Page 256 of Of Masks and Fury

Alfred’s head snapped toward us. A triumphant, cruel, and utterly mad smile split his face.

“There you are,” he called out, his voice amplified by magic. “Princesses Amarissa and Adelaine, granddaughters with Velacross’s blood.” His smile turned rapturous. “Your grandfather’s legacy will finally serve its true purpose. The veil will drink your essence and tear wide enough to birth a new world, one where we rule over both realms.”

His eyes blazed. “Thank you for delivering yourselves to me.”

CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX

ISI

“Fuck you,” I snarled, racing toward him with a blade lifted.

Pherin and Gavelle charged the Skathe lines in firecat form, blasting flames that turned the creatures to ash. Nim and Levar flew overhead, their scales gleaming in the murky sunlight. They swept above the Skathes, blasting them with fire. Kira’s python wrapped around three Skathes at once, crushing them while her fangs found another’s throat. The other companions attacked from different directions.

Kira and Kerralyn rushed through the gap our companions created, aiming for Alfred and the cloaked woman. Their blades sang through the air, cutting down any Skathe trying to intercept them.

With Trew, Derren, and Lexie providing cover, Addie and I darted to the left rather than engage the controllers, running for the ritual circle’s left edge, our boots splashing through the glowing blood-like substance filling the carved channels.

The breach loomed ahead, a ragged tear in reality that made my veil-sight scream warnings. Through it, I glimpsed the nightmare realm beyond, endless darkness filled with writhing Skathespressing against the barrier. They’d find their way through; I knew it. It was just a matter of time before we were overrun.

Fenmark lay on the slab, chains binding his wrists and ankles to iron rings set into the stone. His chest rose and fell in shallow gasps. Blood pooled beneath him from dozens of cuts.

Addie split away from me, rushing toward him.

“Hold on,” she sobbed, latching onto the chains, trying to break them. “Please hold on.”

The woman chanted, her hands lifted while Lord Alfred ran straight for me with a dagger in his hand. Kira and Kerralyn intercepted him, and the crash of steel rang out in the open area.

With Trew and our friends guarding me, I positioned myself between the altar and the breach, using my veil-sight to its fullest extent. A nightmare of corruption wove around the tear. Threads that should’ve been gleaming metallic had turned putrid green, and they writhed like diseased veins. The edges of the breach pulled at the fabric of reality, tearing wider with every pulse of the controller’s ritual.

I’d broken a few wards. Dismantled magical structures. Even loosened a few Skathes from the controllers’ hold. But I’d never tried to heal a weave like this before. This one wasn’t meant to come undone. It was the fundamental pattern that held the edge of our world together. How did I repair something this essential when the tools must be the same magic that had torn it in the first place?

“Isi,” Addie called out. “I can’t break the chains. They’re warded.”

“Use your veil connection,” I said, not taking my eyes off the breach. “Focus on where the ward connects to the metal, and you may be able to break through.”

Around us, the sounds of battle intensified. Steel rang against steel. Companions roared and Skathes shrieked. Kerralyn’s voice rose in a battle cry as she and Kira fought against the woman.

Lord Alfred kept working his bloodfire magic, his chants sending a wave of tainted magic across me, making me stagger. Trew was there, his hand on my arm to stabilize me before he whirled away to fight three Skathes at the same time.

We had too little time.

I reached out with my magic, trying to touch the breach’s edges. The corrupted threads recoiled from my power.

This wasn’t going to work in the way I’d expected.

“Can we weave new threads?” Addie cried out, her hands pressed against Fenmark’s chains as her body flickered between somewhere else and here. “Remember Grandfather’s notes. Offer the thread that matches.”

“Our blood,” I whispered, all of this finally making sense. “Velacross’s legacy. We’re made of the same magic that created the breach in the first place, and it will take our blood to seal it.”

A grunt snapped my attention away from the veil. Trew and the cloaked woman circled each other while Lexie engaged Alfred. The woman moved with incredible grace, her blade a silver blur as she attacked. Trew parried, his sword meeting hers in a shower of sparks.

Her hood fell back, and my heart stopped.

Coralee.

Trew’s aunt.

The woman who’d helped us, who’d given us information about bloodfire magic, who’d seemed so concerned about Trew’s welfare.