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Fern was right on his heels, the land flying below. And they realized Okthana’s destination at the same moment.

Lunara was huddled over Araxis’s ruined body in the center of a dreadbeast horde, hemorrhaging power in separate directions while she fended them off and tried to heal him at the same time.

“No!” they shouted together as the dark cloud swallowed Lunara and sped away.

“Help him,” Fern shouted, praying to the Sisters that Araxis wasn’t already dead as she changed course.

Over, under, and in between countless skirmishes, she flew the length of Thodelebor to follow Okthana and her creepy, fucking swarm. To save her best friend.

“No!”

Araxis blinked his eyes open to utter darkness—just in time to see Lunara’s panicked gaze as she was snatched away by it, her hand stretched out for him.

And then she was gone, replaced by a descending talon.

The wolf cub in his arms squirmed in his grip as he rolled to avoid it, that razored point striking the ground inches from his head. Lyriat was there a second later, his swords flying, but there were too many. Araxis tried to call his power, but it was sputtering, fizzling beneath his skin as agony blazed a path around his entire torso. He cried out to his beloved moons on a sob, their answer sweet. Just enough.

A dreadbeast sliced through the outside of his thigh as he misted away, and…

Oh, fuck.

The ether clung to his flesh and bones, its oily fingers reaching in to stem the bleeding from his many wounds—and refusing to let go. Araxis tried again and again to no avail, the little Wolflord whimpering, but they were stuck in the space between.

He saw everything going on, the battle raging around them, but he and the cub may as well have been ghosts.

Lyriat was frantic as he wrought destruction right beside Araxis, but the Demon King searched the chaos like he wasn’t right there. Stomping talons passed harmlessly through their bodies. Swiping claws were little more than a breeze. And when a dying dreadbeast fell on top of them, it was only the idea of suddenly being stuck inside it that suffocated him.

Gritting his teeth, Araxis crawled away before it imploded, completely uninterested in finding out what would happen in those circumstances. “Shh, little one,” he rasped at the cub when it nuzzled into him, trembling. “It’s alright. It’s…going to be alright.”

He struggled his way to standing, gasping and scrunching his eyes against the swimming spots in his vision when the ether shoved back with more force.

Weeping moons, those spectral hands were maybe the only thing holding him in one piece.

A howl of pure anguish split the air before a pitch black Wolflord vaulted into the fray—one of the biggest he’d ever seen. Blood dripped from her fangs, green eyes piercing right through his soul when she snarled, as if she saw him there and wanted him to feel her outrage. As if she was about to pounce and rip him from the ether herself.

Instead, she leapt through Araxis and decimated a nearby dreadbeast on her own, before howling to the sky again. The cub in his arms perked up and answered her, clawing at his shoulders to get down.

Well…shite.

She had to be his mum.

Stumbling after her, Araxis did his best to keep up as she tore her way from skirmish to skirmish, destroying every monster she came across, howling again and again.

Stars above, it hit him right between the ribs every time.

Araxis needed to keep her in his sight if he wanted any chance of knowing what to do with the cub when he finally found his way out of the ether.

No sooner had the thought entered his mind that the little Wolflord made his escape, flailing and snapping his little fangs. A hind paw caught Araxis in a particularly raw spot on his waist and his stomach turned, the world spinning.

Araxis tripped over his own feet, crashing to the ground in a pile of furry limbs and blinding torment, his wounds gaping even against the hold of the ether. Black crowded his vision, pulling him under as pandemonium reigned. A curled, auburn tail was the last thing he saw, bouncing as it ran away from him and straight into the chaos.

Araxis blinked, trying to keep sight of the cub, and…

Oblivion.

Lunara thrashed within the swarm.

It crawled like insects. Snapped like snakes. Burned like fire.