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"Dimitte me," she repeated. "Forgive me."
"No," Julian groaned, but it was too late.
Something moved behind her, shifting, stretching. Wings—not brittle and batlike, as I might have imagined, but sinewy and strong and gleaming with feathers that shimmered and shifted in an oil-slick of colors. Her hair, still alight, swirled around her face. She stretched her arms out to Luca, her voice growing stronger as she spoke. "Amica mea," she rasped, and he gazed up at her, rapt, his hands lifted to her as though in prayer.
He might have moved, might have reached for her, but at that moment, there was a deafening crack.
The ground trembled. The sky lit with fire.
Julian's eyes went dark.
"Olryg."
38
There was a rumble like thunder, so close at hand I could feel it in my bones, and the stone overhang above us shattered, crumbling into pieces as it fell to the ground all around us.
"River." A hand grabbed my arm hard enough to bruise, yanking me back just as a chunk of stone the size of a small car landed where I'd been standing. Theo's face was pale as he pulled me out of the rubble, away from the cave opening.
"Wait—" I gasped, frantically searching for the others. Had they been hurt? Had they—
There was a howl, a snarling growl far too close, and I spun. Something was glowing in the blackness of the forest, pinpricks of red light, moving closer. I shrank back against Theo just as the beast stepped out of the shadows.
Terror lanced through me, turning my blood to ice. Heart hammering, I looked up, and up again.
It was a dog—a hound—a…something. It towered above me, huge and hulking, its shoulders level with the top of Theo's head. It stalked closer, red eyes glowing in a coal black face, fur bristling and lips pulled back to reveal yellowed, razor-sharp teeth.
"River, listen to me." Theo's voice was low in my ear, his hand like a vice on my upper arm. "I'm going to go left, try to get it to follow me. You go right. Head to the woods. Keep running, do you hear me?"
I made a sound of disbelief, shaking my head, but it was already too late. Another form congealed from the darkness, another hound, and then a third, and then a fourth, their menacing growls deep as thunder as they formed a loose circle around us. Long claws scratched at the ground, and something dark and horrible dripped from their huge jaws, leaving blackened grass and wisps of steam rising where it landed. Theo's hand fell away as the first hound crouched, muscles bunching, and sprang.
I ducked, ready to run, ready to die, when a piercing cry lit the night. A blur of motion, and then Julian appeared out of nowhere, colliding with the hound in mid-air and driving it to the ground. There was a growl, a ringing bark of pain, and then a bright arc of blood spurted forth, splashing across the front of my clothes. Another slashing motion, another, and then the hound lay still. Julian's face was feral when he looked up at me. The huge knife from his belt was gripped in one hand, and painful red welts rose on his skin where the hound's blood had splashed.
"Go," he roared at me, and I tripped to obey, flinging myself out of the way as he lunged toward another of the snarling beasts.
Run. Run. I dodged around the fallen body of the hound. Theo was nowhere to be seen.
Head to the woods, he'd said, but I couldn't. I couldn't just abandon the others; there had to be something I could do. A low cry echoed from the far side of the clearing, near the trees to the north, and I headed that way instead.
Not twenty yards on I met with the hulking body of another fallen hound, lying motionless in the dirt. I tried to avoid the pools of glistening blood, but something hit me from behind and I stumbled forward, falling to my knees. My skin began to burn and I scrambled away, twisting to see what had struck me—only to find Lilin, her back to me, black hair flying around her head as she raised one hand. Fire burst from her palm in a jet of blinding light, and there was a howl of pain as another hound fell.
She turned to face me, eyes scanning over me for damage before grabbing hold of my arm. "The blood burns, but it will not kill you," she said.
I blinked at how lucid she sounded.
"Come. My fire cannot truly hurt them."
Sure enough, the hound was advancing again. "This way," Lilin said, then pulled me toward the growling beast.
The soles of my bare feet burned as they contacted the blood. "What—" I gasped, but then she stepped into the shadow cast by the hound, stooped forward until the shadow fell over her entire body, clutched me tight to her side, and everything twisted.
My gut gave a sickening lurch, and I clamped my eyes shut. When I opened them again we were on the far side of the clearing. What the hell had just happened?
"How—"
But she was already spinning away.
"Uti anulum!" she shouted after me, then shook her head at my blank expression. "Use the ring!"
