My ears were ringing, but I tugged at Kieran’s Shadows, preparing to unleash a world of hurt when it whipped a thick vine straight into his chest, knocking him to the ground before he could dodge.
Heart pounding with fear and rage, I lit the damned thing up like kindling. Instinct and emotion took over, and the aether I unleashed within the Leshy’s body wasn’t Light… It was Fire.
Fuck.
I could already smell the smoke, and my mind was racing as I watched Kieran quickly scramble to his feet, vague confusion flickering in his eyes before it was immediately replaced by panic.
Before I could even process whether he was panicking about the monster, or catching me flame-handed, the Leshy’s claws ripped into my ribcage, and suddenly I was the one screaming.
I fell to my knees on the forest floor, keeling over in agony. The gashes were significant, yes—but that wasn’t the source of the pain. Itburned.This burning was unlike anything I’d ever known, and when I pulled my hand away from my body, it was slick with blood.
I had to get up, I had to fight back, but—my ribs, my lungs. It felt like my chest had been doused in acid, like the wound wasimmediately festering, the ichor eating its way into my flesh. I tried to draw on my Light, just to craft a shield, a temporary bandage to stop the bleeding, anything… but I couldn’t. I couldn’t feel any of my Resonances. What the Hel?
I could vaguely hear Kieran shouting as my vision began to blur.
Why did he sound like he was underwater? And was I seeing double, or had a second fiend joined the fray? My tongue felt thick, my senses dull and delayed, and my body… Heavy. Much too heavy. I could barely keep my head up.
Stay away from the talons, he’d told me.The poison works fast.
Shit.
Chapter Fifty
Kieran
A brief moment of distraction was all it took for me to fuck up.
I had paused just a second too long, my attention diverted by the scent of smoke. I dropped my shields on her for a fraction of an instant, my reckless attempt to redirect my arcana and catch the Leshy’s gnarled arm as it flew towards Arken—but my daggers just barely missed their target.
Too slow. Too godsdamned slow, trying to strike from my blind side.
But where had the smoke come from?
My heart was pounding with adrenaline and Shadow as they surged through my veins in tandem, mind racing—desperately trying to make sense of everything that was happening all at once. Words could not describe the depth of the fear, or thefurythat rose up like bile in my throat the moment I heard her scream. My hair stood on end, something primordial and fiercely protective stirring at the sound of that desperate, blood-curdling cry.
“Kieran!”
Immediately, without even thinking, I released the damper I typically kept on my Shadow. Consequences be damned, now was not the fucking time to hold myself back. I didn’t have much time. Ten minutes at most. Shit.Shit.
We were too deep in the Wyldwoods to get her to an infirmary in time, and I didn’t even know if the clerics carried what she would need to heal. I had to get her out of here, and fast, but first I needed to restrain this son of a bitch.
“Arken? Hang on! Breathe— breathe slowly!” I shouted, praying to the Source that she was still lucid. If she could slow her own heart rate down, the poison would take longer to disperse.
All I heard in response was a weak whimper, and I bit down hard on my lip, willing myself not to panic. She was still conscious. I still had time to save her, but I had to fucking focus. This was not the first daemon I had encountered alone, but I wasn’t about to gamble on my strength versus Arken’s constitution.
Restrain it. Save her first.
With a sharp inhale, I drew from every single element I could find in my vicinity. The Air, the moisture in the soil, the Earth itself, pulling it into my chest. With a flick of my wrist, thick bands of Shadow shot out and encircled the corrupted creature’s arms and legs, binding it in place. The dark tethers wouldn’t hold for long, not for a monster of this size, but they’d hold long enough for me to get her out of here.
I sprinted over to where Arken was now lying on her side, moaning in pain. The sound threatened to pierce my heart andtear me to shreds.You should’ve focused on the shields, you dumb bastard.But I could ruminate later—we needed to get back to the city, and fast. As I picked Arken up, cradling her as delicately in my arms as I could, I realized with horror how deep the Leshy had struck.
There was no way I could run her back into Sophrosyne without making those wounds much, much worse. If the poison didn’t kill her, the blood loss very well could. Her eyes had already fluttered closed, and she could barely speak—though that didn’t stop her from trying.
“Kee-reh? Eh hurts…” she whimpered, her tongue thickened by the ichor.
“I know, sweetheart. I’m gonna get you home and all fixed up, I just need you to hold on to me, okay?”
“Kay,” she mumbled, resting her head against my shoulder. The weak grip she had on my coat was the best I was going to get from her in this state.