Page 319 of Commanding Scythe and Sky

SIXTY-THREE

COCKROACH

AREN

“Aren!” Magnolia’s shriek yanked me from slumber. It hadn’t been restful anyway.

Blades drawn, I was on my feet before Brody or Jason stirred. Their eyes were on me, but I was already turning in a tight circle, scanning our surroundings.

Woosh-woosh.

Woosh-woosh.

The rhythmic thuds jerked my gaze skyward and had me wishing I had a crossbow instead of a blade.

“What is that?” Jason breathed over the metallic slide of his sword against its sheath.

“Balorath!” Mags shrieked. I glanced down to find her stuffing our belongings into her bags while Rika groggily righted herself beside her. “Run! We have to run!”

Jason launched himself back to his mat, hastily rolling it as he barked, “What the hell is a Balorath?”

“Dragon,” Brody breathed, clearly having been briefed.

“I beg your fucking pardon?”

I didn’t gather supplies. Instead, I kept my eyes skyward. Black as pitch. Likely after midnight, with no sign of sunrise on the horizon. Which meant the motherfucker who’d already tasted my mate’s blood had hours yet to play.

When Mags regaled her tale, she said the beast had fallen in a wave of water and bellowed when stabbed, which meant it could be struck. It was tangible.

I’d prefer longer-range weapons, but with three of us, there was a chance.

“Rhiannon,” I breathed. “Can you conceal them?”

The jungle didn’t so much as rustle, and I growled as that whoosh of air grew closer.

“Run!” Mags repeated, materializing beside me, latching onto my hand. “Now, Aren!”

“Where?” Brody barked. “To Bellpost or back to hell?”

Woosh-woosh.

I glanced between the two walls of flora and sighed. The mentalist might be a bastard, but his games hadn’t explicitly banned my mate.

“To hell,” I muttered, still scanning the darkness.

“By the time you see him, we’re all dead,” Mags warned, yanking me toward the thicket as she cast air out, punching right through the perimeter. “Now, Aren!”

It wasn’t in my nature to run from a monster, no matter their size, but it only took one look at her wide eyes to follow her back into the brambles.

This time, none of us hesitated, the girls at a full sprint into the very depths of darkness, shields up without needing a reminder.

Still, those wings beat closer.

Still, we ran.

A roar unlike anything I’d ever heard shook the ground beneath us, and I cast a physical perimeter as the bellow vanished beneath a crackling rumble I knew too well. Timber cracked and popped overhead. The heat bleeding through the shield was shadow fire engulfing the thicket.

“No!” Mags snarled, the growing hiss of her shadows telling me what the midnight black around us couldn’t. She’d fight him there—shadow wielder against wielder.