!” My cries don’t reach her in time as the creature pierces her side.
Wilder sends a surge of magic, shattering the beast into feathers and blood before it can open its mouth and swallow her whole. But the wound is gaping.
I’m not quick enough to reach her before she hits the ground. Her fingers clutch her side while she fights for breath. Dropping to my knees, I put pressure on the gash, but there’s too much blood.
“There’s something—” Her teeth grit as she takes a sharp inhale. “Poison or venom of some sort. I feel it.”
I peel my fingers back to see a sticky black fluid mixing with her blood. It drips over her skin and surrounds the wound. The black substance is cold to the touch. Not by physical sensation, but in its being.
Everything has an aura. A pulse. Even in the frozen landscape of Alyssium, a cold stone on a beach has a physical presence. But as I rest my fingers over this, there’s nothing but a void that moves life through it.
I burrow deep, focusing on the tunnel and wrapping my magic around it. I search it for a thread to hold onto, but instead I find a chasm that pulls from Greer to?—
My gaze moves to the split in Solace.
We’ve been so focused on the creatures flowing from the gap, we’ve missed what flows into it. It’s not justcoming for us; it’s feeding on us. Like the Well is said to do to all things. It drinks us down until there is no life.
No magic.
“Wilder.” His name is barely out when he blinks in front of me, holding a sword dripping with blood.
He must have gotten it from one of the many fallen members of Lochlan’s personal army.
I look up at him, pressing my palm to Greer’s ribs as her head lolls to the side, and she loses consciousness. “It’s feeding on us. Every bit of magic we throw at it makes it stronger. We’re giving these creatures exactly what they need to grow.”
His gaze moves from the onslaught of beasts to me. “Magic is the best thing in our arsenal. There are too many of them to take them on with swords alone. We’ll drown in beast blood before we slaughter them all.”
I watch the creatures, slipping in and out of the shadows. Twisting and bending into every attack. Each hit has them shrinking in on themselves before they grow larger. Fiercer.
“I didn’t say we don’t use magic.” I hitch an eyebrow, and his jaw sets as he reads my thoughts.
“Why do I get the impression I’m not going to like this?”
The smile that pulls in the corners of my mouth makes him frown. He won’t like this, and it might kill us. But sometimes that’s the only way.
“Gods, Elorie. You’re going to be the death of me.”
“Won’t be the first time.”
He chuckles, but there’s little amusement in it. Wilder jogs to meet Lochlan, helping him hold back another wave with him and Callum, while I turn my attention back to Greer.
I press her wound as more blood comes out, and the pain from the pressure has her eyes fluttering open.
“I need your help,” I tellher.
“I’m not sure how much help I am right now.” Greer’s voice is weak with her blood loss. “This venom?—”
“It’s not venom.” I look down at the black mixing with the blood. “They aren’t venomous. They’re feeding on you. Like a drain.”
When the creatures first appeared, I couldn’t see the binds because I was focused on the beasts. I see it now. The split is pulling our magic in large gulps, sending it to the Well.
I press my hands to Greer’s wound. “We need to push the Well back.”
“How?” Greer’s silvery eyes are as dark as the night around us with how her energy is draining.
My gaze meets Wilder’s through the space between us, and he freezes. He senses the lie I told him through the thread moments ago. I let Wilder think it would be him to end this so he wouldn’t argue with what needs to be done. But he isn’t the one. Aether is life; it is the essence of all that exists. His magic will do nothing but feed the Well.
