Effie tightened her grip on the pommel of her sword and charged. The Shadows may not have put the poor man out of his misery, but she would.
Its sibilant voice reached her before she was within striking range. “He wakes.”
“Yeah? Tell me something I don’t know,” Effie replied, her blade already swinging high as she prepared for a killing blow.
The Shadow reached for her, bony fingers curled into claws. “There is a traitor in your midst. One who aligns themselves with the darkness.”
That gave Effie pause.
“Effie, look out!”
While the Shadow had been distracting her, two more had snuck up behind her. She hissed in pain as razor-sharp nails raked down the back of her right arm. As she turned to deal with the threat, Lucian beheaded them both with one powerful swing of his blade.
Knowing he would protect her from further sneak attacks, Effie twisted back to face her enemy, her eyes narrowed into slits. “If we have a traitor, I’ll gladly show them the same courtesy I’m going to give you.” Her blade was already moving, looking like a beam of light as it arced through the air. Before the Shadow could speak further, she was slicing through his neck with no more effort than one would use to spread jam on toast. As his mangled head fell from his body, Effie wiped her blade on the side of her pants. “Even an enemy should appreciate a quick death.”
She looked away from her kill to see that the rest of the mass had met up with them. Sliding into position, she was lost to the dance of the blade. Effie was covered in ichor and filth, but she only stopped long enough to identify her next target. If she’d realized how far away she’d gotten from the others, she might not have allowed herself to become so lost to the battle.
But by the time she noticed, it was too late.
Lucian moved with a warrior’s grace, the act of battle so finely ingrained in him he was reacting without conscious thought. Around him others hurled balls of fire and ice, using their magic in combination with their weapons. For all that they were outnumbered, it was a slaughter. Helena alone managed to cull half the enemy’s force by raining fire from the sky.
But still the Shadow army came, undaunted by the ease with which their fellows had been dispatched.
The air was thick with smoke and the smell of rotting flesh. Lucian’s eyes watered, but his steps were sure. The ring of Kael’s blade met his ears. They fought as they had for centuries: back to back. From the sound of it, his blade brother was doing just fine.
Lucian spared a second to eye the battlefield, searching for the familiar blonde head that was supposed to be just in front of him.
Effie was nowhere to be found.
Jaw clenched, Lucian tightened his hold on his blade and became a flurry of movement, working his way through the sea of bodies to the place he’d last seen her. He’d almost lost her once. There was no way he was going to allow it to happen again.
“Lucian, hold on. Luc, wait!” Kael’s frustrated shouts sounded behind him, but Lucian didn’t stop. Kael was a warrior born and bred; he could hold his own.
He ducked as a ball of sickly green acid was lobbed his way, and then dodged as one of the Shadow-touched caebris appeared directly in his path. The beast bared its teeth, saliva dripping from its long fangs as it let out a deep growl.
Lucian bared his teeth and returned the growl with a roar of his own. The beast lunged, claws extended as it sprang toward him. Lucian was ready, his blade sinking clean into the massive cat’s belly and then up through its chest, cleaving it in two. Warm blood spurted on his hands and face, but still he did not stop.
As he raced ahead, he caught brief flashes of the others. Helena and her Mate were wielding Fire, creating a smoldering wall of flame that cut off the Shadows on two sides. It provided Joquil a safer place to stand while he called forth his own powerful magic. Ronan was pulling an ax free from some furred beast Lucian didn’t recognize while Reyna hurled dagger after dagger into the throat of an approaching Shadow. Kragen was crushing the skull of one of the fiends between his massive hands.
But still no sign of Effie.
He hesitated to call out to her through their mental link, lest it startle her during a crucial moment. For any of the other Guardians, there would have been no hesitation. They had spent years preparing for those exact circumstances in order to coordinate with each other during attacks without being overhead. Effie had yet to venture into that level of training, and Lucian refused to be the liability that saw her harmed.
That didn’t stop him from muttering a string of stinging expletives as he imagined with crystalline clarity all of the horrific things that could have happened to her. He used his fear to stoke his rage and swung his weapon with brutal force. Lucian could just make out a distinctive sizzle over the screams of the fallen when his sword connected with flesh, cauterizing wounds as it created them.
Lucian let out a low grunt as he pulled his weapon free from another caebris when a flash of wheat-colored hair caught his eye. His relief was so potent he was momentarily lightheaded. Effie was using her height to her advantage, easily ducking beneath one of the Shadows’ arms as he attempted to strike, darting around him to land her own deadly blow. Lucian recognized the move. He’d taught it to her.
Effie caught his eye and gave him an impish grin.
He returned it with one of his own, pride swelling inside of him just as the ground began to shake. There wasn’t even time for Lucian to catch his balance before the world dropped out from beneath him.
The earth groaned as it was bent in two. Effie could only watch in stunned disbelief as Lucian disappeared into a sinkhole that had grown right where the citadel once stood.
“Lucian!” she screamed, running forward to be stopped short by an arm around the waist.
“Effie, damn it, wait.”
“Kael, let me go,” she gasped, struggling in his hold. “He could be hurt. He needs me.”
“It’s not safe. If you get too close, you could fall in too.”
Effie twisted in Kael’s arms, her voice feral as she spat her words at him. “No matter the danger he would never give up on me, nor I him. Now, let. Me. GO!” With the last word, she shoved his arm away, finding a strength she didn’t know she possessed.
As soon as she was free she was sprinting forward. The ground was continuing to quake, more dirt and rubble falling into the ever-growing hole. Reaching the edge, she began to slow, dropping to her knees when she’d gotten as close as she dared.
“Lucian?” she called as she risked a look down into the massive pit.
For one terrible moment there was nothing, and then a labored, “I’m here!”
Her relief was so intense it was almost painful. She may not know the state of his injuries but at least he was conscious. “I’m going to get you out of there!”
Tears stung her eyes as she tried to figure out a way to follow through on her promise. Think, Effie. Think. As it was, Lucian was so far down she could barely make him out in the gaping darkness. Even then he was only a ripple in the gloom.
Around her the battle raged, but it felt muted now. Her entire being was focused on the man below. And then her heart stopped beating as a terror she’d only experienced during two of the worst moments of her life took hold of her.
“Effie . . . I don’t think . . . I’m alone down here.”