by Tess Adair
And with one steel-tipped boot, she slammed down hard on the inside of its foot, still clad in nothing but a silk slipper from the binding ritual.
It howled in rage, and its hold on her faltered. She slipped right out of its grip and spun around, hitting it across the face with the blade of her knife. It was the kind of blow that might have killed a human man. Its monstrous form stumbled backward, and she followed. Taking a boxer’s stance, she pummeled its rib cage with repeated blows in quick succession. In a moment of panic, it reared back from her—at last revealing a strip of vulnerable flesh right at its center. Without allowing herself a moment to consider, she struck out her knife and slashed it across the throat.
The effect was immediate. Black blood poured down its bare chest. It grasped futilely at its neck and fell, first down to its knees, then face first onto the floor. As it lay motionless on the ground, its body began to shrink back down to the size of a man.
One down. She tried her best not to think anything else.
The pounding sounded again, and now it was louder and more insistent than it had been before. Logan spun to find its source, and she was unsurprised to find her gaze drawn back to the ritual site, where Atherton’s body still lay.
His whole form had begun to glow, and as she watched, transfixed, the glow began to spread. It shot upward in a straight line until it connected with the dome ceiling above. Then a million tiny cracks of light broke out from the beam, spreading across the surface of reality in every direction.
“Janssen,” she called out, heading back toward her, away from the fallen Bound, “get out of there!”
Janssen whipped around and began scrambling backward, away from the cracking beam of light she could now clearly see. Logan saw Clément turn briefly from her fight with Rossi to see what was happening, and as soon as she did, Rossi dropped what it was doing and ran away.
Just like Ulric. This time, Logan was able to watch as it slipped out through the fighters’ entrance—the very same door she and Clément had used earlier.
“Logan!”
The voice that called her was as familiar as her own. She whirled around. A man came down the stairs toward her. He wore an impeccable suit of royal blue.
“Alexei,” she said, so quiet she could barely hear herself.
He was nearly down the stairs already, and she watched in some dismay as the less stalwart among the Order swarmed around him, heading toward the open exit he’d left behind. Finally, she raised her voice in greeting.
“Weapons ready!” she called out, using one ichor-soaked hand to point him at the beam of light, in case he’d somehow missed it.
Alexei clattered down the stairs, brandishing what appeared to be a cane before him. Logan recognized Alexei’s weapon of choice and smiled. In contrast, his face fell as he took in the wound on hers.
As he sidled up beside her, the earth beneath their feet gave a hard shake. While Logan’s stance held fast, Alexei grasped her shoulder with his free hand to keep himself upright.
“Apologies,” he muttered quietly, his veneer of calm disturbed only by the tremor in his voice. “What happened to you, H.C.?”
Logan touched a hand to the blood on her face.
“Work accident,” she shrugged.
Alexei began to respond, but the universe seemed to decide against it. The earth shook a second time, and this time, the cracks above them burst, too.
The sky had broken open.
Chapter Thirty-Three
The Wolf and the Heirophid
The veil tore open, and light leaked out. Logan had never seen a tear in the veil in person, but Knatt had shown her enough pictures for her to recognize it for what it was. Everything around her went still and silent—not as if everyone had stopped making sound, but more as if all sound had been sucked out of the room.
Then Clément broke through.
“Janssen, can you cast?” she called to Janssen, hurrying closer to them.
Janssen shook her head. “Could not bring anything inside.”
As Clément closed the distance, she reached inside her own robe and produced an extra phial, which she passed over immediately. “Here; prepare yourself.”
Logan glanced at Alexei, who stood only a few feet from her, gripping his cane.
“How ready do you feel right now?” she asked him, motioning quickly at the sky above. “If I’m right, we’re moments away from sharing this room with the heirophid.”
He smiled, but it looked like a grimace.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” he answered. Catching her eye again, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small gray stone, keeping it out only long enough to show her. “Your partner gave me a cassis stone, so if we’re in dire need, I can call him.”
Logan glanced at the Champion’s gate, through which Rossi had disappeared.
“The Wolf is trying to run,” she told him. “If I go now, there’s still a chance—”
“Then go,” said Alexei, pulling the stone out again. “Knatt’s on his way, and I can hold the line.”
Logan smiled at him, gratefully. “I know you can.”
So down the rabbit hole she went.
Unsurprisingly, Eliana had known exactly where to go. She’d directed them to a nearby hidden weapons cache first, and they’d both loaded up, with Jude picking out only things she recognized. For her part, Eliana seemed most intent on the bow and arrows. After that, they were on their way, heading at top speed toward the giant amphitheater beneath the castle.
Worryingly, they passed fleeing Order Adepts as they went. Gripping the sword she’d picked up from the weapons cache, Jude did her best to beat back the anxiety that threatened to overwhelm her.
Then they were passing through the doors, and coming down the steps, and looking up, and—
For a moment, Jude wondered if her brain was broken. Surely she was hallucinating. Surely the fault was hers.
Then she glanced over at Eliana and she saw a look of shock that must have mirrored her own.
Not hallucinating then.
In the center of the cavernous amphitheater, near the curved ceiling, the sky had broken into a million tiny pieces of light.
But far worse than that was the thing currently climbing down, out of the opening and into the room.
At least twice the size of an elephant, it skittered down on scorpion-like legs, its head suspended on a long, thick neck that moved from side to side like a snake. Its head featured blank holes for eyes and a maw that hung open far too wide.
“Holy shit,” Jude breathed as she took it in. “What is that thing?”
“I think it’s the heirophid,” Eliana muttered back, under her breath. She sounded stricken. “Fuck. How did this happen?”
Jude just shook her head in response, though Eliana wasn’t looking back at her. In fact, to her dismay, Eliana soon started moving down the stairs again, ever closer to that thing. Glancing down at the room, Jude saw that there were only three other people in there with them, and one of them was Alexei.
She scanned the room for Logan, but she couldn’t see her. Her pulse began to quicken. Eliana had gotten ahead of her, but now she sped up and nearly overtook her. Alexei will know where she is. I’m sure he’ll know.
“Hey, Marin!” she called as they rounded the last step. Alexei turned toward them, and so did the two women near him. “Where’s Logan?”
The French woman, Logan had called her Clément, spoke first, directing herself at Eliana. “Blake, what are you doing here? You should be in the dormitories.”
Eliana set her jaw. “I know my orders, ma’am, but I couldn’t sit this out.”
Clément surveyed her, considering her words. “You were bound by the High Prophet, were you not?”
“I was.” Eliana bowed her head solemnly. “I—I felt it happen, ma’am.”
“I see.” Clément nodded. “Well, I commend you for your bravery, Adept. If you wish to stay, you may.” She glanced behind her shoulder, where the monster had ju
st touched down. “Prepare yourselves.”
“Hey, Marin—I asked you a question!”
Alexei had just opened his mouth to answer her, when the heirophid let out an awful gurgling sound. It was upon them.
Clément and the woman beside her sprang into action. “Avisi oppugnatem!”
Jude’s eyes widened as she watched a giant cloud of wasps rear up above the women’s heads, arrange themselves into an apparently deliberate formation, and then hurl themselves all at once at the gigantic beast that had just fallen from the sky.
The heirophid roared, thrashing its head from side to side as the insects swarmed. Eliana immediately got down on one knee, propped up her bow, and drew an arrow across it. The arrow sailed upward in a perfect arc, heading right toward the beast—only for the heirophid to turn at the last second, hitting the arrow away with one of its pincer-like forelegs. Quick as a wink, Eliana drew and fired again, and again her arrow was tossed aside.
Though she hadn’t inflicted any damage on the monster, Eliana had managed to catch its attention. It reached out a scorpion-like leg and side-swiped her, sending her crashing into the stairs they’d just come down.
“Elli!” Jude cried out, running over to her. She’d landed hard on her side, and even as Jude approached her, she didn’t open her eyes. Jude practically collapsed beside her when she reached her. “Elli, are you okay?”
Groggily, Eliana shook her head. “Gotta—get back—to the fight—”
Jude glanced beside her. The others stood between them and the beast now. Alexei had aimed what appeared to be a fancy walking cane at it, and he was somehow using it to shoot some kind of energy blast at the monster, which had the effect of preventing it from advancing.
Jude turned back to Eliana. A line of blood had formed near her hairline; Jude wasn’t sure where it originated.
“We can handle it,” Jude whispered, although every bone in her body told her to run. Where the hell is Logan? “I think you need to stay put.”
“Jude.” Eliana reached out weakly with her hand, and Jude took it. “Take the bow—take my place—”
Jude’s heart sank. “Elli, I don’t know how to use a bow. I—I’m not even sure I can.”
A sad smile stretched across her face. “Ah, right. If only I could give you my strength.”
Jude felt her heart sinking as she realized she was about to fail Eliana—about to fail everyone. Was there nothing else she could contribute to the fight?
Suddenly she remembered that feeling she’d had in the Hall of Roses, when she’d been so sure that everything would be fine if they could only find each other, if they could only be together. She had an idea, but she had no way of knowing if it would work.
“Would you?” she asked Eliana, deadly serious. “If you could give me your strength, would you?”
“Of course.”
She squeezed her hand tight. “Then let’s hope this works.” Closing her eyes, she kept their hands held tight. She remembered the night she first met Logan, and that brief flash of a cast she’d done that had actually worked. As weak as she felt, she knew that it wasn’t only her strength she’d need for the cast, but both of theirs.
Think about the light.
She could see it rushing toward her, filling up both their bodies like water in a glass. She had it now.
With barely enough time to let go of Eliana’s hand, she spun away from her, back toward the fray, and streamed down the stairs, her right hand held aloft before her.
The moment the beast’s wavering head turned her way, she let the light pour forth, right at its unblinking black eyes. A scream broke from its maw as the light hit it like a waterfall.
Eventually she felt the cast start to slip, so she let it go. The monster still screamed, now moving back and forth on its too-many grotesque legs.
It’s blind. I blinded it. But it wasn’t dead yet.
It thrashed about blindly, and this time it was Clément who met its wrath. It tossed her backward, and she crumpled in a heap on the floor. Jude felt her fear starting to rise, despite the piece of Eliana’s strength she now carried.
You’re going to fail, said an unknown voice inside her head. You always fail.
“Get out of the way, kid!”
Before she realized what was happening, Alexei had taken hold of her and was dragging her backward. He pushed her behind one of the thick stone pillars and crouched beside her.
“You made it angry,” he muttered to her. Beyond the pillar, the beast still thrashed about. “That was a nice bit of casting, though.”
“We shouldn’t leave Eliana alone out there—”
“She’s fine, for the moment.” He fixed her with a serious stare. “What other eira summoning can you do?”
Jude gaped at him. “What other—what?”
“You know, that thing you just did five seconds ago,” he said, shrugging casually. “Eira.”
Jude blinked. “Uh, I didn’t—I didn’t realize I was—”
“Can you summon fire?” Jude blinked at him, too afraid to speak. He shook his head in annoyance. “Hold out your hand and give it a try.”
Just like you did with Logan. Where the hell is Logan? But she didn’t have time to ask those questions. So, instead, she did as she was told. Holding her hand out in front of her, she remembered what it had been like to summon the fire. She could still feel Eliana’s presence with her, warming her, giving her hope. She remembered the heat, how it filled her up. She remembered the girl in the tower, and the climb up to save her.
Her palm warmed. Glancing down, she nearly gasped to see a neat little ball of fire sitting in her open hand.
“Perfect,” said Alexei. He pushed back from the pillar and waved his arm—at the next pillar down, the woman Jude didn’t know was crouching, waiting. She saw his wave and signaled back to him, and he nodded. Turning back to Jude, he clapped her reassuringly on the shoulder. “I’ve got a plan, and it doesn’t even require you to move from here. You ready for it?”
Jude gulped. “Uh, yeah. Just tell me.”
Alexei nodded, not looking terribly certain himself. “I’m gonna go get your friend’s bow and arrow, and I’m going to fire several very strategic shots with it. What I need you to do is to take that fire you summoned and light every single one of those arrows up. You got it?”
The fire in her hand grew brighter.
“Yeah. I got it.”
“Okay.” He gave her an attempt at a rakish smile, but it almost looked sarcastic. “I’m putting my faith in you, kid.”
Without another word, he ran back out into danger’s path.
The fire in her palm went out.
Fuck. She stared down hard at her hand, trying to remember exactly what she’d felt only moments ago. What was it? The fire—the burning—and towers, and—
She flicked her hand, hard, willing the flame to spring out of it again. Nothing happened. What was different?
Keeping her body low, she ducked out from behind the pillar, looking to see where Alexei had gone. He’d already reached Eliana and was extracting her bow from her hand—
Eliana. She’d touched Eliana—she’d felt their strength merge together, if only for a moment.
That was what she needed. She didn’t quite know how to get there herself yet, but together—together with Eliana, she could do it.
Her eyes darted to the heirophid. Its wild crashing had slowed down, and now it seemed to be feeling its way around, trying to figure out a new way to navigate the room. It bobbed its head back and forth, and suddenly something slick and wet hurled out of its mouth, falling to the ground several feet ahead of it.
The mass hissed as it hit, the stone right beneath it bubbling up and falling away, eroding right before her eyes.
It spits out acid.
Jude felt her heart take off at a gallop as she took in the space in between her pillar and Eliana. But she could see Alexei already gathering up her arrows, about to pick one out to string. She had no choice.
>
She ran as fast as she could. Her steps echoed across the stone, and she knew without having to see that the heirophid could hear her. It spat in her direction, but at the last moment, she put on an extra burst of speed and slid across the remaining stair, landing just behind Alexei.
I’m not the girl in the tower anymore, she told herself as she grabbed Eliana’s hand. Alexei was already drawing back the bow and taking his aim.
I’m the girl who rescues her.
She felt the fire flowing through the both of them, filling them up. Alexei let one arrow fly, then another, and another, and as they flew through the air, Jude channeled the fire out of her hand, lighting all three of them up. They hit the beast one after the other, landing in the softer flesh around its leg joints, and it reared back its front two feet, exposing its underbelly.
The old blonde woman from the Order was already there, summoning a giant metal spike out of thin air. As soon as the monster revealed a weak spot, she pushed her hands forward, and the spike soared through the air, impaling the heirophid right through the middle.
Without even thinking about it, Jude channeled her fire toward the spike, artificially engulfing it in flame even though there was nothing there for it to burn. The fire spread toward the beast’s wound, and when it reached its hide, she willed it to expand.
Before long, the monster was aflame, screaming its inhuman wrath toward the sky. And then, quite suddenly, it wasn’t. It collapsed on the ground. Dead.
Jude let the fire go out of her. As it slipped away, she felt herself exhale, felt her shoulders start to soften. She’d been drawn tight as a bow herself, but now, her slack started to return.
“You all right, kid?” It was Alexei. When she looked back at him, she saw genuine concern on his face.
“I’ll be fine,” she said, and she knew it was true. “You?”
“Seen worse.” He glanced down at Eliana. “I think we need to get this one to a doctor.”