CHAPTER 29

  I slammed my Breath into overdrive.

  Diaphragm out, diaphragm in, hard and fast, dragging air through my lungs like bellows. The cross of power around my chest and back spun up, faster and faster, until it snapped into place as a band of white fire. My heart pounded so loud it was almost a drum outside my body. Every vein felt lit.

  The statues we’d just walked between—who were now free from their medusa-like prison—let out a unified roar and burst forward, splitting into four wedges that charged each of us from the center of the room.

  I flicked a glance back. The Gurus were still on their feet behind me, barely. Rasa’s arms shook; Kael’s face was a mask of dried blood and fresh streaks. They had nothing left to give.

  “Stay behind us,” I snarled, then turned to meet the first wave of men.

  The room was almost totally dark, the only light was from the dying glow of the light Leace had dropped when Nanda grabbed her. My Chimera eyes didn’t mind, though, and adjusted quickly. The twenty men barreling at me were clear enough.

  First spear—straight for my chest. I caught the shaft, yanked, and dragged the man forward off his feet. My left fist punched up under his jaw, breaking bone. He collapsed before he could even scream.

  Second spear—angled for my ribs. I grabbed it and spun aside, driving it through the next man’s neck. His gurgled when Fern’s blade hissed behind me, cleaving his head off.

  After that, there was more motion and more blood. Spears stabbed at me; my claws tore at them; Ashsteel hummed and feasted with every death. The black blade cut easily through every man’s flesh like paper. We moved like scissors through cloth, leaving a widening smear of bodies behind us. Every time I let someone past my guard, Fern would lash out, and Ashsteel would deliver a killing blow.

  Across the room, similar screams choked out of the tongueless soldiers. Sora flew above like a hummingbird, shooting arrows down on the men, covering Mel’s blind spot, while the Pangobadger roared and crushed and slashed her way through the spearmen. All of us ripped through Nerida’s small army with ease.

  The Sibling watched from the center of the chamber, snapping her head around like an owl, and tracking our every move.

  Four minutes, Fern said.

  I slammed my bloodied fist into the chest of the last man, and he collapsed, grasping at his caved-in ribs before he dropped. I straightened, chest heaving, and looked across the room.

  Sora and Raine had shot down the last soldier on her side, and Tevin, Ruriel, and Zenobia were finishing off the two men who charged them.

  Zenobia stood tall and slender in her Third Form, the Orchid Mantis. Small flowers grew at the joints of her limbs, and thin pink chitin covered her body. Her face was slightly more angular, and her eyes were wider. In her right hand, she was spinning her rope dart and launched it at the closest man, sending the metal-weight crashing into his skull. The man fell, and Ruriel sped past him, cutting up the last guard with his two small swords. Leace had made her way way to the Gurus with Nandas help, and the Veclan ran back to face Nerida.

  She looked around at her fallen gaurds and laughed.

  Three minutes, Fern said.

  My heart sank. All that time and no progress on the Sibling herself.

  “Well,” Nerida said, her voice echoing off the stone, “That was entertaining. I didn’t realize the Criers kept more of you hidden away. When did you join their little cause?”

  “She is stalling!” Kael coughed behind me. “Trying to waste your Breath!”

  Nerida tilted her head toward him, shadow twisting and hissed.

  Her arm flicked.

  And a spike the size of a javelin, pitch-black and slick, shot out from her toward Kael.

  Pulse had given me heightened senses, and moved my arm without actually thinking about it. I caught the spike just as it was passing was able to knock it off course, burying itself in the stone an inch from Kael’s foot.

  “Not bad, little cat,” Nerida purred. “You are fast.”

  I locked my jaw.

  I’m done waiting, I’m going all out, I told Fern.

  His tail arched over my shoulder, Ashsteel poised like a scorpion stinger.

  Go.

  I bent my knees to launch.

  Something blurred at the edge of my vision.

  Sora, bow drawn and an arrow nocked, glowing at the tip. She released the string.

  The arrow hit Nerida right between her four eyes.

  BOOM.

  Red light exploded across the chamber, lighting up every dark corner of the room. Nerida screamed, high and shrill, and the flare lodged in her head stayed lit spewing a red glow over everything.

  “Now!” I barked.

  Pulse tightened every muscle, and I sprinted forward, wings beating behind me, sending me soaring across the room.

  Nerida was still shielding her face, one arm up. The flare lodged in her forehead poured red light and smoke, bathing her features, and blinding her.

  In three strides, I was in range.

  My claws reached out, aiming for her ribs, ready to pierce flesh and tear.

  But I was stopped.

  A cold, wet hand clamped around my wrist holding me inches away from her torso.

  “Hahaha,” Nerida laughed, lowering two arms from her eyes. “You really fell for that?”

  Fern moved to strike, but Nerida was quicker. With her other hand, she snatched Fern’s snake-body out of the air, and caused him to drop the Ashsteel blade to the floor.

  “Erik!” Mel bellowed.

  Nerida twisted and hurled me like a stone.

  I hit Mel full-on. Her metal claw dug into my back as we tumbled over the fallen guards. We rolled to a stop in a heap of stone and bodies.

  I scrambled up and my heart shot to my throat. Nerida now held the Ashsteel sword in one hand, turning it lazily. The Soul Glass gleamed in the hilt, pulsing fast, like a panicked green heart.

  “Ah,” she said. “There you are my precious.”

  “No,” I gasped, and charged. Fern slid to my neck and pulled the dagger that hung there free, and I made contact with Nerida.

  CLANG

  Lightcutter slammed into Ashsteel.

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  The clash rang through my bones, while Nerida didn’t even budge. I slammed my fists into her gut, and it was like punching a solid building. Above me, Fern and her clashed blade against blade again, and again. Pulse lit my adrenaline, and I punched her again, over and over, each swing faster than the last, each punch with more force behind it. But Nerida’s body hardly moved. With every swing Fern made with Lightcutter, the blade clanged off the black blade.

  From above, three arrows shot down in quick succession, burying themselves in Nerida’s her neck with wet thuds. Somehow, Sora was able to fine the thinnest parts of Nerida’s flesh to pierce. But still, the Sibling ignored the arrows. Without looking up, she threw out a free hand, and three poison-laced spikes shot toward Sora.

  With precision, she twisted midair, wings folding and snapping open, and the spikes whistled past. Sora had picked up flying quite well. I was shocked.

  We need everyone! Fern yelled, locked in his sword fight.

  “Together now!” I cried.

  Ruriel hit her first.

  A black-and-white streak shot low along the floor, blurring around her long tail. His snow leopard infusion turned him into a spinning storm of fur and steel. His twin blades carved thin glowing lines across her tails and lower back, each cut bursting dark blood like sliced ripe fruit. The wounds closed, as Nerida tried to keep healing but as soon as she did, Ruriel cut her more.

  Mel came in next, dropping from above. She wrapped her legs around Nerida’s neck and smashed plated fists into the Sibling’s face in a merciless rhythm.

  Nerida reared back, lifting her arm with the Ashsteel blade high, aiming for Mel—

  Zenobia’s rope dart flashed. The spiked weight wrapped around Nerida’s sword wrist. The line went taut. Tevin planted his beetle-shell feet and hauled, anchoring Zenobia as she yanked the arm back.

  On the other side, Nanda slammed into Nerida’s back using his hulking Ape form’s strength to hold two of her other arms down. His four hands locked together, refusing to give, muscles bulging.

  Raine strafed the flailing Sibling with a continuous stream of thick, shards of hail. The ice slammed into Nerida’s body like a constant barrage of stones. Sora rained more arrows, embedding them in joints wherever she could see bare flesh.

  Nerida was pinned.

  “Her wrist!” Mel shouted, still hammering Nerida’s jaw over and over.

  Fern shot up with a light cutter and swiped at the sibling’s sword hand’s wrist. But she did not drop the sword.

  Nanda and Mel roared as the Sibling thrashed about. Their combined strength held her arms further back, and Fern swiped again but she still didnt drop it. I rammed my fists into her stomach over and over and over as hard as I could, I roared and felt Pulse rip across me and I punched her again. My knuckles broke but she doubled over, and I heard Lightcutted draw blood, and I saw above me the black sword fell.

  “Get it!” I yelled.

  Fern dropped Lightcutter and grabbed the black sword. I pushed backwards and he sliced the sword down through Nerida’s exposed chest. Flesh, bone, and black organs, split open, giving way to the small shard pulsing red with veins.

  There.

  Now! I screamed in my mind.

  I stepped back forward, and Fern was twisting with the blade for his follow up strike.

  “NOOO!” Nerida wailed.

  And Fern shot forward again, like a viper. The Ashsteel sword drove straight into Nerida’s chest and into the Urn fragment.

  There was a crack.

  A crack like if a ceramic bowl broke on stone.

  The fragment split, and the red pulsing veins faded. Then, from the broken pieces, light erupted from Nerida.

  Teal-white wisps burst out of her chest, pouring through the room like ghostly smoke seeking any crack to escape through. The blast of cold hit us, sending us all tumbling backwards. I slammed into the wall, and my ribs screamed.

  “IGIIII!” Nerida shrieked, as her body writhed unsettelingly. “IGIIII!”

  The floor buckled and fractured under her.

  Her body ballooned, flesh bubbling, dark spots of spikes swelling under pores—

  “Poison spikes! Get back!” Mel yelled.

  No one had time.

  The Sibling exploded.

  Poison spikes shot out in every direction.

  One punched through my gut. Fire and ice detonated in my stomach, and air left my lungs in a grunt. Across the room, I saw Sora and Raine drop from the air like shot birds. Mel and Nanda crouched against opposite walls, both pinned by long, dark spikes, and Zenobia and Tevin were nailed together onto the floor, one huge poison spike driven through both of them.

  My world spun into horror. Wh-what…what do we do? Is…are we all?

  Pain rocketed through my head, and my vision began to blur, when I saw a white and black body run past me. Ruriel had not been hit. Leace, and the Gurus were also saved from the poison.

  Only with Ruriel’s impossibly fast speed and the fact that Leace and the Gurus were already lying flat on the ground kept them from being skewered.

  Pulse fell from me, and exhaustion filled me. My Chimera form vanished, and blood poured from the wound in my stomach. My grip on the world was slipping.

  Nerida toppled like a felled tree. She hit the stone with a crash. Her ruined chest gaped open toward the ceiling, rivers of wisps still streaming out of her, thinner now, searching for cracks.

  “Children!” Kael’s voice was far away. “Stay—stay with me—”

  I couldn’t. My vision narrowed to a tunnel, then to a pinprick. I tried to call Fern and got only static.

  F-fern, help—

  Shapes moved in the fog. A blur of white and black streaked between bodies. Ruriel, still in Snow Leopard form, Pulse somehow still holding, tore across the floor. He ripped the spike out of Zenobia and Tevin in the same movement, flung them toward the stairs, then vanished again, snatching others off the walls and floor.

  A blue glow bloomed above me. Cold hands—familiar hands—hooked under my shoulders and lifted me. I felt myself floating across the room, and for a brief second, I lost consciousness.

  But when sensation returned, I felt a chilly breeze fill my body.

  A bubbling, tingling burn climbed from my torn stomach up into my chest, then my throat, then my eyes.

  I blinked.

  Kael’s face swam into focus above me. His eyes were bloodshot, rimmed in red. Thick streams of blood ran down from them, mixing with tears and dripping onto my cheeks. His breathing came in ragged pulls.

  “Enough,” I croaked. “Kael, enough.”

  He gave a strained grin and tapped my chest.“You will live.” He pushed himself back and stood and started walking away, limping as he walked.

  I strained myself to sit up I was on the opposite door that we came in from, and everyone else was lying around me, all having just been healed by Kael too.

  Behind me, Leace’s voice rose in a broken shout. “Stop! Please! You can’t— we can still run, we can—”

  “Leace,” Ruriel said, hoarse. I twisted my head; he had her in a tight grip, holding her back. He was back in his human form, sweating and his arms quivering. “They have decided.”

  The sound of stone grinding on stone filled the chamber.

  I turned back toward the center.

  Rasa stood alone in the middle of the room, now legs shaking, arms raised, and hands spread wide, humming. The ceiling and floor were both moving, slowly and steadily, walls of rock slid toward each other like the jaws of some enormous trap. Kael walked up and helped him, closing the wall faster.

  At the far end of the room, the triple-sealed door blew inward in a burst of dust and broken stone.

  Igi-igi stepped through.

  He twisted in the same horrific marionette gait, limbs jerking, and patchwork clothes billowing. He took a step into the room and froze.

  He saw his sister.

  Nerida lay in a heap, decaying fast. Her chest was cut open, and wisps were trickling from her like smoke from a dying fire.

  He stopped. Slowly bent, and lifted her head in his hands.

  Then he turned his mask toward us.

  “You have made a grave mistake,” he said. He stood up and his body shook violently. “Give me back my sister.”

  He took a step forward, and his eyeless face twisted in a complete circle. “YOU HAVE MADE A GRAVE MISTAKE.”

  He took another step “GIVE ME BACK MY SISTER.”

  The moving wall was closing, but if Igi-igi ran, he could make it through easily. Sweat dripped on my neck.

  He took another step, “GIVE ME BACK MY SISTER.”

  Rasa and Kael’s arms shook violently. Their skin was tight against their bodies, and it looked like every ounce of muscle and fat in their body had been burned away, leaving only veins, flesh, and their will.

  I tried to push myself up. But Nanda placed a hand on my shoulder. I looked up at him, and he smiled.

  “It is done, they have their moment,” He whispered.

  Igi-igi took another step. “GIVE ME BACK MY SISTER!”

  He then leapt, and the Gurus roared. The wall slammed quickly closed before Igi-igi made it through, and the room grew silent. The stone wall the Gurus summoned was so thick that we could no longer hear Igi-igi on the other side.

  Kael and Rasa remained standing, palms planted against the rock.

  They did not move.

  “No,” Leace whispered.

  She pushed out of Ruriel’s grasp, stumbled down the stairs, and slid to her knees in front of them. I didn’t need to be up close to know that they died. A knot grew in my throat.

  “Thank you,” Leace said softly.

  “Wait,” Zenobia said quietly behind me. “Are they…?”

  Leace turned back and climbed up the steps slowly, face drawn, throat working. “We do not have time for a proper burial,” she said, voice no longer pleading, but back to hard, disciplined steel. “Remember them like this. Standing.”

  She pushed open the door—which was easier to move than the previous ones—and light spilled in.

  “Come on,” she said. “Igi will get through, eventually. We need to be gone before he does.”

  Raine paused at the top of the stairs and bowed her head to the two standing dead men. Sora looked like she might cry, but sucked in a sharp breath, gripped her bow, and followed.

  Zenobia and Tevin hauled Ruriel up between them. He was the only one who didn’t get a full recovery breath from Kael. Nanda and Mel reached down, pulled me to my feet, and we all shuffled out the chamber.

  “But… how could Breath kill them like that?” I asked under my breath.

  “They simply over did it to protect us. Kael healed, over and over, without properly resting, and Rasa use resonance enough to move stone,” Nanda said quietly. “They made sure we lived, even if they died.”

  “That’s how heros go,” Mel said, glancing back at Kael and Rasa’s outline with admiration, “bleeding out to save us.”

  I nodded, and we slipped through the doorway into Tier Three. It was dark, like the world lived in permenant twilight. Lanterns cast a weak glow over cracked cobblestones and leaning apartments. Somewhere in the distance, the sound of applause rang out, music played, and someone screamed about being robbed.

  Leace turned to us, and squared her shoulders. Her face was red from crying, but her mouth was firm.

  “We will go straight to the Criers hideout here on the Third Tier. It’s in the Dark City,” she said. “That’s where the others will be.” She nodded down a narrow street behind her where sagging apartments, broken lamps, and gutters that smelled of piss and rot waited for us.

  She stepped onto the road and we followed, marching solemnly, thinking about Kael and Rasa’s sacrifice.