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Once they returned to the ground, Clara Kate’s blessed butterfly swords whirled as she met opponent after opponent in their effort to reach the library. Ini-herit wielded a sword of his own, protecting her back. Quincy did the same for Sophia with his short sword and a shield he borrowed from Derian’s crew.

Sophia also carried a shield, but her weapon wasn’t made of steel or wood.

Because her ability to shift was a part of her genetic code, no dampener on the plane could prevent her from doing it. As a result, now curling from underneath the hem of her gown was her homage to Nyx: a kragen’s tail with a paralyzing barb on the tip. She used it to strike the enemy anywhere they had exposed flesh, sending them straight to the ground.

Up ahead of them, Derian and Melanthe led their team in the primary ground assault as Harold and Alexius led the attack by air. Derian’s lochaber axe left a wake of carnage that Sophia was sure would haunt her nightmares. Melanthe stunned Sophia with her ability to wield a bo. It was clear that she had received exceptional training. She and Derian worked so seamlessly that they had obviously practiced scenarios like this many times.

Sophia had feared that her new Mercesti friends would accidently get killed or injured by the Waresti, but she needn’t have worried. Those Mercesti who didn’t have colorful tattoos on their bodies wore face and body paint generated by Melanthe, distinguishing them from Eirik’s followers.

There wasn’t time to think. Her heart racing faster than she could ever remember, Sophia went from consciously considering her every move to acting entirely on instinct. She stretched her abilities. If Zachariah had taught her anything through his unconventional lessons, it was that she was capable of more than she ever imagined.

Even as she maneuvered her kragen’s tail, she tapped into the predatory hunting instincts of the panther. Soon, she didn’t really need her shield because she moved so effortlessly out of the way of weapons. She registered hundreds of details at once.

Including Clara Kate’s fall, just as Sophia evaded the swing of a mace and struck an enemy with her tail.

Clara Kate slipped on the remains of one of the fallen. Her weapons flew from her grasp. Her enemy moved in for the kill. Ini-herit was busy dispatching two Mercesti and couldn’t turn to aid her. Before Sophia or Quincy could intervene, Clara Kate flung out her hand. Fire blazed from her palm, engulfing the enemy.

Evidently, the Kynzesti elemental abilities couldn’t be dampened, either.

Ini-herit helped Clara Kate to her feet. They battled on. It seemed they were making progress, but Sophia felt the passage of every precious minute.

She knew that the longer they were held at bay and unable to reach the library entrance, the greater the chances they would lose not only the scroll piece, but Tate and Ariana, too.

Ariana cast a light with a trembling hand, knowing she and Tate were the only two in the library who couldn’t see in the dark. She realized they were in some kind of rectangular anteroom. The walls glowed with dark purple light, indicating the documents housed there had been created by the Wymzesti class…possibly even
archigos
Knorbis himself.

“Is the scroll piece in this room?” Eirik asked.

Her gaze moved nervously from him to Deimos, who licked his lips and bared his fangs when she glanced his way. She stammered, “N-no.”

“Then get moving.”

Her breath escaping in frightened gasps, Ariana kept Tate’s arm around her shoulders and opened up her second power. The wash of lavender light led out of the anteroom and into the darkness beyond an arched entrance. She sensed the scroll piece was quite a distance into the library.

Not bothering to resist Eirik’s demand, she moved forward, bearing as much of Tate’s weight as she could. The wheezing of the Kynzesti’s breath worried Ariana, as did the low-level moans she issued with each expansion of her lungs. Tate walked hunched over, unable to stand straight. The fact that she accepted Ariana’s assistance without complaint told her how bad things were.

She guided them out of the anteroom as quickly as she thought Tate could manage, not wanting to invoke Eirik’s wrath. Once she saw how massive the inside of the library actually was, however, her heart sank. She couldn’t even see the end of it.

Her power told her the scroll piece was within the far reaches of the library’s depths. Doing a quick guesstimate, she figured it could easily take an hour to walk to it.

Tate would never last that long.

A shove from behind had Ariana staggering further into the library. She barely kept Tate upright. When she heard Eirik draw his weapons and Deimos made one of his terrifying noises, she whimpered.

“It’ll be okay,” Tate said, the words barely audible. Her hand squeezed Ariana’s shoulder, offering her support the only way she could.

Drawing strength from her dying friend, Ariana nodded and started forward.

Tiege and Zachariah hovered over the round door to the library. All but the door itself was surrounded by Mercesti…and not the ones on their side.

“We both have to land on the door,” Zachariah said. “If either of us misses, we will come into contact with one of the bloody Mercesti guarding it and lose the illusion.”

Tiege nodded. It had been hard enough to make their way around the Estilorians in the air, but this was even more challenging. They both got lower to the ground and considered their options.

The noise was atrocious. Between the sounds of weapons clanging and hundreds of beings screaming in pain or intimidation, it was a wonder he and Zachariah could even hear each other.

When they were about twenty feet off the ground, Tiege said, “We’ll have to extinguish our wings before we reach the heads of the soldiers, or we’ll risk touching one of them.”

“How the hell—?”

Tiege turned and flew right up to Zachariah, grabbing him around the waist in a form of hug. The Mercesti’s expression was priceless, even if Tiege was as discomfited by the close contact as Tate’s avowed.

“This is the only way we’ll both land on the thing once we extinguish our wings,” Tiege said. “Just do it and—for God’s sake—don’t think about it.”

“You will speak of this to no—”

“Damn straight.”

Without another word, Zachariah wrapped his arms around Tiege’s waist so that they were as close as possible without their wings touching. They slowly lowered themselves into position. After counting to three, they extinguished their wings. Somehow, they managed to land together without falling.

“Stand on the edge,” Zachariah instructed in a low voice as they quickly parted.

Tiege obeyed, keeping one hand on Zachariah’s back to maintain the illusion and trying not to think about the Mercesti standing close enough to hit them with weapons if they so much as sneezed.

He felt exhaustion creeping in. The longer he maintained the illusion, the more drained his energy would become. He would hold it until he dropped, however.

“Damn it,” Zachariah growled. “It’s locked.”

Tiege reached down with his free hand to pull at the door’s round, metal fastening, hoping his combined efforts with Zachariah’s might yank it loose. When it didn’t budge, Tiege cursed, grateful for the sounds of battle keeping them from being overheard.

“Is there some kind of key?” he asked, searching for a keyhole.

“I don’t need a bloody key,” Zachariah replied, and he pulled out his tomahawk.

His brows lifting in surprise, Tiege watched as Zachariah lifted the honed weapon and began hacking at the wood. Worried someone might see what they were doing, he quickly extended the illusion to include the door, making it appear the way it normally did to anyone who chanced to look at it. The effort had his head throbbing. Fortunately, the surrounding noise masked the sounds of the chopping wood.

It was slow-going since the wood was so thick. After a while, Zachariah stopped and looked up. His face went ashen, his gaze sightless.

“No,” he said in a choked voice.

Fear clutched Tiege’s heart. He nearly lost the illusion as he realized something had gone horribly wrong. And when Zachariah’s unseeing eyes gleamed with moisture, Tiege’s knees buckled.

“Oh, God.” Feeling like a hole had just been ripped in his chest, Tiege grasped Zachariah by both of his shoulders. “You need to tell Tate to hold on. Tell her we’re coming. She can hold on for a few more minutes.”

“She said she’s sorry,” Zachariah said hollowly, looking away and clenching his jaw. “She’s held on for as long as she can.

“She just told us goodbye.”

Quincy had never been so awed by Sophia’s abilities. She moved with unparalleled grace and precision, drawing on every instinct within her to make her an unstoppable force. He realized that all of her years of weapons training may have enhanced her understanding of battle strategy, but that certainly wasn’t keeping her alive now.

No…that was all her.

He’d gotten a couple of slices and a host of bruises thus far, but nothing life-threatening. Now that Clara Kate knew her elemental power wasn’t dampened, she alternated the use of her butterfly swords with well-targeted fireballs to fend off her opponents. Although the resulting smell was an unfortunate side effect, it proved highly effective. Ini-herit kept pace beside her, swinging his sword up to meet attack after attack. As a group, they were making progress toward their goal.

“Melanthe has the map for when we’re inside the library, correct?” he asked Sophia between opponents.

“Yes,” Sophia answered.

He nodded and made a mental note to keep Melanthe in sight so they could follow her once they were in the library. Although they had only met briefly before the battle, he could tell that the former Lekwuesti had a good heart. Hoygul clearly knew what he was doing. If they couldn’t easily track Tate and Ariana by the time they got into the library, she would lead them where they needed to go.

A couple of opponents later, Sophia asked, “Have you seen Tiege or Zachariah?”

Frowning and giving a quick glance around, Quincy said, “No.”

“Where could they have gone?”

“I have no idea. But they better show up soon. I think our forces will reach that door very shortly.”

Ariana knew within ten minutes of walking among the endless rows of books and scrolls filling the library that they would never make it to the scroll piece. Tate’s breathing had grown shallower. Blood trickled from her nose. Her moans became more insistent. She started murmuring to herself. Ariana made out the names “Sparky” and “Tiege,” something that brought tears to her eyes.

“Stay with me, Tate,” she said. “We’ll do this together.”

“Hurry up,” Eirik snapped. “How much farther is the scroll piece?”

“I can’t tell,” Ariana responded, maneuvering Tate around a pedestal housing a large book. She flinched when Deimos lurched at her, but Metis grabbed his arm to restrain him. Her voice wavered as she continued, “You know the limits of my ability.”

“We will fly to it, then.”

“But Tate—”

“I will carry the weak female. Give me no more excuses and extend your wings.”

When he walked over and lifted Tate, Ariana knew she would have to fly. Their wings would disturb the books and scrolls, an act that was punishable by the Elphresti and one she would normally never do. Not seeing any choice, she turned sideways so that she could extend her wings and then lifted off.

Fear for Tate’s life had her focusing her abilities with all of her concentration. She found what they were seeking within another few minutes.

They landed in an area housing numerous scrolls. As soon as they were on the ground, Eirik tossed Tate down without a care. The fact that the Kynzesti didn’t make a sound of protest or move from her ragdoll position had Ariana’s fear spiking.

“Tate?”

“Forget about the damned female,” Eirik said. “Where is the scroll piece?”

Metis turned and started rifling through nearby scrolls as Ariana fell to her knees beside Tate. Deimos got closer to Ariana while Metis’ attention was diverted, but Eirik used one of his boots to keep the creature at bay.

Just as Ariana reached with trembling fingers to check Tate’s pulse, Eirik bent down and grabbed Tate by the arm. Appalled, Ariana watched as he dragged her friend’s limp form across the ground by her wrist—her broken one—closer to the stacks of scrolls. He didn’t care what condition Tate was in. He was going to use her ability to defeat the protections in place around the scroll piece.

Her fear vanished in a snap. Outrage flooded in. Boiled over. She opened her mouth to order Eirik to let Tate go, poised to strike if he refused.

Several things happened in that instant.

A series of booms, followed by the loudest crack she had ever heard, resonated throughout the tomb-like library.

White light exploded in front of her, telling her the illusion protecting the scroll piece had been shattered.

And Deimos used the opportunity to take her down.

Her breath left her as she hit the ground. Pain blasted through her as her head smacked into the stone floor. The loud noise and blinding light disoriented her. Terror seized her.

But when she felt Deimos on top of her, his hips between hers as he went for her throat, she knew exactly what to do.

The remembered image of Zachariah on top of her, talking her through the defensive moves, superimposed themselves on her mind as she rocked her lower body from side to side to dislodge Deimos. They flipped sideways. The moment her arm was free, she rammed her elbow into the back of the creature’s head with all of her strength, catching him in the delicate tissue of his cerebellum.

His neck snapped. He crumpled like a sack of wheat. Metis shrieked, lurching over to fall by his side.

Hurrying to her feet, glancing wildly around, Ariana once again saw Tate on the ground near Eirik. She ran over to her friend while Eirik looked at a piece of parchment, probably ensuring it was what he sought.

“Tate,” she said, reaching out to brush the curls away from her friend’s cold face as her vision blurred with tears. “Tate, please…stay with me.”