Page 375

The ground crumbled around her hands, the earth below the shards of asphalt blackening before my eyes.

Ropes of shadow lashed out from either side, both Cyrus and Carr fighting their way back into the fray as they tried and failed to capture her hands. Again. Again.

Shove her backward, I demanded.

Drain her, Carr retorted.

And then my magic flickered—fading, fleeing the rot of this cursed demon—as I collapsed onto the unforgiving road.

“Freya!” Cyrus’ bellow hit me like a punch to the sternum. And then he was there, on his knees beside me as he looped an arm under mine. Hauling me to my feet, he barked, “Carr!” His cousin materialized at my other side, placing himself between us and the monster now rotting the earth away.

Even as her magic flickered, she found her feet.

“Go!” Carr demanded, but too late—she was already shifting into shadow. We did the same, liquid and mist, leaving the corporeal for the in-between just in time for Carr to block her descending blade.

For a heartbeat, Manhattan vanished.

For that breath of time, I stood on a rooftop thousands of miles west as her sword fell, and Ansel’s head went with it.

Eyes flying wide, I lunged out of Cyrus’ hold, stumbling toward her.

Carr parried, striking forward as his shadows lashed for her, but a wall of smoke tossed them aside and the witch cackled. She turned her face up toward the sky, the veins of webbing around her eyes stretching, reaching, shifting toward her neck.

When Marlana moved next, it was with inhuman speed. The kind you miss if you blink. The kind that guaranteed a death sentence.

We lunged together, all three of us, blades out—spinning and advancing through the molasses-thick other. The world was frozen around us, tormentors and Renown alike captured in time between the blades of our allies.

I couldn’t even look for August before the three of us made our strikes⁠—

And she fucking parried all of them.

Like smoke on the wind, Marlana whirled and ducked, blocking each blade like she was the air itself. Like she was toying with us—ribbons strung to trees, unable to escape, forced to flutter in a storm fit to swallow the city.

Oh, we were so fucking fucked.

Suddenly her ability to outmaneuver Ansel made sense.

Suddenly, I understood why that monster kept her at his side.

I panted in a desperate breath, throwing my head back at an unnatural angle to avoid the same fate. For the first time in this incarnation, I feared I’d met my match.

That I’d led us into death.

Then let it be glorious, Cyrus pressed into my mind as I straightened, shifting to circle her.

Ten feet was my only response.

Their blades flew—all three of them in a violent collision of steel and fury. And I watched. Watched her patterns as I gathered my breath, stalking the perimeter of blades.

Perfect. Her form was fucking perfect—or nearly so. It was only her ego that might allow me through—her confidence that she had them both handled.

The shadow realm shuddered—masked, hooded Paladins solidifying around us. I fought against the urge to yip.

The North had come for us.

Atreus had come for us.

I used the distraction to lunge forward. My blade struck true, just beneath her ribcage.