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I spun as a dakkai charged, saliva dripping from its teeth. I cleaved off its head as I caught sight of Bele leaping over a fissure. She landed on a boulder, effortlessly switching to a bow and shadowstone arrows to avoid the eather drawing the dakkais. Rhain raced out of the trees, followed by several soldiers.
Ash swore, kicking a dakkai back as sudden screams of pain tore through the air. I whirled toward the field, my breath catching in horror when I saw dozens more dakkais joining the fray.
“Sera!” Ash shouted, spi
Hot breath that smelled of sulfur and stale lilacs swamped me. I thrust out with the sword, but the creature yelped before I made contact, falling to the ground. One of Ash’s blades jutted from its back.
Nektas’s tail swept across the ground, edging me back and releasing a stream of fire. Silver flames engulfed the dakkais, but more came over the cliff’s edge, snarling and spitting. I braced myself, but they veered to my right.
They were heading straight for Nektas.
“Nektas!” Ash yelled, bringing his sword down as Rhain drove his into a dakkai’s back.
I screamed when the dakkais swarmed the draken, digging into his scales with their claws. They climbed him as he slammed his tail down and twisted, trying to shake them off. Blood sprayed the ground, and Nektas reared back, emitting a deep cry.
The sight of his blood and the sound of his pain undid whatever restraint I had left in me. The air around me charged, reacting to the eather erupting from my pores.
“Don’t!” Ash shouted. “It will draw them to you.”
“I know,” I growled. That’s what I wanted. The moment eather sparked, the dakkais clawing at Nektas froze, then lifted their heads in unison.
The clouds above us deepened in color as rage poured into me. I thrust out my left hand, silvery strands of eather tinged in gold erupting from my palm and mirroring my will. The tendrils lifted and arced, slamming into the dakkais, throwing them off Nektas and to the ground, where they lay smoldering.
A shadow rushed over us, and I looked up to see Aurelia. She landed near Nektas, tucking a wing over his side, fire spilling from her mouth. She turned her head, enveloping the dakkais that remained on the bluffs.
I rushed to Nektas’s side, careful of the dripping blood. My heart twisted as I saw the deep gouges in his sides. He’d be okay. He had to be. Fear dripped through me. “Nektas?”
I’ll heal, came his raspy voice. I just need a few minutes.
“I want you out of here,” I demanded.
That’s not going to happen.
“Where did he go?” Ash seethed, stalking forward. He jerked to a stop and then rushed past me, heading toward the edge overlooking the battlefield.
Bele jumped off the rock, driving her knee into a fallen Revenant’s chest, knocking it back. She slammed her blade into its chest as it started to come back to life.
“Rhain!” she shouted. “We need to put them down.”
The god rushed to Bele’s side, and I turned to Aurelia. “Keep him safe until he’s healed.”
She answered by shielding his head with her much smaller one.
“Not again,” Bele groaned, rising as Revenants swarmed the bluff. “Oh, great. And we’ve got even more visitors.”
Ash’s head cut toward the bluff overlooking the sea. Ceeren pulled themselves over the edge, their beautiful faces streaked with blood. I took a deep breath, holding it.
I knew Kolis was still nearby. He was hiding somewhere. But when my gaze met Ash’s, I knew he was thinking the same thing I was. We couldn’t leave everyone to deal with this.
I stalked toward the nearest Revenant, deflecting a blow. Then another. I glanced up, seeing red scales high above the clouds. It was Naberius, but that wasn’t good news.
“Kolis’s draken,” I hissed, driving the sword through a Revenant’s chest.
“Focus on the Revenants,” Ash commanded, his voice laced with authority. “Our draken will meet his in the sky.”
I nodded, steeling myself for the carnage to come as the air came alive with bloodshed. Shoving a Revenant back, Ash sliced into its chest.
Aurelia caught a ceeren in her jaws, and Nektas threw at least three into the trees with a punishing sweep of his tail. The wounds in his side didn’t seem as deep as before.
I drove my sword down and saw blood dotting Rhain’s face. “You okay?”
“Not my blood.” He knelt by a fallen Rev, pulling a vial from his satchel. He pried the mouth open, pouring two second’s worth of draken blood into the Revenant’s mouth. “At least, not all of it.”
I glanced at the Revenant Rhain knelt by. It was still out, but its body began convulsing as its flesh flushed and then bubbled—
“You’re probably not going to want to watch that,” Rhain called.
Too late.
The bubbles along the Revenant’s flesh exploded, and the skin melted. I lowered my sword as muscles and tendons caught fire as if they were nothing but paper. Holes appeared in bones and ignited, burning even those. There was nothing left but a mess of pink and scraps of charred flesh.
“That is…disgusting,” I muttered.
“Sera!” Ash shouted. “Behind you!”
I spun, coming face-to-face with a shadowstone blade wielded by a dark-haired goddess. A wave of fiery pain went down my arm as I lurched to the side.
Ash’s growl tore through the air a second before a stream of shadowy eather smacked into her.
“Are you okay?” Ash was at my side in a heartbeat.
“Yes.” I breathed through the pain. “Just a scratch.”
He stared at me for a moment, then snapped forward. Pinching my chin in a gentle grip, he thrust his sword, catching either a ceeren or a Revenant as he kissed me.
He lifted his head and pulled his sword free. His hand dropped to my hip, and he nudged me to the side, gripping the hair of what turned out to be a ceeren. It snapped at him, and he dragged his sword up, disemboweling it.
Above, roars shattered the skies when our draken met Kolis’s. Flames of eather licked from their jaws as they descended upon his draken. Talons dug in, ripping through hard scales.
I dragged my attention away, sca
Another charged, and I threw out my hand. Eather powered down my arm. The burst of Primal energy slammed into the ceeren. He stumbled back, looking down at the charred hole in his chest. His knees buckled, and I clenched my jaw against the throb of death.
The female ceeren screamed, drawing her sword back—
A shadowstone blade sliced through her neck. Her body went in one direction and her head in the other.
Ash stood there, more fresh blood dripping from his sword.
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.” His gaze turned to the sky as a red-and-black draken dug its talons into the back of a smaller, brown one. “Fucking Diaval.”
I inhaled sharply as Diaval tore into the draken’s throat, ripping through scales and bone. Aurelia let out a staggering, mournful call when the brown draken fell, shifting into his mortal form.
Ehthawn crashed into Diaval with a thunderous clap. They were a spiral of wings and talons, tearing into each other. Behind them, another draken plunged into the ocean, sending a geyser of water shooting into the sky.
I staggered at the haunting sight, forcing my gaze away. I couldn’t let it get to me right now.
Ash prowled toward the cliff’s edge. Sca
Down below, I saw Phanos take a hit of Primal essence, throwing him back as Attes stalked forward, eather dripping from his fingers.
“Kolis is still here,” I said, my chest rising and falling sharply. Rhahar leapt over a dakkai, slamming his sword through a crimson god’s head.
“And so are the rest of his armies.” Ash lifted his blood-soaked sword, pointing at the forest line.
My gaze lifted, and the air fled my lungs.
A wave of crimson flowed out of the trees like an unforgiving tide. Thousands swarmed the field, just like the dakkais on the bluff had. And they kept coming.
“The bulk of their armies wasn’t on the ships,” I whispered.
“No,” Ash growled.
The sea of crimson swept over the field, causing my heart to stutter. There were too many, especially with Theon’s forces still battling the ceeren. I flinched as Phanos struck Attes, knocking him into a dakkai’s path—
A fair-haired soldier snapped forward, blocking the dakkai from reaching Attes. Kars. It was Kars who jabbed out with his blade. He was quick but…
The dakkai clamped down on his throat.
“No!” I shouted, lurching forward. A shudder went through me, warming my palms.
Ash caught my arm, but I barely felt his grip as both the dakkai and Kars went down.
Attes stumbled and grabbed the dagger, tossing it aside. He was frozen for a second, almost like he was thinking the same thing I was. What had Kars been thinking? He was a godling. Attes would’ve likely handled the dakkai, but it didn’t matter. It was too late. Attes stepped back. His free hand fisted, and he turned his head toward Phanos. A scream of rage erupted from him, and he flew toward the other Primal just as two draken spiraled to the ground below, locked in a deadly embrace, blood and fiery eather pouring out of them both.
“Crolee,” Ash rasped. They hit the rocky shore, the impact an echo of finality that caused my body to flash cold and then hot.
A buzzing started in my ears, muting Nektas’s call of sorrow. I pulled my arm free of Ash’s, the sword I held slipping from my fingers and clanging off the ground.
More crimson soldiers surged forward from the mouth of the forest, their armor and swords not yet bloodied by battle. I could barely see our people among the crimson gods—could barely hear Ash’s voice as he grabbed a ceeren, snapping its neck. I looked down the bluff’s rocky hill, seeing gods in crimson scale the peak. I thought Ash was calling my name as an eather arrow struck the first god who crested the rise.
I wasn’t breathing.
We were failing. My hand went to my stomach. Our future was slipping between our fingers. They would all die while Kolis hid. Rhahar. Our soldiers. Possibly even Attes. Then Rhain and Bele, once they swarmed the bluff. Their bodies would fall, just as Kars and Crolee had. Their bones would join…
They’re called the Bonelands.
I looked down, the blood dripping from my fingers darkening the soil and rock.
The land was littered with those who’d fallen in the war with the Ancients, the remains of gods, long-since-forgotten mortal warriors, Primals, and…
And dragons.
Suddenly, I saw the Shade in the Dying Woods—the one I’d touched. How it had started to come back to life.
There was a reason I’d suggested the Bonelands to Ash. Why I had stood on the Rise looking at the Shades after I’d brought life back to the Shadowlands.