Rhen caught the next attacker by the throat and lifted it from the ground before driving it into the pavement. Stone fractured beneath the impact, and the rogue’s ribs collapsed.
To his right, Cole fought with the force of a wrecking ball. He caught two attackers by their skulls and drove them together until bone broke and blood spread across the wet bricks.
The numbers did not diminish.
They increased.
The wrongness in the air tightened.
Rhen felt the heretic’s influence moving through muscle and nerve, forcing the bodies surrounding them into obedience. Rogues that had briefly attacked independently shuddered before becoming still in the same instant.
Every head turned toward a single shadow.
The heretic stepped into view as though the street had released him from its mouth.
He wore no armor and carried no visible weapon. His confidence appeared sufficient protection as he watched the brothers stand back-to-back among creatures that possessed no control over their own limbs.
The heretic raised his fingers and flexed them once.
Every rogue shivered in response.
Murderous recognition moved through Rhen.
There you are.
He lunged.
The rogues struck him from both sides before he had crossed three steps. Bodies collided with him in unnatural coordination, dragging him downward like trained animals bringing down larger prey.
Claws opened his shoulders. Teeth scraped his skin. Hands closed around his arms and legs, not attempting to feed but to restrain him.
They were holding him for the heretic.
Rhen caught movement in his peripheral vision.
Malakai carved through two attackers with precise brutality, opening space as he signaled a warning toward Rhen.
Another shift disturbed the air.
Dax rematerialized beside Rhen’s left flank with a blade already in his hand. He cut through the nearest rogue’s throat in one controlled arc, sending blood across the street.
Rhen tore an attacker from his chest and broke its neck.
“Kind of you to join us,” he said through split lips.
Dax retained his grin.
“You’re welcome.”
He caught another rogue by the jaw and drove its face into the brickwork.
“I leave you alone for several minutes, and you begin a street war.”
Malakai caught his eye and signed sharply,Less commentary. Kill something.
The heretic watched with growing satisfaction.
“You are too late,” he called over the violence. “This city belongs to me now. The prophecy will be mine. The females will be mine, and your king—”
