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I whip out a stream of shadows towards him when his head snaps up to the sky, following Emma’s light. The distraction lets me hit my mark, forcing his hand to release her. I launch myself with a sharp gust of my wings, tucking them in for speed, and kicking up dirt and leaves as I do.
Before her body can crumple to the ground, I’m there, catching her and pulling her into my chest. With another hard thrust of my wings, I fly us higher, letting us hover above.
Emma greedily draws in air, coughing every time she sucks in too much. It's colder up here, her skin freezing to the touch as a shiver skates over her body. I press her closer, offering her my warmth. Once her pulse steadies and her chest rises and falls in a calm rhythm, she places her hand on my face. Instinctively, I lean into her palm, closing my eyes, the roars of battle drowning out down below. But her raw voice makes me open them, looking deeply into her eyes.
“You don’t have to hide anymore.”
With furrowed brows, I open my mouth to speak, but then what sounds like a million wings beating against the wind draws my head to look in the same direction as Whiro. My heart thumps almost painfully in my chest when I see a mix of fully shifted wyverns and half shifted like…me. The glow emitting from Emma’s light contrasts their sharp features, reflecting off the spikes and talons on those who possess them. It's astonishing. A magical vision of finally returning home.
The backs of my eyes start to burn, clinging onto the sight with every powerful beat of their wings as they soar closer, leaving a dark fog of shadows in their wake.
“Are they…”
Emma finishes what I still can’t seem to believe, but what my heart knows is true. “All of the chosen.”
So many… And they were all trapped until she freed them. Something constricts inside me, zeroing in on their eyes. They glint silver, but underneath, they carry a loaded promise for revenge with the hardness of their gazes. To take back the lives that were stolen from them. But what they all have in common is who is locked in as their target.
My eyes follow to where Whiro stands as his scream thunders through the air, almost splintering the particles in it. His hands thrash around wildly, trying to slam a tornado of shadows at them. It grows in size, whipping through the air. His movements are rushed and unsteady, never tearing his gaze from all the wyverns that sync up.
The half-shifters use their hands to flood out shadows, and the fully shifted open their jaws as wide as they will go, releasing fiery shadows with a collective roar. They all share the same dark power, aiming into the swirling vortex and disintegrating it before it could get close enough to touch them.
The sight gives me hope because just the two of us wielding his power is no match to take him down. It will only put a dent in his armor, but hundreds of us combining our range of shadows could destroy him, could finally rid the world of his curse. Whiro thought to take us chosen one by one until no more existed, an easy task because a single person doesn’t stand a chance. But a powerful army…? That would get a different answer.
I know my theory is right when Whiro takes a step back, never straying his eyes from the wyverns racing towards him.
“It's time,” Emma says on a breath.
Those two words bring me back to the risk hanging before us, but I trust her with all that I am. Without a thought, I press her closer into me because we need to finish this once and for all. Emma deserves a life without someone trying to take control of her. To fucking have freedom to breathe and end this game of survival she’s been tossed into.
The battle still rages below as I narrow my wings, letting us fall, fast and straight like a shooting arrow. The distance between us and Whiro closes quickly, but before we are near, I yell, “Fynn!”
His head briefly snaps up, right when his elbow rears back to connect with a Corrupted that tries to attack from behind while his focus remains on the one in front of him. His blade burrows deep within the Corrupted before him, all while he’s splattered in blood, one sleeve of his tunic torn and hanging off his shoulder.
Even with his chest heaving, the bastard smirks, and is ready for his time to shine. He yanks his blade free in one hard pull, portaling himself behind Whiro, and steadies his hand on the ground before his feet. A gold ring sizzles to life, the shimmery blackness of the portal opens and starts to spread wider. The force of Fynn’s power makes his boots slide back in the dirt, but he manages to dig his heels into the soil, holding open the portal as we barrel closer and closer.
Whiro is still focused on the wyverns, attempting to knock them from the sky, unaware of the two of us spearing straight towards him. We cut through the air, Emma’s hair whipping behind us over my shoulder. The wind bites at our skin, making my eyes burn, but I force them to stay open. We slice through the darkness like a sharpened blade, and the shadows fogging the forest swirl around us in our wake.
Once we are close enough, Emma releases a deep sigh before she stretches her arms out, beaming a rope of light to snag around her father’s leg. The moment her power touches him, he throws his head back, roaring in pain as if the light is burning through his clothes and branding his skin.
It all happens in a blur, us hurtling through the portal, the chain of her power dragging him with us. With one quick glance over my shoulder, the mass of wyverns follows behind. They all stay in perfect alignment when they dive down in a wave.
A single roar rips through the sky from the fully shifted wyvern front and center, while the rest mimic it. Their shrieks bounce off one another as they tuck their wings in. The wyvern in the front breathes out a flame of shadows, but I don’t get to see what happens when the air turns to ice, and my muscles tense from the stark difference, straining for warmth.
The floral scent of jasmine burns my nose and stings my lungs when I breathe in as we continue our descent. From entering through a portal at the top of the mountain, I am truly able to realize how massive this cave is. The towering heights of the hollowed stone walls, and the pillars that help hold it together on the wide stairwell that spirals the perimeter to the top.
“Wow,” Emma whispers, the air from her lungs pluming in front of her. “They are expanding on the portal with their shadows, creating one of their own. Just like what I do, but…bigger.”
So, that must be why the wyverns fired darkness from their mouths. But my focus is too concentrated on the Sea of Souls looming before us, and the stone crumbling from the power vibrating off Whiro. Even the specks of ashes floating in the air seem to tremble.
“Hurry—” Emma rushes out as her arms start to shake with the weight of restraining Whiro, but before she can say anything more, she gasps.
Whiro manages to blast her tendril of light off himself, shadowing away and appearing on the ground. He’s standing in the same spot where I pulled a lifeless Emma into my arms. The spot near the Sea of Souls that still haunts me. And the memory makes me hold her tighter, needing to feel her heartbeat against my chest as my throat dries, making it hard to swallow.
Shaking my head to clear the image away, I focus on the ground as I stretch my wings out, letting the air catch in the curve of them to slow us down. When my eyes drag back up, I find the spot Whiro was just at, empty, causing my heart to race from not seeing him move.
Not even a half a breath later, I see him hovering above the water, shielding himself in shadows. They swarm around him like the evening tide, growing darker and concealing anything within.
Then, the gust of powerful wings ripple the air as the wyvern shifters join us. One by one they position themselves to form a circle around Whiro in the air, banding around the stream of water that seems to fall from nowhere at the top of the mountain. About thirty shifters have taken position in the circle, while the remaining wyverns steadily flap their wings to hover above us like a cloud.
