Page 159 of Queen of Shadows and Ruin

They attacked. Beams of nightfire hurtled towards them, streaking over the plain.

Zarya watched them barreling closer, almost as if in slow motion.

“Steady!” Zarya called. “Don’t move!”

The Ashvins’ magic rushed towards them while the Chiranjivi obeyed her command despite the fact they now stood in the path of certain death.

But the gods had chosen her for this.

Why? She might never know the answer, but she wouldn’t fall, not as long as there was a single breath in her body.

“Hold!” she screamed again as she shook, her limbs trembling and sweat dripping into her eyes. Her magic flared, her anchors spinning faster as the seven Chiranjivi grew brighter.

The Ashvins’ magic streaked across the plain and struck their line in a flash of silver.

Zarya felt it like a coal burning through her chest. She screamed as pain shot down her spine and radiated through her limbs.

She shook harder, but she held.

And then… the Ashvins’ nightfire dissipated into nothing.

She blinked. They’d stopped it.

“Yes!” she screamed as she bent over squeezing Row’s and Rabin’s hands. “That’s it!”

That’s when she noticed the inhuman sounds of the demon’s screams. The nearest were clutching their heads as they sank to their knees, and the seven Chiranjivi grew brighter and brighter. The starlight spread to engulf the nairatta, turning them to dust.

The Ashvins retaliated immediately, firing more magic in their direction.

Zarya screamed as blast after blast burned through her like she was being torched from the inside. Her head tipped up, and she screamed at the sky. It was a sound of rage and the certainty that she was on the right path.

It was a sound that ripped from her chest with the force of all her hopes.

Their line held, and that’s when Zarya noticed fear enter the twins’ eyes.

“They’re weakening,” Suvanna shouted. “Don’t let go!”

Zarya stared the Ashvins down. She didn’t blink. She didn’t move.

Their eyes were wild, full of malice. Their souls long dead.

But they wouldn’t give up yet, either. They’d been feeding off the darkness and their wrath for a thousand years.

Again, they attacked.

“Hold!” Zarya screamed as her magic flowed through her in waves, spreading out in a circle as agony seared through her limbs.

She pushed the twins back.

Finally, they were weakening. They weren’t strong enough. She just had to hold on a little longer.

Now it was her turn to gloat. She turned a smile towards them.

But the Ashvins—they, too, were smiling again.

Another dark line crested over the horizon. She exhaled a small gasp.

More demons. More monsters. Thousands of them. So many more than they could ever stop.