Page 131 of The Awakening of Essensia

The streets grew quieter the further she ran, but the body count rose. People lay broken among the rubble. She slowed, searching for familiar faces. A flash of honey-coloured hair stopped her cold.

No, no, no, no, no.

She dropped to her knees, rolling the woman onto her back. Blank brown eyes stared skyward. Not green. Not green.

Orphi nudged her arm, and she rose again, forcing herself towards the eastern wall.

The breach loomed into view, a gaping hole forty feet wide, blasted open to make way for the horde. She could hear them now, hear their screeches rolling down the mountainside.

They quickened their pace and continued picking their way through the city. The air stank of blood and scorched flesh. The summoners had made sure to clear this part of the city first. Bodies lay strewn over the rubble, some still clutching hammers and shattered planks from the desperate, doomed attempt to seal the breach.

They should have run.

Vaelira clambered over the broken wall, as the ground trembled beneath her boots. The storm had cleared, the moonlight illuminating the land to the northeast. Beyond the river and to the north, the army poured down the slopes, blotting out the mountainside and the plain below. They were mere minutes away, moving in surging waves that would shatter any defence.

She stood alone at the crest of the broken wall, essensia flaring in her palms. She couldn’t take them all, but maybe she could take down enough to save a few lives tonight.

Orphi leapt down the far side towards the eastern bend of the river, stopping halfway and turning back. He opened his maw in a silent bark, his eyes full of trust.

Turning back to the roaring horde, Vaelira watched as they drew closer, close enough to see the glint of moonlight on their claws, their teeth, their pitch-black, soulless eyes.

She could do it. She could take some of them out. She could do for the others as Galfri had done for them.

And after? After they had torn into her flesh and consumed her very soul, what would happen to the people of Caerthalyn? The people of Eastvale? No one knew of the hidden mage chamber in the Royal Library. With Galfri gone, there was no one who could discover the secrets that lay within. She was the only one with that knowledge. If she died, Eastvale surely would too.

Drawing a long breath, she jumped from the wall and sprinted for the docks.

39

Talons

Erryn stood with her back to Elijah, her sword raised.

“Stop this!” she shouted, her grip trembling as she advanced.

Lereaux kept chanting, clutching a pale stone to his chest, something darker held alongside it.

The stone was familiar, but Elijah couldn’t remember where he had seen it before. He wanted to call out, to tell Erryn this was madness, she couldn’t kill her own father, but a spike of pain tore through his skull. He gasped and collapsed to his knees.

The agony ebbed as quickly as it came, leaving behind a slow, heavy thrum in his veins. Then even that faded.

Shadows bled from the edges of his vision, swallowing the chamber, the torchlight, and the wavering outline of Erryn.

A laugh rippled through the blackness.

Is someone there?

Another laugh. Sharper. Closer.

Claws scraped the inside of his skull. He fought back with everything he had, but there was nothing tangible to cling to, nothing to push his will against.

The talons shredded through him in an instant.

Darkness swallowed everything.

Even his name slipped away—

until there was nothing left of him at all.