I’d found her.
As our eyes locked, something within my chest began to open, like blossoms unfurling to greet the rising sun. My inner fire ignited within my chest, the way it did when I was about to call it to my palms. But so did the icy river that also snaked within my soul, pushing frosted power into my blood. The two veins of magic rushed into the air before me, visible to my naked eye for the first time, and I watched with wide eyes as they clashed, expecting an explosion of energy as the warring elements fought for dominance.
But though steam and spitting sparks filled the air, something began to shift. I stared down at my palms to see a strange, golden-green light spill from my skin, softly at first, then brighter and brighter until I was forced to turn my palms away to keep from blinding myself. The power swelled inside me until I felt I was about to burst, and I reached for my beast at the same time she reached for me—
Shrill screams ripped me from the vision before we could make contact, throwing me unceremoniously back into reality. I blinked hard, trying to make sense of the pandemonium—hulking soldiers in black armor, white-robed acolytes flying, deep red blood spattering on the rainbow-dappled walls.
But before I could reconcile it all, someone grabbed me by the hair and yanked me to my feet.
“Well, well,” a familiar voice, one I never thought to hear again, sneered in my ear. Shock rippled through me as I twisted my neck to stare into the face of Dune Terran, my childhood bully and the fae I’d once fancied myself in love with. “Look what we found here.”
“Dune?” I spoke the name uncertainly, not entirely sure if this was yet another vision. Something cold and hard clamped around my wrists, but I barely noticed, my mind still whirling. “What is this?” His fingers dug into my scalp, preventing me from turning to look at him. “Let go of me!”
“Not a chance,” he said, a wicked grin lighting up his rugged features. He loosened his grip on my hair enough to spin me around, and my stomach lurched as I took him in. He wore the black regalia and armor of the shadow guard, and the telltale veins of blackness spreading up the sides of his neck and bleeding into the whites of his eyes told me the armor wasn’t just for show. A dark aura pulsed around him, more potent than General Slaugh’s, and nearly as sickening as Nox’s power. “Not after all the trouble I’ve gone through. Your dragon may have saved you from my golem, but he won’t be able to protect you now. It’s time for me to finish you off.”
42
Einar
“How much longer do you think she’s going to be in there?” I asked Tamil as we stood guard outside the inner sanctum.
The aquamarine light shimmering from the cavern walls played across Tamil’s pale face as she turned to give me a wry look. “Sometimes it takes a few hours. Sometimes it takes days. I think the longest recorded coming-of-age ritual was just six hours shy of being a full week long.”
“A week?” I nearly shouted the words before remembering that Adara was just on the other side of the door. “I’m not sure we have that kind of time. General Slaugh and the others will find us long before that.”
Tamil rolled her eyes. “That’s the worst-case scenario, Einar. It’s not going to take a week. No one I know has taken longer than a day. Besides, don’t your own rituals take just as long?”
“Anywhere from one to three days,” I agreed gruffly. “But the fate of the world doesn't usually rest on them.”
I glanced at the double doors to the inner sanctum, wondering how Adara was faring. She’d been in there close to five hours already. If this was anything like the Umnar, she would have ingested a hallucinogenic tea to open her mind, propelling her into the spiritual journey that would lead her to her inner beast. I wanted her to experience the same intense rush of power and unshakable sense of self I had when I’d connected with my dragon form for the first time.
I just wanted her to do it a little faster.
“Do you hear that?” Tamil asked as a rumble shook the cavern. Dust particles rained from the ceiling, and we froze at the sound of alarmed shouts. A wave of dark magic rippled through the air, and I automatically shifted into my half-dragon form, wings bursting from my back.
“I’ll go check it out,” I growled. Tamil shouted after me as I ran forward, but I launched myself in the air, clearing the switchback stairwell in a few short wing beats. I landed inside the mouth of the cave to find a full-scale battle taking place just outside. My mouth dropped open at the sight of ten shadow guard soldiers tearing into the small group of ice fae Tamil had posted outside the cavern entrance. How had they cleared the ice wall and gotten all the way here without raising an alarm?
But a sickening realization lurched through me as I remembered how General Slaugh had taken Adara. He’d opened a portal using shadow magic, then grabbed her and yanked her through it before any of us could stop him. The shadow guards must have used the same magic to get here.
These thoughts all flitted through my head in a split second, and then I was charging forward, picking up a fallen sword as I ran with one hand, a massive fireball already building in the other. Tamil’s soldiers fought valiantly, but the shadow soldiers were tearing through them, using their tainted magic to crumble their ice shields and strike at their hearts. I ran up behind one as he stood over a terrified ice fae, boot on his chest, mace swinging down toward his head, and drove my sword straight through his back. His death scream rent the air as another shadow soldier ran toward me, and I blasted him with the fireball in my free hand, sending him flying down the mountainside.
“Einar!” Tamil appeared at my side, an ice javelin clutched in her hand. Fury blazed in her ice-blue eyes as she threw the weapon, aiming for a tall, dark-skinned shadow guard ten yards away. This one was different from the rest—he wielded raw shadow magic rather than the tainted elemental powers of his fellow guards, using it to destroy his enemies where they stood. Without even looking away from the fae dangling from his fist, he caught the ice javelin with his free hand. The elemental weapon melted instantly, raining onto the stony ground at his feet while the fae in his other hand rotted away, skin, hair and eyes consumed by the black magic permeating his veins.
“What is this madness?” Tamil shouted as black spikes burst from the ice fae’s skin. “What are you doing to him?”
The shadow soldier turned toward us with a grin, and my stomach lurched as I recognized him from Adara’s description. "You’re Dune. The earth fae boy who broke Adara’s heart, then tried to turn her in to General Slaugh.”
“At your service.” He sketched a mocking bow, releasing the ice fae as he did so. To the mutual horror of both Tamil and me, the fae turned in our direction with a snarl, baring sharp fangs dripping with inky venom. There was nothing left of the person he’d been inside the soulless eyes that glared out of his mottled black face—only a deep-seated, animalistic hunger.
“As for what I’m doing… I’ve turned him into my slave,” Dune said nonchalantly, as if reducing fae to mindless monsters was no big deal. “Mistress Nox ordered me to kill you and Adara, but I don’t see why I should have to do all the dirty work myself.”
He snapped his fingers, and the fae bounded forward with terrifying speed, an unearthly scream tearing from his throat. Tamil and I dove out of the way, the ice fae dropping into a forward roll while I took to the skies, beating my wings hard to gain altitude as quickly as possible.
“Go after Adara!” Tamil shouted as I conjured more fireballs to rain down on the beast. “I’ll handle the creature!”
Tamil slammed her fist into the ground, sending a wave of ice across the battlefield just as the shadow creature charged. It shrieked as it lost its footing, skidding sideways across the ground to slam into the mountainside. The other shadow guards started flailing as well, their armored boots not made for icy terrain. The remaining ice fae soldiers rallied, and Tamil conjured another javelin, stalking toward the creature as it regained its feet.
Tearing my gaze away from the scene, I dove through the cave entrance and arrowed toward Dune, who was halfway across the temple floor, a handful of shadow guards in tow. He turned just in time for me to body slam him, letting out a surprised grunt as I took him to the ground. I tucked my wings in to protect them as we rolled across the slick cavern floor, my claws shredding his armor like paper and leaving deep gouge marks in his skin. Black blood seeped from the wounds and into my skin, and a wave of nausea swept through me as I felt the shadow magic permeate my body.