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Chapter 21
The battle started in a blur of violence. Shadows fell over the room, drowning out the early morning Kithonian sun as demons descended upon one another. It became relatively impossible for me to discern Mrak’s forces from Sylas’s, save for flashes of armor the latter wore.
I blinked as Sylas’s sword—the one I’d just made for him last night—was pulled from my chest. My breaths came in spasms as I fell to my knees and then forward onto my palms. Blood spilled from me. Above, I saw the nightsteel blade and Mrak’s ward glow with even more power.
My brow furrowed. Pain blazed through my body as nightsteel poisoning took root deep within. I clutched a hand to the wound, and it came away instantly coated in blood.
Of all the times I’d seen my own blood pour from me, this had been, hands down, the worst. And that was saying something.
“Aisling!” Mrak shouted, a heavy growl curling his words. “Sylas!”
My vision spun as the battle waged around me. Every few moments, I got hit by a shadow demon’s tail or someone’s weapon slid by me as it was knocked from their hands.
My body shook. I glanced up at Sylas, confusion no doubt written on my features. “You needed… me… vessel…”
Sylas’s lips curled into a cruel grin as he knelt beside me. “I need you to beminefirst.”
“What—”
I got my answer as Sylas slammed his hand on top of the sword wound and began healing me. Putting me back together as Mrak had.
I was close to death. Sylas was bringing me back. He was creating that same bond that Mrak and I had had—but this was different. There was no pact between us. No magical binding. Just Sylas’s magic in my body, mending it. Making it whole.
I spit blood in Sylas’s face and wrenched myself away from him. “Get away!”
I fell onto my ass and slid as fast as I could in the opposite direction, but I didn’t get far before slamming into a pair of legs. I looked up as panic swept through me.
Karn. His hard gaze landed squarely on Sylas.
Sylas’s expression became exasperated. “What are you doing? Capture her!”
I looked up at Karn with blood still pouring from me. “You must… be happy to… kill me after all…” I couldn’t help but chuckle as I could see my fate playing out. Karn had hated me from the moment he’d first met me. For being human. For Mrak loving me.
Well, he was right. I was still so fragile.
“Leave my queen alone,” Karn said with a tone so deadly I could hardly believe it. And then he did something just as unbelievable.
Karn shot his demonic magic right at Sylas, knocking him off balance and sending him sailing into a group of demon hunters. Karn then dropped the illusion making him look like Sylas’s mage and knelt beside me, healing magic already in his palms.
“Easy, Aisling,” Karn said as he healed me.
I grabbed his wrist. “What are you doing?”
“Healingyou.” His tone was back to being patronizing. “Obviously. Get it together. You need to end this.”
Already the bleeding had slowed to a stop, and while my wounds were closed, they were not fully healed. There simply wasn’t time for that.
“You’re helping me?” I asked.
Over Karn’s shoulder, I saw Leif run to Quinn and Willa, who had fought off the guards assigned to them and now held position against a wall. Leif took one look at his sister before his face twisted with disgust. It broke my heart to see his disapproval, even though it hadn’t been Quinn’s choice to turn her into a shadow demon.
And yet… That pain from Leif seemed to make me feel better.
I realized with my own disgust that Leif’s pain had poweredmeup.
Karn placed a hand on my shoulder and leveled me with a look. “You need all the help you can get to enchant a blade capable of killing Sylas. Can you do this?”
I glanced to where Mrak had now made his way to Sylas, and the two of them faced off together. The fight took to the air when they both transformed into their more shadow-based forms.
