“How am I not supposed to move?” Dez hissed, his eyes wide. His fingers twitched for his weapon.
“Trust me,” she said, barely moving her lips. “Not until I say.”
Like a cat about to pounce, the saber bowed its lower body to the ground and reared its hips in the air. Her mind raced as she gathered her magic, because with five beasts, this didn’t look optimistic. If only she could summon that raging power she’d burnt Ellynne to ash with.
The saber bared its fangs. Its muscles rippled, its powerful body prepared to strike.
Emmery threw her hand up and cast a wall, funnelling as much fire as she could into it. Making it solid. Hearty. “Now!” she bellowed.
Dez sprinted toward her. His arms pumped as the sabers advanced on him and his crystal thumped against his chest like a heartbeat. The saber’s eyes found Emmery’s through the fiery wall, and it leapt. The tips of its coat singed, but it landed on the other side and bounded toward her.
Her heart lodged in her throat as she blasted it with fire to melt the flesh from its bones before it could reach Destonne. Her magic ripped from her, like water burst through a dam. The saber thrashed against the flame, but slowed, and its body crumpled to the ground.
Dez ran past her and tried the door. It didn’t budge.
He threw his body weight into it, but to no avail.
Emmery flared her magic, circled herself on all sides, raised the flames as high as they would go, to the fucking ceiling if she had to. Her magic flooded from her in a great barrage of flamesuntil the room blazed and sweat trickled down her forehead, arms, and dampened her shirt.
“Em,” Destonne said, hesitantly. “I hate to distract you from thebrilliantwork you’re doing, but I need you to blast the door. I can’t break the lock.”
She tucked the loose vial back into her sleeve and stepped toward the door, trying to center all her focus on the flames. “Keep them occupied,” she said.
“While I’m flattered by your overwhelming confidence,” he drawled as he pulled his sword from the scabbard, “there’s absolutely no way.”
The exertion weighed on her, but she redirected her flow and shot it toward the door which now held the same barrier as the entranceway. Her flame ricocheted off it, and,damn, she grew weaker by the second.
She still hadn’t fully recovered from the ordeal with Senka not even a day ago. When she swiped a hand across her nose and glanced at her already bloody skin, fresh crimson smeared across it. Her stomach twisted into knots. That last blast had slipped and she knew it.
One of the smaller offspring reared back on its hind legs and leapt. Emmery cast her flame, threw it like a boulder, but it didn’t hold the same impact as before. It merely singed the saber’s fur.
Dez threw himself to the side and righted himself with his sword ready to strike. The saber scrambled, nails scraping in the dirt, and leapt again. But this time his sword aimed true, poised at its belly.
The saber howled as the blade split it open from chin to tail. It skidded along the ground like a tossed pebble, and a spray of crimson and entrails coated the ground as it twitched and writhed but fell still.
Movement out of the corner of her eye drew Emmery’s attention to the charcoaled husk of the fallen saber, and her gut twisted. Because its fur had faded from black, and once again shone silver.
And its chest rose and fell with stuttering breaths.
Impossible.
To her right, Dez yelled as he battled another saber, his sword wielded with flawless precision. Emmery joined at his side and called her flame. It became a dance: her magic, and his blade, cutting, and burning, slicing and destroying.
Without even meeting each other’s gazes, they fought together, their minds impossibly linked, bodies moving in tandem, two unstoppable forces of death. At her side Dez skewered another saber. He hauled his sword free, flicked off the blood, and spun.
But they both didn’t see the largest saber skulking in the brush.
Not until it lunged.
And it was too late.
Dez tried to reach her, tried to shove her out of the way, but the saber struck. Knocked her back.
The air burst from her lungs as she hit the ground. Her elbow screamed in pain as something sharp and jagged bit into her flesh, and hot blood ran down her arm.
The saber’s paw clamped down on her chest. Its feline face loomed over hers, and the feral growl that rumbled in its throat became a thing of nightmares. Saliva stretched and dropped from its maw onto her cheek. She fought its heavy hold, but its paw carried the force of a damn mountain.
From behind the creature, Dez’s black blade glinted as he swung. With a sickening squelch, the sword notched into the saber’s shoulder. Blood sprayed and it roared, then raised its massive paw at him. Its arm blurred as it moved at lightningspeed. Claws sank into his chest, and he staggered back, but bared his teeth and swung again.