Sucking in a sharp breath, I nodded. I shut it down as best I could.
“You got this?”
I met his stare. “Yes.”
Casteel stepped back, turning to plunge his sword into a dakkai, and I stepped out from behind the pillar. I focused on the Rise, and the essence responded at once. The archers’ bows slipped from their hands as their necks cracked. They fell, and while I knew more would arrive, we had a reprieve.
Turning, I cursed as a horde of dakkais rushed the Temple. The eather arced out from me in a wave of fire, turning them to ash. Across from me, several dakkais spun, howling as they abandoned their attack on Naill and Emil. Their heads rose, and then they charged as Kieran joined Casteel. The essence whirled through me as I lifted my hands to those racing up the steps and the others leaping across the Temple. Fire not too different than what came from the draken manifested, erupting from my palms and slamming into the creatures. They went down, twitching and smoldering. We didn’t have time to mess with them. “Get to Malec,” I told Kieran and Casteel. “And get that dagger out.”
“On it.” Casteel caught my chin in his palm and kissed my cheek before rushing forward.
In my mind, I saw the essence traveling out around me, around the Temple, where it recoiled from the Revenants but flowed over the dakkais. My entire vision turned silver as that taste gathered in the back of my throat. The cold place in me throbbed. I breathed through it as dozens and dozens of streams of light arced out from me, racing across the Temple and the ground below.
When I pulled the eather back, I saw no living, faceless creature among those battling at the foot of the Temple. Smiling tightly, I reached out to Sage through the notam as I turned, and…
I felt nothing.
My breath caught as my eyes locked on Isbeth’s. Her hands were flat on Malec’s chest, moving up and down in shallow breaths.
“There’s more!” Emil shouted.
I whipped around, my heart lodging in my throat as I saw the dakkais. They came from the fissures, but this time, there were hundreds of them, climbing over one another, their blade-like claws scoring soil and stone. And they—
Good gods, they swarmed the armies and the wolven in a wave of screams and yelps. Blood sprayed the air. Aurelia took flight but not quickly enough. The creatures launched onto her back and wings, clawing and biting.
“No!” I shouted, summoning the eather as I willed the draken to take flight. Thad lifted, shaking the dakkais from him as several Atlantian soldiers fired arrows at the ones climbing Aurelia. The essence stretched out from me as dakkais flooded the steps, growling and snapping.
A dark shadow fell over me with a gust of wind that blew the braid across my face. Reaver landed, shaking the entire Temple as he swept his wings back and stretched out his neck, sending a stream of fire at the dakkais on the Temple and then to those on the steps. The flames were so bright, they blinded me momentarily, so I didn’t see Reaver until he shifted into his mortal form.
“Do not use the essence. It’s drawing the dakkais to you. You won’t be able to fight all of them off,” Reaver told me from where he crouched, nude, beside me. “You must stop whatever it is they did to unleash them. That is all you must do.”
My breath caught as my gaze flew to Callum. That damn smirk. He knew.
“Fine,” I bit out, withdrawing my swords. There wasn’t enough time to explain everything. “It’s Malec. He’s dying. That’s what’s causing this. He dies, and Kolis will be at full strength.”
“If that happens, we will all pray for death. Get to him. Now,” Reaver said, and then he rose. A shimmery, silvery light erupted all over his body as he lengthened and grew. Scales replaced flesh, and wings sprouted from his back.
Reaver lifted into the air, roaring a stream of fire that cut through the space above my head as I struck a dakkai rushing me. My heart lodged in my throat as I glanced over my shoulder to the Temple grounds as Reaver lit it up, and I…I knew I could do nothing to aid the soldiers down below. Malec couldn’t die. That was the priority. I turned, withdrawing the wolven dagger as I thrust my sword into a dakkai’s stomach and spun, coming face-to-face with a Royal Guard. I didn’t let myself think or feel as I drew the dagger across his throat.
I jerked back as bright silver flames erupted inches from my face and Nithe flew overhead. I jumped to where the cracks in the Temple weren’t so wide. Gods, it was mayhem—the snarls and grunts coming from the fire, the mist and smoke, the twisting, falling bodies. I caught sight of Hisa, her helmet gone and blood dotting her face as she shoved her sword through a dakkai. She spun, her eyes meeting mine. “We can—”