The beast crashed to earth, shuddering with the impact as the shockwaves danced through the clearing. Trees snapped like twigs. Birds scattered. Even the sky was holding back in recoil from the awesome impact of its coming!
Liora tried to pull Kael back to his feet as dust and ash spun around them.
"Stay where you are," he ordered and his wings lashed out. His shadow lay upon floor of the woods like that of a war-cloak.
Before Liora could nod, the creature sprang.
For a creature of its size, it was moving impossibly fast. Honed arms swung forward, whistling through air, directly at Kael's chest.
Kael stunted, grabbed the swing of one of its arm and juiced it. Metal screeched as shattering force clashed with starborn steel. The animal lurched but didn't fall. It made its other arm a spear and stabbed.
Kael jumped back, inches out of the stake's way.
"What is that thing?" Liora screamed from where he'd just pushed her behind to a fallen tree.
"The Council's insurance policy," Kael growled, walking around the creature. "A creation of divine essence and tainted souls. Built only to kill me."
The monster roared, the sound splitting the stone. There was a shockwave that swept through the clearing, hurling Kael into the boulder with spine compressing energy.
Liora screamed and ran to him.
"Back off —" Kael snarled with a shudder that he forced his way to stand up on.
"No!" she snapped. "I'm not going to stand by and watch you die!"
Their bond vibrated between them, a living string. The gem on her wrist shimmered once more.
The dino-thing launched at Kael again, quicker than before, it's gaze fixed on Kael.
Liora had a fraction of a second to think.
She dove right before it.
"LIORA!" Kael roared.
The beast could not break its bearings. Its blade arm came down—
— and plowed headfirst into a wall of golden light.
The creature staggered, startled.
Liora blinked. "What just…?"
Kael was there before she hit the ground. "You brought the soul-shield."
"What?"
"It's part of the bond. It only activates when we're in life-threatening danger… at the same time." He looked at her, stunned. "No anchor has ever lived long enough to wake it up."
Before they could act, the monster struck again, this time smarter, feinting left, then slanting to the right.
Kael, without turning, grasped the blow and smashed the beast's arm down, yelling, "Now!"
Liora automatically put her hand out. The light of her mark burst forth in a blinding arc of force, swallowing the beast whole.
It shrieked.
Kael's back erupted in fiery wings as he shouted, "Finish it!"
This is another one of the aspects I liked the most in this novel – the light and the shadow always combined, with Liora being the light, Kael being the shadow. Darkness and light wove together, and crashed into the creature like the last breath of a dying star.
It crumpled back in on itself, metal distorting, light bleeding through.
Then silence.
Smoke lingered.
Liora dropped to her knees, wheezing.
Kael looked down on the smokin' corpse of the monster. The breast rose and fell in jerky rhythm. "That …that should not have worked."
"But it did," she whispered.
He spun to face her, extending his hand. "You surprised me."
She shook it and their fingers locked.
"You surprise me as well," she said. "You were supposed to be a heartless demon.
Kael smirked faintly. "And you, you were the one meant to be an ineffective, clueless anchor."
They looked at each other just one beat too long.
Then he cleared his throat and released her hand. "We have to move. That wasn't the only backup."
Liora frowned. "What do you mean?"
"They'll send more. Constructs. Assassins. Divine fire, maybe."
She blinked. "You're not serious."
"I wish I weren't." He looked back at the mountains in the distance. "We need to find the Oracle."
"The who?"
"The only creature who can unhinge a soul without destroying half of it."It must be a part, solutions. If she's still alive."
Liora swallowed hard. "Where is she?"
Kael looked up. "In the Skyfire Wastes. Through the broken kingdoms."
Liora exhaled. "Of course."
---
That Night — In the Wilds
They halted in the ruined shell of an abandoned shrine, its form lost in moss and moonlight. Kael snapped his fingers to light a fire—a purple and black one, swirling with unnatural embers.
Liora curled around it, hugging herself.
"You said the Oracle might be able to break the bond," she said. "What happens if she can't?"
Kael glanced at her over the fire. "Then you'll belong to me … until either of us is dead."
She didn't respond.
Eventually she asked, "Why did you let yourself get sealed all those years ago?"
He didn't answer right away.
Then: "Because I didn't have any control."
Liora looked up sharply. "Of what?"
"My power. My rage. My...self." He stared into the fire. "I killed a whole army without even thinking about it. And then I realized I didn't even know if they were deserving."
He flexed his hands. "So I let them seal me. But I thought if I slept long enough, I'd forget."
"And did you?"
Kael turned to her.
"No. I remember everything."
---
Far away — Council Spire
"Not seen Myron," Councilor Arin murmured.
The rest sat in strained silence around the table.
"And the girl and Kael are gone."
"We didn't realize the bond," another one muttered.
The chamber door opened and a shadowed figure walked in. His voice was low and eerie.
"Well allow me to fix your mistake.
"Who are you?" Arin demanded.
"A solution," the figure said. "You want the girl dead. The Night Sovereign bound."
"We want balance restored."
"Then let me hunt them."
A pause.
Then: "And what do you want in return?
The man raised his head slightly to show glowing green eyes.
"Once I've brought them back … I will take her soul."
---
At the shattered shrine — a few minutes later
Liora awoke with a jolt. The fire was dead. The forest was silent.
Too silent.
"Kael?" she whispered.
No answer.
She rose, wrapping herself in her cloak.
"Kael—"
Something dark swooped in front of her, too quick to follow.
She screamed.
Kael snarled and drove himself into the shape in the air. Like vines, the two seemed to roll and crawl along the ground in a blur of magic and smoke.
Liora fell back, her heart pounding.
Kael mounted the attacker, who stared back at him in fury. "You."
The figure laughed. "Still dramatic, I see."
Liora squinted. The attacker was clad in obsidian-scaled armor that was split at the joints. A twin of Kael, but corrupted — his grin wicked, eyes glowing green.
"Who is that?" she asked.
Kael didn't look away. "My brother."
Liora's breath caught.
"Your what?"
The brother grinned wider. "Didn't he tell you? It was I who sealed the seal that imprisoned him. And now, sweet girl…"
He lifted a shard of black crystal.
"I'm here to complete what I set out to do."