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“The farther it drifts, the weaker the fold between realms becomes. Helbeasts are slipping through the crevasses deep in the Underworld.”

A shiver crawls up my spine.

Atlys continues, “With each passing day, our barrier worsens. Whether it’s the moon or Hel itself causing the sickness to spread.” Atlys pauses his pacing and turns to me, fully, shoulders weighted from a thousand worries. “I need to do something about it.”

I step closer to him. My palm brushes his cheek. His eyes shutter closed. “We need to do something.”

Those silver irises snap open, ancient and powerful, and wholly mine.

“I already have the sun stone and a plan to keep searching for memories of the moon stone. You and I will get the star stone during the Spring Equinox. All three together should be enough to fix it.”

A small dimple appears on one of Atlys’s cheeks.

“What?”

“You are a very intelligent human.”

“Why does that sound like an insult?”

A dark eyebrow raises, and a hint of a canine slips out. “Oh, my Sunrise, it is anything but.”

In one motion, Atlys wraps a large hand around my neck and guides my face to his. His grip is possessive, but gentle, with a reverence he reserves for only me.

I melt into his touch just as screams erupt from the woods around us.

41

Into the Maelstrom

Something isn’t right. My body is moving before I can register the way the screams pierce through the air like knives. Atlys is right beside me, clearing a path in the forest, beckoning roots aside and flattening the ground in a determined line straight to the source of the noise.

The beach.

Where my friends are.

I run faster and send a link upward to the stars with my mind, pleading for them to show me what they witnessed only seconds ago, channeling my Starwatcher magic the quickest I ever have before. The connection to a nearby star snaps into place, and an image is sent through the bond.

“Shit!”

“What is it?” Atlys asks, voice urgent.

“The Jord. They are attacking.”

Atlys roars and throws both hands forward, and the ground quakes so violently, I almost lose my footing.

We break into the clearing and it’s… chaos.

Ramona and Leaf are fighting a large Underling. Leaf is alternating blayze flashes with sunfyre while Ramona sends daggers flying.

Pictor is pinned down by an Underling, struggling to push him off. “Help!” he yells, muffled by the fur-draped Oksvakt. I pivot, readying to spring, but a giant wave of water pushes the Underling off Pictor’s struggling form. He turns to the side and spits up water. “Thanks,” he says to Prince Ladon, whose arms are outstretched from his water casting.

Esther, Gryphon, and Selene are surrounded by a group of Underlings, slowly circling around them.

Shadows burst from Atlys as he charges into the fray.

“It’s the Lord of Terraguard!”

“Terraguard is allied with the Jord.”